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Why has phone coaching
become so incredibly popular? You've probably
wondered what that's all about, right? How can
someone effectively get
life coaching or
career coaching by phone?
Actually, coaching done by email, Instant Messenger,
and
telephone, is not only the most prevalent form of
non-athletic coaching in the world, it is considered by
many to be more effective than doing the same thing in
person. Why?
"Much of
[actual coaching] takes place over the phone. Many
coaches and their clients have never met face to face.
But it may not be the face-time that matters most in
managing to get the best out of [clients]."
-- Fortune Magazine
Think about it
this way. A sports coach is coaching an individual
in a physical activity.  It stands to reason
that the coach must be able to visually observe the
activity and to give immediate feedback. But not
even all sports coaching is about the athlete's purely
physical performance -- most of it is mental. And
life, career, or business coaching are the most interior
of all. The stuff of non-athletic coaching, such
as personal or executive coaching, is precisely the
interior life of the individual being coached. How
they look doing it is beside the point. All the
motion, all the change, is inside.
Location, Location, Location -- And the Phone Coach
Say it as many times as you
want, location still doesn’t matter in coaching.
Honestly, I have never seen or heard any explanation for
why an in-person coach is better in any way. And,
in fact, the industry standard is the opposite:
nearly all coaching is done by phone. So why do
some people – always people who have never been coached
before, interestingly enough -- imagine that coaching
should be in person?
It can only be because these people do not know what
coaching is. Some people, for example,
erroneously imagine that coaching must like the closest
model they can think of: therapy. Based on
this misunderstanding, they think we need to look at
clients’ faces, or to establish what therapists call a
highly personal transference relationship that will
model the client’s relationship with his parents.
What we do when we coach does not depend on our being
in the same room as you anymore than you need to be
face-to-face with a loved one in order to advance
certain types of important conversations. Have you
not discussed values and hurdles over the phone, made
decisions, even broken up or gotten back together?
Sure. You’ve taken action based on phone
conversations that elicited that action.
Similarly, coaches identify
goals, examine patterns, listen for excuses, ask for
action, and enforce commitments. Can your boss
make you jump over the phone with a demand for answers?
Sure. Can your parents inculcate guilt over the
phone? Of course they can. That’s because
what they do in those conversations doesn’t depend on
what’s visible. The same is true of coaches in the
conversations we have.
The misunderstanding that coaching must be like therapy
is one thing coming from a person who is not a coach,
but if you hear a coach telling you that you need to be
in person, you should strongly reconsider whether what
that person is doing is actually coaching.
In the end, I’d strongly urge you to find a coach
with whom you have chemistry and whose style you like
and go with your instincts. Restricting your
search geographically will greatly reduce the odds of
finding just the right fit for you. An in-person
coach is also likely to charge more – he or she has to
lease an office, among other things.
Meet our phone coaches
now!
Life Coaches
Career Coaches
Relationship
Coaches
Advantages of Phone
Coaching
Phone coaching is also arguably even
more effective than in-person
personal coaching, and for the
following reasons:
● it's more efficient --
no one has to travel, and there's much less of the
ultimately wasteful chit-chat that characterizes
face-to-face encounters (not to mention waiting in line
for coffee) ● there are fewer
distractions to divert either the coach or the client -- instead, we're
laser-focused on the substance and delivery of what you say -- and don't say ● because it's more
efficient, it's also less expensive ● with the global reach
of the telephone, you're more likely to find the best coach for you!
The best thing about new
profession of coaching is that its reach is as great as that of the Internet itself.
A review of the world of telephonic coaching will
spot Florida coaching clients in Miami finding their best
match with a life coach in New York, and British business coaching clients often
fitting best with American business coaches with just the
right experience for their coaching
needs. With the whole world to choose from, and no
limitations on anyone, why would anyone choose to limit
their search for the best coach for them?
The best coaching relationship is like a good marriage.
It's based in large part on chemistry. And the smaller
the net you throw, the lower the chances of having chemistry
within that net, so there's only a slight chance that you and
your best coach are within traveling distance of
each other. Enter the phone coach.
Clients have roadblocks in places they can't even see.
We hear these through the client's own reports; we don't
follow the client around, of course. See our
success stories and recent breakthrough
coaching conversations.
"We must be willing to
let go of the life that we have planned, so as to have
the life that is
waiting for us."
-- Joseph Campbell
Tip: Press Control-D or
bookmark this page
so you can return when your research is done. And
you will return. Oh, yes.
Please
note that we also offer a sliding scale of rates, so money and coaching
are more independent issues.
Related
Articles:
What Does a Good Coach
Do? The Life and Mind Coach
More on What a Life Coach
Does
Life
Coaches
Career Coaches
Contact
us about phone coaching now.
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