Personally, I never thought that I would be the type of person who would ever hire a success/life coach. After all, I've never been a fan of counselors and always felt that I should work out challenges myself. But when there were some obstacles that were preventing me from taking the next step, I went looking for a coach. At first I thought the selection process would be pretty easy. But after a Google search turned up thousands of coaches, and many different "certifications," and tons of different approaches; I quickly realized that I had better have a selection system before I spend dime one. So, I came up with a three question process that made the selection process easy and very effective. The end result, I found a life coach that both challenged me and helped me to make major progress.
I am not suggesting that this is the best and only process you can take. For example, if you have a friend who uses a coach and you feel that your friend has made life progress; his coach may be a good fit for you. But it still won't hurt to ask these questions. In fact, by asking these questions, your coach will have a better idea of what you are looking for, and, more importantly, what you will define as a successful relationship. So, here are some questions and the reasons why I feel they should be asked before any agreement is reached with a life/success coach.
Do you base your coaching on any particular religious or spiritual beliefs? - Several of the coaches I interviewed began with the assumption that I believed in God, in Jesus, in Buddah, or in the existence of a supreme being. My beliefs are not important here, but they are very important when choosing a life coach. See, I believe we all have five life areas that need to be addressed in coaching; Spiritual, Financial/Career, Emotional, Relationships, and Health. For some people, spirituality is very important, while for others it has no significance in their live's. If your coach comes from a spiritual background, many of his/her foundational beliefs will be influenced by his/her spiritual/religious beliefs. If their beliefs differ greatly from yours, the foundation of the coaching relationship will be weak. My current life coach relies heavily on meditation, a practice that I enjoy. He has told me that some of his past clients disliked meditation and the coaching relationship suffered. In fact, he begins any "change session" with meditation, and if the person he coaches either doesn't know how to meditate or doesn't believe in its value, then he has no other method to fall back on. Don't get caught up with the religion aspect of this question. You really need to find out if your prospective coach relies on any belief system, meditation, metaphysical beliefs, or faith before moving forward. If their beliefs conflict with yours, move on to another coach. Do you come from a counseling background, a business background, or something else? This is critical. As I mentioned earlier, I am not a proponent of counseling, so I had no interest in hiring a coach who comes from a counseling background. I wanted a coach who understood business and how success in business is directly tied to success in general life. You need to decide up front what exactly you want out of the coaching relationship, and realize whether your desires will be met with a counseling type approach, an in your face business approach, or any other approach. See, you have to know exactly why you are interested in coaching, exactly what you expect to get out of it, and what will success look like to you. Without knowing these three things clearly, you could very well float through your coaching sessions with no true destination. The end result could be you spending a lot of money and never truly accomplishing what effective counseling can accomplish. What is your time frame? Some coaches I interviewed told me the relationship could go on for years, others told me three or four sessions. I chose my coach based because he knew that to accomplish my objectives, he would need 6 months. No more, no less. I had and have no interest in having a long term coach. That is not to say that I won't have other coaches in the future, but those coaches will be chosen based on my objectives at that time. And yes, I may use the same coach again, but I feel that if I have to re-hire a coach, then he/she wasn't as effective as he/she should have been in my initial coaching sessions. What is the cost of the coaching program? If you get this far in your questions, things are looking positive for this coach. However, their pricing needs to be in line with your expectations. If a prospective coach answers the first three questions spot on and gives all the indications of being a perfect coach for you, but their pricing is either too low or too high, then you need to do more thinking. Why worry if the pricing is too low? Confidence on the coaches part. If you are very good at what you do, you deserve to be compensated appropriately. I know some many people who are skilled but lack the confidence in themselves to demand a higher salary. Listen, I will turn work down if I can't get exactly what I feel I deserve to get. Maybe my confidence level is too high, but I would much rather have an abundance of confidence rather than be lacking in confidence. In our world. money is a representation of how much value is involved. If a coach charges too little, then you need to question the value of the coaching program.
As for pricing, a good range is between $75 and $190 per session, and depends on what type of coaching your are seeking and the expertise of the coach in the area you want coaching in. I would love to pay $190 an hour to have Trump coach me on negotiating, but would not spend $1 an hour to have Brittany Spears coach me on improving my spiritual life! Pricing is all relative but, I feel, very critical to the general success of the program.
Remember, know exactly what life area you want coaching in, what you will define success as, and what level of expertise the prospective coach has in the targeted life area.
T. Patrick Phelps is the President and CEO of T Patrick Phelps Writing Services, Inc. In addition to his professional writing assignments, T Patrick Phelps is also a Success Coach, focusing primarily on helping people create and achieve goals, by first designing effective goals, replacing any limiting beliefs, then creating an empowering plan of action. Please visit http://www.tpatrickphelps.com for contact information. Or email him at tom@tpatrickphelps.com and include "coaching" in the subject line.
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