FAQ

My coaching is a highly collaborative partnership designed to evoke your ability to self-generate, self-correct and bring about lasting contribution. It begins with my commitment and skill in relationship, listening and understanding, and in engaging you to explore your unmet potential. My coaching methodology, Integral Coaching,(R) is a skillful methodology for developing human potential in an iterative and systematic way. It’s based on my understanding of what it takes to develop a human being, and how change happens for people. And it rests on a solid foundation of relationship characterized by mutual trust, respect and free expression.

My coaching work is ideally suited for successful professionals who are interested in making lasting change. The personalized focus on an individual supports and encourages ongoing learning and teaches clients to continue their learning throughout their career. Well coached clients develop competencies and resources that enable them to continue to improve and adjust beyond the term of the coaching relationship. See Is Coaching Right for You for more suggestions and next steps.

Coaching is sometimes offered as an intervention. If offered sincerely, to equip a person for a more effective future, or as part of a career or performance correction strategy, it can be transforming for the leader. Sometimes a high value leader simple needs to soften some edges in order to accelerate in his or her career.

Generally, though, statistics about coaching indicate that it is being used by organizations to enhance performance and groom those with high potential. The heaviest users of coaching services are prominent leaders and senior executives. Coaching is also increasingly employed to prepare emerging leaders to step into larger roles.

For many years, coaching was whatever the coach said it was. More recently, clearer distinctions between these four interventions are upheld, though, in practice, the lines do sometimes blur. The International Coaching Federation, the largest coach certifying organization, provides detailed core competencies for coaches, to which I adhere.

Generally, coaching is a forward-thinking process focused on improving effectiveness and personal/professional development. Mentors are generally more senior people who pass along organizational wisdom, customs, norms and traditions through skill and example.  Counselors and therapists focus on uncovering and relaxing the emotional and psychological knots from a person’s past. Consultants provide technical expertise and implement solutions to business problems.

Coaching programs vary greatly in terms of complexity and duration. Typical programs last six months or one year and are designed to identify and prioritize developmental needs. These include a development plan created with the client and a gradual transition to a client’s independence, including appropriate ongoing support as the client defines it. Often, clients decide to extend the coaching term to work on emerging needs that result from the client’s expansions. In all cases, the length of each coaching program is determined before it begins.

Program costs vary considerably and are based on the frequency and duration of our conversations, the amount of assessment work involved, and other factors such as whether we meet by phone or in person. If we agree to work together, we’ll agree on an approach, a time frame and the costs.