Life Coaching Value
Life coaching is near and dear to my heart. I earned my BA degree and spent 23 years being a spirituality life coach–a pastor. That experience of working with people on the personal level still drives much of what I do coaching people today. I work with people ranging from college students just starting off in their careers to high level executives in my own peer group.
For several years, I attended a Vistage group where Linda Murphy chaired a group of leaders of great businesses in the Rochester, NY metro market. My love of executive coaching originates with Linda and my executive roundtable peers.
What Is A Life Coach?
A life coach is almost like a sculptor who looks at you and sees the potential for you to achieve all that you desire. Through specific strategies and skills, the coach helps you define yourself to create the life you envision. Coaches help you focus, provide direction, challenge you, support you, motivate you and celebrate with you. Life coaches help you create a plan, detail action steps and hold you accountable for following through. They use skills that include observing, listening deeply, asking empowering questions, challenging and motivating. Coaches do not counsel or analyze the past. Life coaching is based on the principle that the client has the intrinsic ability to determine and achieve their goals. Everything is based on the present and what you want to achieve moving forward.
There are many different types of coaches including:
General Life Coaches
Life Balance Coaches
Health Coaches
Small Business Coaches
Executive Coaches
Personal Finance Coaches
Relationship Coaches
How Coaching Takes Place
Coaches work with all types of clients. Some people are full of momentum and want to take life to the next level. Others are people who are stuck and need a coach to nudge them in the right direction. So how does this happen? Where and how do coaches meet with clients?
Coaches meet with their clients in different ways, depending on their location and the type of client they are meeting. Let’s look at how coaches meet with their clients and then we will look at how a day in the life of a coach could look.
Coaching By Telephone
Much of the individual life coaching taking place in industry takes place by telephone. Coaching by telephone has many benefits and has been proven effective by life coaches for decades. Telephone coaching allows coaches to work with clients in any location of the globe, as long as the time zones are manageable by the coach and client. The benefit to clients is that they find a coach that matches their specific needs and interests, without feeling like the coach has to live within driving distance.
The time and money saved on travel is also a benefit to both coach and client. Generally, a phone session will last 30-45 minutes, depending on the coach.
Face to Face Coaching
In some cases, life coaches meet with their clients face to face. This can be based on the preference of the coach or the client or the type of coaching being delivered. For example, executive coaching often is face to face at the workplace of the client. This isn’t always the case, but most often, work performed for businesses is done face to face. Some people just prefer a face to face meeting. One way to help clients overcome this if you are local is to offer your first session face to face and following sessions by phone. Group coaching is typically done face to face based on the nature of the sessions and topics, but even group coaching can be accomplished by phone.
Videoconferencing
If the coach or client prefers a live connection over a phone connection and face to face is not an option, videoconferences can be a great option. With the current variety of teleconferencing options–Skype, Messenger–video provides the same conveniences of telephone coaches with the added benefit of seeing each other during the session. This is also a useful tool if you normally coach face to face, but either the client or coach is traveling and needs to do the session from a remote location.