The Coaching Process
Coaching typically begins with an initial interview (usually by telephone, although sometimes face-to-face) to assess your
current opportunities and challenges, define the scope of the relationship, identify priorities for action,
and establish specific desired outcomes.
Subsequent coaching sessions are usually conducted over the telephone, with
each session lasting 45 minutes. Between scheduled coaching sessions, you will be
asked to complete specific actions that support the achievement of your personal goals. The coach may
provide additional resources in the form of relevant articles, checklists, assessments, or models to support your
thinking and actions. The duration of the coaching relationship varies depending on your personal
needs and preferences. We highly recommend an initial commitment of three to six months. This provides ample time for
the coaching process to be most effective.
Concepts, Models and Principles
A variety of concepts, models and principles drawn from the behavioral sciences, management literature, and spiritual traditions may be incorporated into the coaching conversation in order to increase your self-awareness and awareness of others, foster shifts in perspective, promote fresh insights, provide new frameworks for looking at opportunities and challenges, and energize and inspire your forward actions.
Measuring Success
Measurement may be thought of in two distinct ways. First, there are the external indicators of performance: measures which can be seen and measured in the individual’s or team’s environment. Second, there are internal indicators of success: measures which are inherent within the individual or team members being coached and can be measured by the individual or team being coached with the support of the coach. Ideally, both external and internal metrics are incorporated.
Examples of external measures include achievement of coaching goals established at the outset of the coaching relationship, increased income or revenue, obtaining a promotion, performance feedback which is obtained from a sample of the individual’s constituents (e.g., direct reports, colleagues, customers, boss, the manager himself), personal or business performance data such as productivity or efficiency measures. The external measures selected should ideally be things the individual is already measuring and are things the individual has some ability to directly influence.
Examples of internal measures include self-scoring/self-validating assessments that can be administered initially and at regular intervals in the coaching process, changes in the individual’s self-awareness and awareness of others, shifts in thinking which inform more effective actions, and shifts in one’s emotional state which inspire confidence.
Coaching Time Frame
The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on the individual's or team’s needs and preferences. For certain types of focused coaching, 3 to 6 months of working with a coach may be sufficient. Factors that may impact the length of time include: the types of goals, the ways individuals or teams like to work, the frequency of coaching meetings, and financial resources available to support coaching.