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Who is the Client?
The Relationship,
Briefly
Designed
For Clarity and Support in Transitions
Fundamental
Skills, Not Subject Matter Expertise
A Coach is the
Modern-Day Ally
Why It
Works
Service
Delivery
Who is the
Client?
The client of coaching is someone who
wants something -- virtually anything -- sooner and with
more certainty of getting it. It could be higher
performance, learning, satisfaction, career advancement,
better relationships, or enhanced quality of life. Clients
are not directly attempting, through coaching, to
address emotional pain or psychological disorders. (See
"The Difference
Between Coaching and Counseling"). Coachable
clients are functioning well and are able to take action
towards their goals with the support of a coach. We
focus on the present and the future and discuss the past
primarily in order to clarify where the client is today. Coaching does not depend on resolving issues of the past
in order to move forward.
The Relationship,
Briefly
The nature of the coaching relationship
is the very foundation of its success. Coach and client
are co-equals and partners. Mutual appreciation and
respect are not just a by-product of the time we spend
together but the engine of our success. A rarity in
relationships, we are collaborators in a joint
enterprise centered on you, the client. At Feroce, our
philosophy is that clients already have many of the
answers within them, and to the extent that’s the case,
it’s the coach’s job to draw them out.
Coaches
do not assume the posture of expert or authority. The
client and his or her coach jointly choose the topics of
their work together, the format, and the outcomes the
client desires. The coach’s responsibility is the
process; the client’s responsibility is the outcome. Coaches are for the emotionally mature. If you imagine
that a coach can single-handedly turn your life around,
you are probably not yet coachable, that is, not a
candidate for coachability under Feroce’s ethical
guidelines. (See "Performance
Coaching: Are You Coachable?") A coach is someone you retain only when you
are ready. To go with you to that next, elusive
step.
Information shared by the coaching client
is confidential. It is used for the client’s benefit,
and is not provided to others or used to evaluate
performance for anyone but the client.
For a
more detailed look at the Coaching Relationship, see the
Feroce Coaching
Relationship and Process.
Designed
For Clarity and Support in Transitions
Feroce
Coaching supports clients in identifying and then doing
what they really want to do in their lives and careers,
their businesses and professions.
Life Coaching
Career Coaching
Business Coaching
For most of us, that’s
the hard part: a lot of us don’t even know what we want
to do, or at least think we don’t, and while some of us
do know what we want, we don’t know how to get there, or
need a bit of help in unearthing the courage we already
have. But if it’s fear that keeps us from admitting that
we already know where we want to be, a coach is a
stalwart ally in confronting and overwhelming the fears
that hold you back.
The scope of coaching is
virtually unbounded. Client and coach have complete
freedom to address a wide spectrum of personal and
professional matters. And we alone decide on the scope
of our work together.
Fundamental
Skills, Not Subject Matter Expertise
The International Coach Federation
defines coaching broadly as “an interactive process that
helps individuals and organizations to develop more
rapidly and produce more satisfying results.” At Feroce,
we believe there is rarely such a thing as a “type” or
“field” of coaching, wherein
life coaches
could be considered somehow different from
relationship
coaches. It’s not. There is a reason all coaching is very much
the same, and an interesting consequence of that
sameness.
The reason there is no real distinction
between, say, life or personal coaching on the one hand
executive coaching on the other, is that these titles
describe only the client of coaching, not the
work itself. That is, they
describe the buyer of the services and perhaps even how
that client presents him- or herself or (if a company)
itself.
But the techniques and
methods of coaching are the same throughout, because
all coaching comes down to the process of
facilitating human beings in the discovery or expansion
of their humanity, their insight, and their
accountability to themselves. Even if you are an executive who
seeks “executive” coaching, you know there is no such
thing as skills, attitudes, and behaviors that are used
in, and useful in, only the boardroom or office. Y ou are
on a mission to enhance your effective personhood, not your, shall
we say, executiveness.
What is the consequence of
coaching being the same no matter who the client is? Well, it means that subject matter expertise is often
irrelevant. To be a career coach, it may help to have
some knowledge of
career resources, of course. The same
is true for specialty aspects of
business coaching,
entrepreneurship
coaching, or
leadership coaching. But in general, you should opt for
a coach with superb coaching skills and chemistry over a coach with
subject matter expertise.
Coaches presume you are
the expert on you. Unlike other practices (consulting,
some fields of therapy), a coach does not need to be an
expert in the field of your goals in order to coach you
on the process of achieving those goals – in fact, a
generalist can sometimes help you more than any
specialist. That’s because coaches are experts in
process -- in the methodology of asking powerful questions that
help you to clarify your values and goals. And
coaches are
experts in defining, leading you to, and declaring the
attainment (or lack thereof) of outcomes. They don't
need to be experts in subjects like your psychology or
even human psychology, though many are. If expertise
matters at all in a given situation, the expertise is
yours, the client’s.
A Coach is the
Modern-Day Ally
Clients hire coaches for
support and comradeship in reaching goals in areas as
diverse as business, executive, leadership, career, financial,
health and relationships. And at Feroce we also
offer specialties such as
spiritual
coaching, parenting coaching, and
individual speech coaches. The coached client sets better goals, takes more action, makes
better decisions, and more fully uses his or her natural
strengths.
A coach is part of a profession new
in name but as old as recorded history in function.
Throughout history, successful people – and at Feroce
our definition of success is so real that successful
people are not necessarily those you would have reason
to have heard of – have had the self-awareness and
emotional intelligence to ally themselves with friends
and confidants, advisors and partners, mentors and
guides, peers and supporters of their enterprises,
consultants, and, in athletic endeavors, even coaches.
The synonyms for those who care for us and are
committed to our growth and success are as plentiful as
mythology’s hero of a thousand faces. Since we began to
call it coaching in the mid-1980s,
we now have “coaches,” who differ from the previous
archetypes in various ways. Yet those differences are
precisely the source of the power and effectiveness that
is causing more and more people to hire their own chief
of staff.
Why It Works
• Social
Contract. Coaching relies on one of the most
powerful forces in the world: the power of the social
contract and commitment. For the same reason that public
marriage vows tend to keep people together longer than
they would in its absence, for the same reason we try
harder to keep New Year’s resolutions we have shared
with others, coaching is effective because you have made
a promise to someone other than yourself – a public or
social contract.
• A coach has you as his
full-time job. Unlike even a friend, a coach is
wholly and formally committed and dedicated to your
success, uses rigorous and proven training and
techniques to assist you in getting there, and will
always (not just most of the time) speak the truth to
and challenge you when you could most benefit from
it.
• Sometimes we want help but don’t need a
therapist: a coach drives a future of high
functioning. Unlike a therapist in a strictly
counseling format, a coach focuses not on the past but
on the future, and supports you not in analyzing
dysfunction but in functioning at an even higher level
than you already are. For more on this topic, see our
article on "The Difference
Coaching and Counseling".
• A coach leads you to answers that
are often inside you. Unlike a consultant, who
purports to be a subject-matter expert and creates most
of any plan of action, a coach is an expert on, if
anything, process and motivation, and simply guides you
in the creation of most of your own plan of action. We
believe and have seen that people are fundamentally
creative and resourceful; our job is to show you how to
tap into that creativity and those resources. You can
find out more about our Feroce Coaching
Philosophy.
Service
Delivery
As we explained when discussing the
coaching relationship,
because coaching is a collaborative venture between
partners, coach and client jointly arrange the schedule
and means of contact. Virtually all coaching is done by
phone and email, though exceptions warrant discussion.
Contact us about
coaching now.
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Life and
Personal Coaches
Relationship Coaches
Career Coaches
Spiritual Health Coaches
Business Coaches
Internet Business Coaches
Marketing Coaches
Leadership Coaches
Social Entrepreneur Coaches
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