Coaching is a powerful relationship that gets results. As a change agent, I support my clients as they work toward getting the results they want in business/life. Coaching takes clients from where they are to where they want to go. The clients do the heavy lifting. It’s my job to skilfully guide the relationship, provide support and ensure accountability for the sake of each client’s vision and goals.

Business owners and professionals who hire me can expect fresh perspectives, help getting unstuck, assistance in setting goals, accountability and a champion who acknowledges and supports them through failure and success. Improved productivity, business growth, better relationships and greater business and life fulfillment are all possible when you and I truly embrace the coaching relationship and commit to success.

The most important thing in selecting a coach is to look for someone with whom you can easily relate and create the most powerful partnership. Here are some questions you may want to ask prospective coaches:

• What is your coach-specific training?
• Do you hold an International Coach Federation (ICF) credential?
• What is your coaching experience?
• What is your coaching specialty or areas in which you most often work?
• What specialized skill or experience do you bring to your coaching?
• What is your philosophy about coaching?
• What is your specific process for coaching?
• What are some coaching success stories?

ICF credentialed coaches are recognized worldwide as the benchmark for coaching competence. There are certainly great coaches who are not credentialed; however, they are not bound by the ICF Code of Ethics and this code is important for your protection as a client. For more information on the International Coach Federation, visit www.coachfederation.org.

The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on the individual or team’s needs and preferences. For certain types of focused coaching, three to six months of working with a coach is adequate. For other types of coaching, people may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer period.

There are many reasons that people choose to work with me:

• They feel stuck and want to find a way to more forward (e.g. a professional who feels trapped in a career that no longer suits him or her);
• They are being asked to accomplish something that is a huge stretch and they need support (e.g. a business owner who wants to grow revenues by 50 percent in one year);
• They are unclear and feel that clarity will help them make choices (e.g. a woman in her mid-thirties who is unsure if she wants to have children or not);
• Work and life are out of balance and it is creating unwanted consequences (e.g. an entrepreneur who spends far more time at work than with her kids);
• There is a gap in knowledge, skills, confidence or resources (e.g. a new business owner who doesn’t have enough cash flow and lacks confidence in sales);

Other reasons include success becoming an issue, life and business being too complicated to manage, lack of clarity about core strengths, uncertainty about life purpose and vision, and relationship problems at work or at home.

Depending on the need, some people turn to self-help books, business books, business advisors/consultants, mentors, counsellors and therapists. Those who want to put themselves into sustained forward action to get results discover that coaching is a preferred option.

The most effective way to understand coaching is to experience it. Like many coaches, I offer complimentary 30-minute coaching sessions to enable you to get a feel for how coaching works and a feel for me as well. Chemistry in coaching is very important. Typically by the end of a coaching sample session, both of us will have a sense of whether or not there is a good fit.

As the coaching process follows different paths depending on client need, it is best to discuss this question during a coaching sample session. Coaching can be in person for local clients and via telephone for those at a greater distance. Both methods are very effective. Generally there are three phases of coaching: discovery, active coaching and completion (when the client is able to self-coach using the tools learned through active coaching).

Prices vary depending on the type of coaching (i.e. life or business coaching), the length of the contract and the frequency of the coaching sessions. Prices are discussed during the coaching sample session based on your situation. For businesses registered in the province of Quebec, Emploi Quebec offers a 50 percent subsidy for business coaching.

Coaching can be measured using external and internal indicators of performance. Ideally, both measures will be used.

• External measures: assessing the achievement of coaching goals established at the outset of the coaching relationship, increased income/revenue, obtaining a promotion, performance feedback (as measured via a 360 review, for example), personal and/or business performance data (e.g. productivity, efficiency measures). Ideally, the measures are things you are already measuring and have some ability to directly influence.
• Internal measures: self-scoring/self-validating assessments that can be administered initially and at regular intervals in the coaching process, changes in your self-awareness and awareness of others, shifts in thinking which inform more effective actions, and shifts in your emotional state which inspire confidence.