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Personal Effectiveness creates Personal Success

Professional coaching is a fairly new, but extremely rapidly growing field.   Some people prefer to work with a personal coach on their lives as a whole, others may choose to focus on a specific area.  This page deals with coaching in general - the following page addresses more specific questions and the remainder of the site goes into more detail on a variety of topics.

"I'm finally learning how to take care of ME! I feel good about who I am and the tremendous potential I have to become a whole, satisfied, and truly happy individual." (Client)

Many highly successful people hire a coach with the goal of gaining just that extra edge that they need to attain success in a competitive world.  As time goes by they often find that not only do their careers thrive with coaching, but that they become more attuned to their personal values and more able to be guided by them.  Their personal lives become better balanced, and they discover a deeper and more satisfying authenticity.

Increasingly, people who might not yet be described as highly successful are also hiring coaches.  They realize that they and their careers are worth the investment that will help them to be their best.  For them, too, the initial goal of outward success is usually achieved, though no guarantees can be made, for the ongoing progress of any client depends on that client.  Significantly, the end result of coaching often goes beyond the desire for outward success and leads to a greater understanding of the role of personal values, and an ever deepening sense of personal balance and fulfillment.

When you hire a coach you are not giving up control of your life, you are taking control.  Effective coaches work with you to develop your decision-making abilities, to find the answers that are within your, and to help you to take control of your own life.

Why hire a coach?                         

There are as many reasons for seeking a coach as there are clients and coaches. Some typical reasons include:

• To become better organized.

• To get the unimportant but time-consuming trivia out of the way so as to focus more time and energy on what is truly important .

• To develop the self-presentation skills that allow a job well done to be better noticed and appreciated by supervisors and others in the work hierarchy.

• To develop better "road maps" at important choice-points in the client's life.

• To get a source of confidential support through times of turmoil and transition.

• To access an objective view and wider perspective upon life.  Feedback from someone who can be objective about you and your life may present a different and unbiased view from the one you have grown up with.

• To focus on spiritual growth, if that is your interest. For some, spiritual growth is seen as the ultimate success strategy.

• To obtain help in surviving office politics and in improving relationships with colleagues.  (Often, for these people, the key to success is learning clear and honest communication skills. )

When was the last time you got 30 FREE minutes to talk about YOU and only you? Give yourself the gift of a half-hour of free coaching by phone, with the focus being entirely on YOU, on your dreams and how to attain them, on your obstacles and how to overcome them. My promise to you:  No sales pitch, no obligation, no pesky follow-ups.  To request your free coaching call now, click here.

What can a coaching client expect?

The heart of personal coaching is the individualized attention that the coach can give each client.  Their work together may be focused on long-term work on personal or career growth, or it may be for a short while only, perhaps to help the client achieve a specific goal, or to get through a particularly difficult life transition.  In the case of coaches trained through CoachU (as am I) there is a wide range of existing programs which a coach can access so as to work with special areas that need addressing.

I know that if you hire me it is because you want to get results, in one direction or another.  I expect that if you are ready to make this investment in yourself you are also ready to do some real work.  If we agree on specific goals I ask that you will at least make some serious effort to achieve them.  If you can't complete something you've agreed to, we'll talk about what is happening to stop you--maybe that is where we need to be focusing our attention first.  If I ask you to think about something, then I hope that you will give it your honest and open consideration, but I do not expect that you will accept it blindly.

I believe that coaching is more about the client developing the ability to make good decisions than about giving advice.  Although I may give advice if asked, I prefer to help you to map out your various alternative strategies, see where each might lead, and always have you make your own decisions.

I expect to serve as a resource, friend, and mentor, but do not expect clients to let themselves get into the position of needing me (or the coaching) as a dependency thing or a fix.   I do not "fix" people--my clients are not broken.  You are the one who will find the answers.  I will just try to help you to figure out a better road map than you may have had in the past.

I have also developed several programs to give clients a jump start in areas where I have found a frequently occurring need.  These include Financial Organization, Life in Harmony, and Editorial Coaching, which is for writers in general and particularly for people developing their own web site text or working on graduate dissertations.  More information on these programs can be found on my Services Offered page. For answers to more frequently asked questions about coaching, see the Next Page link below.