FAQs

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Pivot points are those places in life where having a reaction other than an instincitive or natural reaction will lead to greater effectiveness, happiness or long-term personal growth. People who understand their pivot points can make conscious decisions and choices that drastically affect their success and fulfillment. Click here for more information about pivot points.

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See summary of Integral Coaching®.

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Professional coaching focuses on setting goals, creating outcomes and managing personal change. Sometimes it’s helpful to understand coaching by distinguishing it from other personal or organizational support professions.

Therapy: Therapy deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict within an individual or in relationships. The focus is often on resolving difficulties arising from the past that hamper an individual's emotional functioning in the present, improving overall psychological functioning, and dealing with the present in more emotionally healthy ways. Coaching, on the other hand, supports personal and professional growth based on self-initiated change in pursuit of specific actionable outcomes. These outcomes are linked to personal or professional success. Coaching is future focused. While positive feelings/emotions may be a natural outcome of coaching, the primary focus is on creating actionable strategies for achieving specific goals in one's work or personal life. The emphases in a coaching relationship are on action, accountability, and follow through.

Consulting: Individuals or organizations retain consultants for their expertise. While consulting approaches vary widely, the assumption is the consultant will diagnose problems and prescribe and, sometimes, implement solutions. With coaching, the assumption is that individuals or teams are capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach supplying supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks.

Mentoring: A mentor is an expert who provides wisdom and guidance based on his or her own experience. Mentoring may include advising, counseling and coaching. The coaching process does not include advising or counseling, and focuses instead on individuals or groups setting and reaching their own objectives.

Training: Training programs are based on objectives set out by the trainer or instructor. Though objectives are clarified in the coaching process, they are set by the individual or team being coached, with guidance provided by the coach. Training also assumes a linear learning path that coincides with an established curriculum. Coaching is less linear without a set curriculum.

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An individual or team might choose to work with a coach for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:

• Something urgent, compelling or exciting is at stake.
• Work is unfulfilling or they have a sense of disengagement.
• A gap exists in knowledge, skills, confidence or resources.
• They need more productive and effective communication skills.
• There is a lack of clarity with choices / decisions to be made.
• Work and life are out of balance, creating unwanted consequences.
• Relationships are strained with loved ones, friends or co-workers.

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Coaching typically begins with a personal interview (either face-to-face or by teleconference/webconference call) to assess the individual's or business' current opportunities and challenges, define the scope of the relationship, identify priorities for action and establish specific desired outcomes. Subsequent coaching sessions may be conducted in person or over the telephone/web, with each session lasting a previously established length of time. Between scheduled coaching sessions, the individual may be offered specific actions that support the achievement of their personally prioritized goals. The coach may provide additional resources in the form of relevant articles, checklists, assessments or models to support the individual's or business' thinking and actions.

Assessments: A variety of assessments are available to support the coaching process, depending upon the needs and circumstances of the individual or business. Assessments provide objective information that can enhance self-awareness, as well as awareness of others and their circumstances; provide a benchmark for creating coaching goals and actionable strategies; and offer a method for evaluating progress.

Concepts, models and principles: A variety of concepts, models and principles drawn from the behavioral sciences, management literature, spiritual traditions and/or the arts and humanities may be incorporated into the coaching conversation to increase self-awareness and awareness of others, foster shifts in perspective, promote fresh insights, provide new frameworks for looking at opportunities and challenges, and energize and inspire forward actions.

Appreciative approach: Coaching incorporates an appreciative approach, grounded in what's right, what's working, what's wanted and what's needed to get there. Using an appreciative approach, the coach models constructive communication skills and methods to enhance personal communication effectiveness. He or she incorporates discovery-based inquiry, proactive (as opposed to reactive) ways of managing personal opportunities and challenges, constructive framing of observations and feedback to elicit the most positive responses from others, and visions of success as contrasted with focusing on problems. The appreciative approach is simple to understand and employ, and its reach can be profound, opening up new possibilities and spurring action.

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Coaching timelines can vary depending on the needs of the client; however, a typical coaching engagement consists of 10-12 coaching sessions over a 4-6 month period, allowing for flexibility in scheduling based on the client's needs.

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The investment required for a 6-month coaching program varies depending on the depth and breadth of the program, planned coaching sessions, and how much time the coach is scheduled to be on site with the client. Costs can range from $3,500 – $10,000.

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Specific details of the coaching conversations are always held in the strictest confidence, though you may wish to share details at your discretion. Any information made available to a sponsoring company will be discussed up front and agreed upon by all parties.