Reach for the Heights Life Coaching.
WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE COACHING?
There are many reasons that people enlist the services of a coach but normally it's because they want to improve their situation and achieve or clarify their goals in life. They want to learn new ways of thinking and approaching a situation in order to get better results. Some of the most common reasons are: they want to be more organized and effective at work or home, to gain confidence in certain situations, or to simply work on bettering or understanding themselves.
Some of the more common benefits of life coaching include:
**An Improved focus and a sense of direction.
**An increased awareness and knowledge of self.
**An improved ability to relate to others.
**Greatly increased motivation.
WHAT IS LIFE COACHING?
Life Coaching is a form of learning. In particular it's where a person - the coach - supports someone else - the coachee/client - to enable learning and self-development in a way that best benefits them. The word coaching literally means to transport someone from one place to another. That is what life coaching is about doing, giving someone the necessary skills to help them move forward in a certain direction.
Think of a sports coach. The coach helps an individual or team to improve their performance and get better results, but the coach does not do the work for the person or the team, they merely help to apply specific principles of success in a way that helps and improves the person or team being coached.
Life coaching is normally conducted in the form of conversations. A life coach uses a combination of skills such as observing, questioning, listening and feedback to create a conversation that's full of insight and learning. This should mean the coachee/client will experience a level of focus and attention that enables them to develop their own greater insights and awareness of their situations and themselves. They should also learn new ways of resolving issues and producing better results in obtaining their goals.. These conversations can take place in person, by telephone and even by e-mail.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM YOUR COACH
A Life Coach provides a kind of support that is different from any other. You get the coaches full attention and focus solely on your situation and goals. Your coach will listen to you, really listen to you, they will want to know who you are, what you think and how you experience the world and then they will endeavour to reflect this back to you in an objective way that hopefully encourages a real clarity for you in your life. During your sessions with your coach they will encourage you to rise to challenges, overcome obstacles and to actually take action in an honest, open, friendly and forthright manner. Your coach is committed to helping you fully achieve your goals.
WHAT YOUR COACH WILL EXPECT FROM YOU
In return your coach will want you to stay fully committed to your sessions and the process being undertaken to achieve your goals. This means being on time for sessions, taking your own notes where appropriate and keeping any agreements that may be made during sessions.
In addition your coach will require you to be open and honest, as well as being fully open to the potential of coaching.
This means contributing to the conversations as openly and honestly as possible, even when it may be uncomfortable! If it is uncomfortable then let your coach know! That's part of being honest with your coach.
If it just isn't working for you then say so your coach needs to know these things in order to help you - this isn't a case of failure or a thing that the coach will hold against you. Your coach knows each person is an individual and as such has different needs.
Your coach does at all times expect honesty and openness because the strength and power of a coaching relationship is based strongly on the openness and trust between the coach and the coachee/client.
WHAT COACHING IS NOT!
Life Coaching is generally not for anyone under 18 and it is definitely not any of the following:
**Structured Training.
Coaching follows a flexible format and depends on the coachee's/client's objectives. Both the coach and the coachee/client influence the direction in which the sessions will go and the content of the sessions. Coaching places the real responsibility for learning on the individual and not on the coach, the coach merely is there largely as a facilitator to learning not as a teacher.
**Therapy of any type.
While life coaching may provide an alternative to people who may have considered therapy or counselling, it should not be seen as this. Life coaching does promote a greater awareness of self and the situations and circumstances that surround us, but this is often done through a simple shift of perspective as barriers of self-belief are challenged in order to encourage a fresh approach to situations. In no way will the life coach provide counselling or direct answers to your problems and the root causes of problems. Please be aware that Life-Coaching should not be undertaken by anyone who is undertaking psychiatric care or has mental health issues without the written permission of their physician or care team.
**Direct problem solving.
Coaching is solidly based on the principle that the individual is ultimately responsible for their lives and getting the results they currently are getting and/or want to get. If we accept ownership of something, especially for ourselves and our lives, it follows we have control over it! So if you aren't getting the results you want in some area a coach might encourage you to understand the situation more clearly, to develop new approaches to the problem and to take real constructive action to get the results you want. What a coach won*t do is tell you what you should do specifically and do it for you. If they did the coach would be taking on responsibility for you and taking the power away from you.
HOW MIGHT COACHING BENEFIT YOU?
These few questions will help give you an idea of what might come up in a coaching relationship and also help you begin to form some goals for a coaching relationship. They are meant to encourage thoughts and ideas that can be shared with a coach and in a coaching session, so please take a few minutes to sit quietly with a blank piece of paper and write down your answers.
1. What current goals, if any, do you have relating to:
**Your work. E.g. performance, career development, motivation.
**Your lifestyle. E.g. work/life balance, hobbies, social life.
**Your relationships. E.g. your partner, family, friends.
**Your learning/development. E.g. life experience, formal training.
**Your health and well being. E.g. nutrition, exercise, health.
2. Thinking about your current circumstances:
**What would you like to do more of?
**What would you like to do less of?
3. What would you most like to change right now if you could?
4. What is really going well for you right now and that you would like to build upon?
E.g. do more of it, or make it better.
5. In what ways do you currently learn?
**By experience, i.e. doing things
**Formal study
**Through observing, watching how something is done.
** Reading , listening to tapes, etc
**Doing structured training, i.e. courses
**Mentoring or coaching, i.e. feedback and discussion.
6. How much does this style of learning support your goals and objectives?
7. Are you over 18 and legally responsible and mentally able to make all decisions for yourself?
Having read this and done the enclosed exercise I hope you have now gained a better understanding of the opportunity that coaching can be.
Perhaps you've also begun to think about your own situations and goals, and are now beginning to imagine how coaching might really support you.
Maybe now you can see what having a Life Coach really could do for you!
I hope so.
If you are considering a coaching relationship/session – and given that you are here and reading this then I am pretty sure you are! - then please set up a preliminary coaching session with me and let me have your responses to the above questions, don't be shy or nervous, be brave and take that first step now.
This preliminary session will help us to see where we can go in our coaching and it will give me some insight into your needs and learning styles as well as letting you see what coaching is really like before committing to a series of sessions.
This preliminary session will last about 25 minutes and costs only £5.00.
If you want to find out more about Life Coaching, arrange a session or want to talk about anything raised in this information sheet then please contact me:
MELANIE CARROLL.
Tel: 01522 830901.
