Why Might I Hire a Coach?

Deep inside we have all the answers to our problems, the resolutions to our crises and the knowledge we need to kick our demons into last year. But we also have blocks. We can't always see things as clearly looking from the inside out as an objective set of eyes can looking from the outside in.

A coach offers an objective perspective on how things are going. A coach asks the right questions and makes intuitive observations about your answers. A good coach listens deeply, not only to what you say, but most importantly, to what you don't say. And then a coach offers ideas and tools for helping you sort out what step to take next. A coach has no agenda but yours, and because a coach believes you already have all the answers, the focus is on helping you find what is already there.

A coach also offers a safe place to be held accountable for the goals you set for yourself and for your progress. The structure can be set up to be as mild or assertive as you like.

What coaching is not

Coaching is not therapy. Therapy focuses primarily on the past and how that is holding you back. While coaching may occasionally dip into the past, the focus of coaching is to help you figure out where you are now, where you'd like to be, and how to bridge the gap from here to there. The primary focus is on forward momentum.

Coaching is not mentoring. Mentors have already been there and are there to help you do it the way they did it. Which may or may not work for you.

Coaching is not consulting. Consultants are experts with all the answers. The coach knows that you have all the answers.

And coaching, while a very friendly process, is not a friendship, because the focus is never going to be on the coach or the coach's problems or opinions.

What a coach shares with these modalities is support, open communication, trust, confidentiality and integrity. You can depend on your coach.