Top 7 Questions about Coaching
Life coaching, simplicity coaching, executive coaching…coaching comes in a lot of flavors, but they are fundamentally similar. At its core, coaching is about helping you find the answers and results you’re looking for. For some people, the concept of coaching on a personal level feels foreign, so I wanted to address some of the most common questions I hear about coaching.
1) What does a coach do?
Many of us associate coaching with athletes and corporate executives, but coaching offers unique and personal benefits to anyone. Coaches bring life experience, new perspectives, tools, questions, listening, and a space-holding attitude to help people challenge where they are now and how they can get where they want to be. Coaching helps people take ownership of their lives and take action to reach goals they set for themselves.
Life has a way of piling on expectations and pushing you further away from living your core values. A coach helps you look inside for answers to who you want to be, then helps you design and implement an action plan to create the contentment and happiness you want from life.
Imagine if you had someone in your life who helps you uncover what you really want and then supports you in executing an action plan to reach your goal. That person accepts you as you are without judgment and is personally committed to your success…not just success in a project in your life, but in how you fundamentally experience life. Someone who:
Listens to your challenges and helps you move past them
Holds you accountable (in a supportive way) to the goals you set for yourself
Helps you course-correct as needed
Celebrates your wins as you go
Works with you to personalize a growth plan and is in your corner the entire way
That’s a coach.
2) How does coaching work?
Coaching is fundamentally about two things: 1) helping you define what you really want from life and 2) holding you accountable for what you’ve said you would do. Coaching is a complete focus on making the positive changes you define for your life – not other people, not urgent (but less important) tasks that come up. Coaching works, because it’s having someone who is completely focused on what YOU want and why you want it. While a coach might push you and ask you to dig deeper, the intent is always to help you create the life you really want for yourself.
Each coach will bring different approaches, tools, and processes to help you achieve your goals. So, it’s important to connect with a coach you feel comfortable with, you can be vulnerable with, and is pushing you in the direction you want to go. Because coaching really is for everyone, having a variety of coaching techniques and personalities allows everyone the opportunity to work directly with someone they connect with. Particularly in the initial consultation calls with a coach, ask questions about the coach and process so you are totally clear on what the process looks like. Understand the cadence of one-on-one time, what the accountability process looks like, and what type of ongoing support is offered. Find a relationship that works well for you…that is who the coaching relationship is designed to support, after all.
3) Are there different types of personal coaches?
Definitely. Life coaching is a broad field. While some coaches will provide a more generalized perspective (“life coach”), many focus on a particular niche or offering, which allows you to dig deeper into a specific portion of life or method of making changes in your life. Common life coach niches include: health coaching, career coaching, wellness coaching, relationship coaching, business coaching, financial coaching, and personal development coaching. But there are so many other types of life coaching out there! I focus on simplicity coaching, which allows people to simplify their lives so they can shed the stress and expectations of life while clarifying and prioritizing what truly matters most to them.
Part of the beauty of life coaching is that each coach brings different interests, experiences, and skills to the table. Coaches have the opportunity to carve out new approaches in the field, and anyone looking for coaching has the opportunity to find an approach that will work well for them. A coach’s goal is to be the most effective resource they can be for any client. So, when you see initial consultation call messages that include phrases like “if it’s a good fit for both of us,” the coach really means it.
While the field of life coaching is growing, almost any coach you ask will tell you that the field needs more coaches who can provide different perspectives and resources for clients. A coach wants to give you the best opportunity for success, so each coach tends to bring a specificity and focus they are both good at and knows to be effective.
4) How can coaching help me?
People work with coaches for a variety of reasons, which underscores why there are so many niches of life coaching. As a simplicity coach, I mostly work with people who want to:
Find more clarity and direction in life – many of us reach a point where we ask “is this really where I want to be in life,” and simplicity helps you cut through the noise to understand and materialize what you really want in life.
Really feel like themselves – sometimes we lose track of what we value most in life, and being able to rediscover your core values allows you to live in alignment with who you are
Gain confidence in the direction of their life – confidence that the direction you’re heading is the right direction for you
Shed the expectations of other people and rely on their own core values – we wear a lot of hats in life, and sometimes those roles bring expectations from other people. You can only control yourself.
Reduce stress and overwhelm – life throws a lot at you, but there are great strategies for turning that noise down
Build whitespace in your life – modern life is frenetic, but you need to build time in your calendar to focus on you
Find contentment – true happiness is not found in hedonism…it’s the satisfaction of a life well lived according to your core values
Live with freedom, authenticity, and confidence – you are responsible for your life. When you learn to embrace the real you, making decisions and taking action for yourself becomes so much easier
5) How is coaching different than therapy?
Therapy tends to deal with things that have impacted you from the past, whether that’s psychologic patterns or specific events. Therapists can also diagnose and treat mental health conditions. Coaching, on the other hand, focuses on understanding where you are today and how to get you where you want to be in the future. Coaching relies on your own expertise about yourself and helps you devise strategies for designing your future.
6) What type of commitment is involved in coaching?
I think of the coaching commitment in two broad buckets: time and effort.
How long you work with a coach is largely dependent on the value you continue to get from the relationship, but it also requires some baseline time to get things moving in the right direction. Just having one coaching session likely isn’t enough to make meaningful changes in your life. The process requires ongoing communication between you and your coach about what’s working, what not working, and any adjustments to make the process and relationship more effective. Making meaningful and sustained changes to your life is like turning a large ship…it takes some time. While some people have ongoing relationships with their coach (1-2+ years), my approach is to start with a six month program that includes regular one-on-one interaction as well as ongoing accountability. That allows you to achieve and build on meaningful wins while our relationship develops.
Like so many things in life, the more effort you put into coaching, the more value you’ll get from it.
7) How do I know if I’m ready for coaching?
For coaching to be effective in your life, you must want change in your life and be ready to put in the effort. Coaching will help with tools, processes, and perspective, but it’s really about your readiness for change. If you’ve found yourself in a position that you know it’s just time for things to be different and you are ready to change, you could be in a great spot to begin coaching.
If you’re ready to be honest with yourself and have someone hold you accountable to the changes you want for your life, that’s an awesome starting point. Ultimately, you are responsible for the success and results in life, and your success depends on your commitment to the process and willingness to change.
As you think through whether now is the right time and fit for coaching in your life, I would encourage you to consider a few things:
What do you want to get out of coaching? Coaches tend to specialize in certain areas and/or processes. As you consider how coaching will make a difference in your life, it probably makes sense to select a coach who specializes in what’s important to you. Part of this perspective is knowing what you want from coaching…even if it’s just high level. A coach can help you narrow the specifics of the coaching plan, but it’s important that you have a baseline perspective to start from.
Consider the field and fit. One of the benefits of personal/life coaching is that you’ll have options. Consider any specific niche the coach focuses on as well as how you think you would work with the coach. You’ll be sharing personal details and spending quite a bit of time with the coach. So, take the time consider fit.
Consider cost and program. You will generally find coaches who offer either hourly rates and/or full programs that will span multiple weeks or months. Complete programs generally include ongoing accountability support and reflect a framework that the coach has found success with other clients. Similarly, you are likely to find a fairly wide range of pricing options for both hourly sessions (roughly $100 - $500+ per hour) and complete programs ($2,000 - $10,000+, depending the time and what all is included). As a general rule, more expensive offerings are generally a reflection of the experience, niche, and reputation of a coach, but make sure you are clear on exactly what you’re paying for.
Don’t be afraid to ask as many questions as you want to. Whether it’s checking fit, understanding credentials and experience, getting clear on what the full program offers, or anything else that comes to mind, ask questions of any coach you are considering. Your coach should be committed to your success and helping you reach your goals, so he or she will want to be sure both of you are totally clear on what the relationship will look like throughout your time together.
