INTRODUCTION

A Coaching Approach for the Coach in Business (Location 78)

In the latest industry-wide survey conducted by the International Coach Federation (ICF), the largest professional association of coaches, 70% of all coaches surveyed report that even though they are working hard to build their businesses, they are making less than a living wage. (Location 82)

Business consultant Michael Gerber (1995) wrote that those in small business must spend time working on the business, not just in the business. (Location 116)

Starting and sustaining any new business is tough, which is why failure rates on new businesses are so high, but a coaching business is especially vulnerable to collapse. Here are four reasons why: (Location 130)

• First, you are selling something new. Coaching is an unfamiliar service for much of the public. You may have to do double duty: Create a market and then sell your services. You will need to be part educator, part salesperson, part leader in the field—and be ready to demonstrate coaching to people you meet, at a moment’s notice. This takes assurance. (Location 131)

• Second, since you are selling improvement and achievement services, you will be held to a higher standard of self-care and self-actualization than if you were selling something more material or mundane. Coaches need to be a model of their services in order to have integrity. If you are a life coach, you need to make sure you are having a very good life yourself. If you are a leadership coach, you need to be an unmistakable leader. If you are a creativity coach, you need to be fully engaged in your own creative ventures. This takes commitment. (Location 134)

Third, you have to become highly articulate. You must impart the value and consequent expense of your coaching services primarily through your words, written materials, and presence. You have to hone your language and your speaking. This takes preparation and poise. (Location 138)

• Fourth, you need to be skilled in your craft. Clients, many of whom pay for their coaching out of pocket, want to see results fast. As a coach, you need to be very good at what you do. Your services and programs must add clear, tangible value. This takes know-how. (Location 140)

This book is structured to follow our business model and consists of four distinct sections: (Location 147)

Positioning

You need to build your coaching business so that it has relevance to the larger community around it. (Location 148)

Differentiation

As marketing expert Jack Trout (2002) explained, being different is the key to survival in a crowded marketplace. (Location 158)

As a coach, your survival will depend on your ability to stand out. (Location 161)

Entrepreneurship

If you want to build a coaching business that will last, you must become entrepreneurial. We will show you how to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set and the emotional business intelligence to help you overcome the at times emotional roller coaster that owning and operating a coaching business creates. (Location 166)

Profiles in Coaching

A business model is only a vague theory unless you can see it in action. (Location 173)

PART I POSITIONING

CHAPTER 1 Coaching: Trend or Fad?

We predict that the coaching industry will continue to evolve quickly, leaving behind those coaches who can’t distinguish the coaching trends from the fads. (Location 185)

The History of Coaching

In the 1980s, corporate downsizing across the United States resulted in the reduction of internal managerial training within corporations. With reduced budgets, corporations could not continue to invest in the education of executives, especially when much of middle management was getting laid off. (Location 191)

If executive coaching and mentoring were to continue in corporate America in the downsized economic climate of the 1980s, it would have to be outsourced. (Location 195)

Corporations hired external coaches to groom midlevel executives for promotion or to improve the productivity of problem executives. Management consultants and human resource firms, who formerly offered training or organizational development, became the front line of coaching services. (Location 197)

With a flurry of intense activity, a half-dozen schools of coaching emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, competing for coach trainees. The schools were all privately held, for-profit companies. The urgency to get the schools up and running made quality control very uneven; some employed newly minted coaches, themselves barely established in a coaching business, as teachers of other coach hopefuls, or offered newly made up, untested curricula. (Location 203)

One of the most robust early training schools, CoachU, was created in 1992 by a dynamic former financial planner named Thomas Leonard. (Location 209)

Leonard and his core group of trainers developed the first comprehensive curriculum for coaching, integrating and refining methods from related lines of work, (Location 212)

He created dozens of coaching checklists, many detailed coaching programs, and an intensive course curriculum that required at least 2 years to complete. Each CoachU student received an 11-pound coaching manual through the mail upon registration, and more curriculum was continually developed and dispersed. (Location 216)

Leonard insisted that coaches first address their own self-improvement through an 8-week personal foundation course, where all coach trainees went through 25 lessons to dramatically enrich their own lives. Lessons included how to simplify one’s life, create daily positive habits, raise personal standards, set good boundaries, eliminate tolerations, get one’s finances in good shape, and learn to be at choice—to live life with a proactive, value-based attitude. Only after completing this foundational level of coaching would students be considered ready to go further in the curriculum. (Location 219)

Today, many coaching schools offer virtual training via teleclass based on the CoachU early model. (Location 232)

Coaching Today

Coaches today are finding that the once smooth ride of coaching is developing some bumps and potholes. (Location 254)

Seen from a lens of standardization, the coaching profession today resembles the Wild West of early American history. Anyone and everyone can call themselves a coach and it’s a buyer-beware marketplace for coaching clients who want to hire a skilled coach and those new coaches looking for coach training. (Location 263)

Coach certification is lagging far behind the numbers of newly minted coaches. According to ICF, of the purported 30,000 people calling themselves “coaches” in business worldwide, fewer than 2% have achieved ICF certification as either a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) or Master Certified Coach (MCC). (Location 265)

Determining the validity of any coach training program is challenging for potential students. Since the training programs are most often private, not public, institutions, data regarding student satisfaction, detailed information about curriculum, and results of postgraduate placements and earnings are considered confidential and rarely available. (Location 277)

Competition Within the Coaching Market (Location 287)

Most of your coaching colleagues are brand-new to the profession. Everyone is hungry, trying to start up a new coaching business or sustain one that is relatively untested. (Location 291)

If you are a pessimist, this finding confirms your sense that the marketplace consists of a lot of hungry sharks (coaches) at feeding time. If you are an optimist, this finding can feel supportive: with so many new coaches having the same business agendas, the opportunities for alliance and collaboration abound. Beyond sharpening your coaching skills, being a skilled business person will be essential. (Location 293)

What we suggest: Become a pragmatic optimist. Collaborate, but keep yourself differentiated in a competitive marketplace. Learn to do two things well: (a) use the specialization exercises in this book to make sure you find the right niche so that you differentiate and promote your uniqueness, and, (b) network… (Location 296)

Credibility for…

The findings: Many coaches have existing or prior experience as business consultants or managers, and a smaller number have some experience as teachers, counselors, psychologists, or mental health professionals. Seventy percent have prior experience as consultants, executives, or managers, and 20% of coaches report a background in… (Location 299)

Your prior experience adds credibility and importance to selling… (Location 302)

Incorporate and highlight your prior experience, training, and academic achievements.… (Location 304)

For those reentering the job market after a long hiatus, or those without a solid résumé, prior work experience, relevant training, or coaching certification, it may take time and effort to… (Location 308)

Certification…

While becoming certified as a coach is not necessary for building a successful coaching business, the tide may be turning. Most new coaches have yet to achieve certification, although 50% say that they are on a credentialing path. At this time, 18% of the ICF membership has certification,… (Location 311)

Certification may not mean much now, but if this profession follows others, it may become important to your credibility over time. Start your certification efforts early in your coaching career. Join a professional association that has a certification process. Keep records of your coach training and client contact hours. As soon as you have completed all the steps required, apply for certification. There are several coaching associations to consider… (Location 314)

Joining a professional coaching association gives you a standing in the industry and helps you stay current with industry changes. Make sure that you train with an accredited program, since that will be… (Location 318)

Certification through the ICF requires that each coach become familiar with and demonstrate his or her ability to… ... A complete description of the competencies is available free from the ICF (http://www.coachfederation.org… (Location 320)

Certification through the ICF is rigorous and demands many years of documented training and coaching hours. Start now. (Location 341)

Importance of Training

The findings: Most coaches in the survey have received formal training and have hired a mentor coach. Seventy percent are graduates of a coach training program and the same number report having been coached by a mentor coach before trying to coach others. Two accredited programs attract almost 50% of these coach trainees: CoachU and CTI. (Location 343)

The majority of coaches in the ICF recognize that they need training of some kind prior to coaching others. If you resist training, you will be in the minority and may lose credibility. (Location 346)

Get trained as a coach so that you have a clear coaching model and an abundance of skills to use with your clients. Along with the already established providers of coach training, some interest in offering coaching programs is now occurring at the community college level and at a few universities (see the Appendix for training programs). (Location 348)

The market for coach training is filled with accredited and unaccredited schools, most of which are private, solely owned businesses of short duration. Take your time, ask for referrals, and pick a school that has been accredited by the ICF. Remember that, with a few exceptions, all of these schools are businesses, not public institutions. The profit motive is in operation and the “teachers” who coach you may be brand-new coaches themselves. (Location 351)

Earning Power

Despite promises of a lucrative business, coaches report that the coaching business functions similar to any small start-up, with slow growth and slow earnings in the first few years. (Location 358)

Only 1 in 10 earns the magic number of $100,000 annually. (Location 361)

Finally, we see the financial facts of coaching and they are not pretty. There are too many underpaid coaches in the ICF. There are several reasons why. Most of the coaches in the survey don’t charge a full fee, instead offering a sliding scale, pro bono sessions, or bartered sessions. Over 50% said it took them up to 2 years of marketing to get their first paid coaching client. (Location 361)

The research shows that filling a coaching business is a slow process. Regardless of what you may be promised by a training organization, you may need a day job or substantial financial reserves in order to supplement your coaching in the first several years. (Location 367)

Have a business plan to build a coaching business over time, one that can last. Recognize that it takes time to develop a market niche and make good money. Develop your business skills to stay knowledgeable and current about good business practices. Be patient. Learn to network, find the right specialty, know how to target a profitable market, and become an organized and efficient entrepreneur. Be sure you have adequate financial reserves. Don’t quit your day job too soon. (Location 369)

Best Business Practices

The most successful coaches are good marketers. (Location 373)

As a coach, you need to become expert in finding a way to market and network. You also need to learn to organize and manage your time in order to advance your business. You need to adopt professional, cost-effective methods to run a business, not a hobby. (Location 378)

Plan to spend as much time as possible marketing, networking, and organizing your business when you start. As you get more successful and have a full client load, continue to reserve at least 10% of your overall working time for business-related activities. Get ready to wear a number of hats: CEO, coach, marketer, administrator, program designer, manager, maybe even bookkeeper. (Location 380)

Develop an entrepreneurial mind-set to make this pleasurable. Identify and use good management skills, and rely on a business model and a business plan. (Location 382)

Your Future in Coaching

Stay informed about the coaching profession. (Location 436)

Become a masterful coach and play to your strengths. Hone your skills, opt for training where needed, and get coaching from a mentor coach to improve your coaching ability. Rely on your prior experience as you build a business, and integrate all previous strengths and skills to compliment your coach training. (Location 439)

Target a market. (Location 441)

Be an entrepreneur. (Location 443)

Minimize risk factors to stay safe when working as a coach. Even though coaching isn’t a licensed profession, you are still liable for lawsuits or client complaints. Structure your business well and work safely with a minimum of risk. Follow the ethics of the profession and get insurance to protect your assets. (Location 446)

CHAPTER 2 The Differences Among Coaching, Therapy, and Consulting

Coaching as an industry may be recent, but coaching as a style of relating to others is ancient. Examples of coaching, in the form of mentoring, assisting, advising, supporting, or training, can be found documented throughout literature and practiced within many professions including sports, business, academics, and psychotherapy. (Location 455)

Coaching Versus Therapy (Location 465)

rather than use a single sentence to define the difference between therapy and coaching, we offer you five criteria to help you develop a more informed understanding about the two professions. We focus on the following areas: • who (population) • what (purpose) • where (setting) • why (intent) • how (skills) (Location 484)

Who (Population)

Therapy: Therapists treat a vast client population, with one common denominator: the majority of those seeking therapy are at a low point in their lives, facing distress and emotional pain. (Location 489)

The therapist–client relationship is usually a hierarchical one for good reason; sometimes the therapist, in the role of expert, needs to make a hard call to protect the life or well-being of the client, or to set a course of immediate medical action. (Location 493)

Coaching: Coaches work with a narrower client population that economists call the worried well. According to Marisa Domino (2002), assistant professor of health economics at University of North Carolina, 85% of the worried well don’t seek psychotherapy or counseling even when they have personal problems, because they don’t identify themselves as psychologically “ill.” The worried well, underserved by therapy, are considered the target market for coaches because when they seek help with relationships, parenting, career change, boredom, or unhappiness—the same issues that cause others to seek counseling or therapy—they may be open to considering coaching instead. (Location 498)

The coaching relationship is one of partnership and collaboration. Although the coach may be an expert in certain skills or areas, as a coach she positions herself as an equal with her clients. She asks perceptive questions rather than gives advice. Her clients define their own goals, choices, and decisions, with her input. Then the coach uses accountability, motivational strategies, and constructive support to help her clients meet and at times, exceed their desired goals. (Location 503)

Coaching clients have challenges, but they are usually quite well functioning and looking for a fast fix to a specific situation, not a personality overhaul. They can be more demanding than therapy clients, bringing high expectations about the outcome of their sessions. (Location 507)

Therapy clients “see” or “consult with” a therapist for treatment (medical model), but coaching clients “hire” a coach (consumer model). As a result, these consumers want to see concrete results. (Location 508)

Most coaching clients ask to be challenged and will be uncomfortable with a slow tempo, long silences, or vague language that might be very normal in a therapy session. To satisfy a coaching client, coaches need to be articulate, interactive, and direct, and get their points across clearly. (Location 510)

What (Purpose)

Coaching: Thomas Leonard, one of the early founders of the coaching movement, defined the purpose of coaching as threefold: to help people (a) set and reach better goals, (b) do more than they would have done on their own, and (c) improve focus so as to produce results more quickly (Location 525)

In process, coaches see themselves as partners, ready to work in tandem with a client to solve an interesting challenge. (Location 528)

To sum up, although the purpose may be similar for therapy and coaching in some cases, the process differs: In therapy, emphasis may be placed on helping a client resolve past issues and grieve loss in order to be more functional in the present. In coaching, emphasis is placed solely on a person’s present state of mind and future potential. (Location 530)

In practice, the distinctions between therapy and coaching are less black and white, and more of a continuum. At one end of the continuum is the traditional version of psychotherapy, say, psychoanalysis, and at the other end the traditional version of coaching, say, sports coaching. (Location 539)

Although the differences between therapy and coaching tend to overlap in the center of the continuum, many coaches and therapists use methods that place them more toward the ends. (Location 550)

Where (Setting)

Therapy: Most therapists agree that to provide optimal therapy they need a controlled, consistent, private setting so that they can have confidential face-to-face sessions… (Location 553)

Coaching: Coaching is notable for its flexibility in regard to setting. Coaching sessions can and do take place in the coach’s office, the client’s office or workplace, a hotel, a restaurant, in the field, on the phone, or over the Internet. It’s not necessary for coaches and their clients to have ever met face-to-face for the sessions to be effective.… (Location 555)

The coach may need to keep the professional boundaries of the coaching relationship firm or somewhat loose, based on the nature of the coaching. Coaches often seek to keep relationships flexible, somewhat self-revelatory, and mutual to make it… (Location 559)

How (Skill…

Therapy: Therapists spend years, during their education and afterward, developing methodology for their clinical work. They rely, at least in part, on cognitive-behavioral methods—asking questions, listening carefully, establishing rapport, verbal mirroring, reframing, observing, challenging, giving some advice, making suggestions, making interventions (offering provocative statements designed to promote insight), proposing assignments—to help clients think and behave differently. But therapists add to this a vast number of additional techniques, many of which are designed to elicit deep feelings, insight,… (Location 563)

Coaching: Some coaches use a specific coaching model learned from their coach training. Coach training organizations provide students with coaching tools (assessments, checklists, exercises, and full programs). Other… (Location 568)

Whereas therapists draw on a century of methodology and development, coaches have limited “pure” coaching approaches to use because the field is still in its infancy. As a result, coaches have borrowed from other disciplines, such as HR, OD,… (Location 572)

Why (…

Therapy: Therapists are taught to determine the intention or objective of a therapy session… (Location 576)

Common therapeutic intentions for individual psychotherapy are to help a client heal, get in touch with feelings, resolve past issues, make unconscious thoughts and behaviors more conscious,… (Location 578)

Coaching: A coach’s objective for a coaching session will help determine the effectiveness of the session, and can further discern the distinction between coaching and therapy. Common coaching intentions for a session are to help a client stay grounded in current reality, further daily progress, take constructive action, set and reach big goals, create a vision and mission, become highly… (Location 580)

Coaches need to start a session with a game plan in mind so that the coaching is not random… (Location 587)

Eclectic coaches may borrow techniques from their other professional training, but need to use them selectively, given the population,… (Location 588)

Coaching Versus Consulting

Many coaches combine consulting with coaching, creating what some in the coaching profession refer to as “con-coaching.” There is nothing wrong with this combined approach, but you need to be aware of what you are offering and why. (Location 610)

Consultants, as experts and analysts, generally have specialized skills and knowledge. Clients hire consultants for their expertise, their ability to diagnose and resolve organizational problems, and their knowledge and data to propose solutions. (Location 614)

Consultants usually work and bill on a project basis rather than at an hourly rate, and they may focus on the larger system of a work environment rather than working one-on-one with individuals. (Location 617)

Coaches focus on helping specific individuals make targeted change. They do not focus on organizational systems. (Location 620)

Coaches want to help grow people, often from the inside out, not just fix a business situation (although that may be part of the coaching results). (Location 622)

Another distinction is hierarchy. To be effective, the coach can’t be a subordinate of the client, or a boss of the client: the coach must be lateral to the client so that the relationship can be between equals. (Location 629)

In contrast, consultants may be brought in for a project and can advise a CEO, but need not be at the same rank or status as the CEO to complete their consulting mandate and to be valuable. (Location 631)

Coaching Knowledge Base

The knowledge base of a profession includes the theories, insights, methodologies, primary elements, and research studies that define and inform that profession. Even though coaching is a young profession, there are three aspects that indicate an emerging knowledge base. (Location 644)

• methodology: the content of the coaching conversation • research: social science investigations into the field of happiness • primary element: the coaching relationship and the unique positioning of the coach and client (Location 646)

Methodology: Content of the Coaching Conversation

Coaching conversational topics include: vision, purpose, and mission; spiritual path; mastery and excellence of work; setting and achieving far-reaching goals; leadership; effortlessness; success; effectiveness; financial independence; attraction; legacy; passion; joy; integrity; abundance; ease; action; money; pleasure; community; flow; creativity; love; clarity; achievement; and dreams. (Location 652)

While some of these topics may be discussed in other client-professional relationships—such as money and financial independence when talking with an accountant or financial planner; creativity and dreams when talking with a spiritual adviser; purpose, integrity, clarity, and goals when talking with a therapist; leadership, achievement, and excellence concerning work when talking with a trainer/consultant—we found that coaches regularly talk about all of these topics to their clients, sometimes touching on almost all of them over the course of a month of coaching. (Location 654)

the breadth and depth of the content of a coaching dialogue seems to us to be unique to the profession of coaching, based on the integration of lofty, affirmative, philosophical concepts and pragmatic, strategic tracking of action steps. (Location 659)

The best coach training programs teach strategic thinking, methods of empowering others, effective goal setting, life planning, how to find one’s spiritual path, financial independence, business and managerial skills, how to help clients achieve states of flow and peak performance, supporting leadership, and furthering passion and happiness. (Location 662)

Senior coaches we interviewed discussed their verbal styles during a coaching conversations, and each made use of the following methods: • Challenging clients to stretch their capacity by asking for far more than they have done before. ... • Speaking openly and honestly with clients, withholding no thoughts or intuitive feelings. ... • “Gapping” a client—defining a wide disparity between a client’s current situation and the desired goals, as a motivator for change. ... • Using definite language and “edge”—a type of tough questioning and clear communication to provoke a client into action, not just discussion. (Location 665)

• Adopting a nonjudgmental attitude when responding to clients, to “make the client right.” (Location 672)

Research: Social Science Investigation into Happiness

One goal of the positive psychology is to promote a client’s “voluntary control” of happiness, based on a happiness formula of “set range, plus circumstances, plus voluntary control” to equal happiness. (Location 730)

Seligman (2004) cited numerous published studies to support this formula, explaining that many aspects of life that one would think would affect happiness actually have little long-lasting effects, including: • climate—no effect • education—no effect • money—above poverty level, very small effect • age—very small effect • health—very small effect • negative events and emotion—very small effect • marriage—slightly greater affect • practice of religion—moderate effect • social life—correlates strongest to happiness (Location 732)

What does seem to have the largest effect on happiness, according to Seligman, are three areas of voluntary control: • degree of satisfaction about the past (gratitude and forgiveness) • optimism about the future (optimism and hope) • happiness about the present (pleasure and gratification, including states of flow, meaning, and purpose) (Location 740)

Primary Element: Positioning of the Coaching Relationship

The coach-client relationship focuses on partnership and collaboration rather than hierarchy and expertise. (Location 750)

coaches need to promote: • Genuineness (as opposed to detachment) • Guidance (as opposed to a nondirective approach) • Mutuality (as opposed to authority) • Empathy (as opposed to neutrality) • Support (as opposed to analysis) • Present and future focus (as opposed to past concentration) • Ego strengthening (as opposed to ego regression) • Transparency (as opposed to not revealing) • Cognition (as opposed to emotion) (Location 753)

Consultants who are transitioning to being coaches need to shift from a position of • Expert to equal • Information-based to process-based • Fixing problems to supporting change in people • Examination to implementation • Aloof analyst to close-in and caring helper (Location 760)

Imagine you are learning to ride a bicycle for the first time, and you have a therapist, consultant, and coach ready to help you gain mastery. A therapist would be standing off to the side, closely observing your attempt to stay upright. She would be understanding and compassionate when you fell, make wise interpretations about why, ask some difficult and insightful questions to help you understand the origins of your lack of balance, and perhaps direct you as to how to get back on and do better, with this new set of insights. A therapist would want you to develop your own prowess about riding the bike over time, for you to notice how you keep getting your feet crossed, or turn the wheel wrong, and to understand what your history taught you to make you try to ride that way. (Location 774)

A consultant might be on a bike next to you, riding circles around you as a biking expert. He would note your current slow ability at riding, tell you exactly how and where you are doing it wrong, give you a detailed, step-by-step plan for doing it right, and then submit a report with all of the findings and suggestions, including suggestions for purchasing a state-of-the-art bike, and then ride off, to leave you to implement the suggestions on your own, in your own time frame. (Location 779)

A coach would climb on the seat right behind you and ask, “Where do you want to go today?” (Location 783)

CHAPTER 3 Becoming a Great Coach

Robert Hargrove (2003) defined five basic competencies or “compass points” of coaching. An average coach with a minimum of training should be able to achieve Hargrove’s five competencies at their most fundamental level: • Partnership (work nonhierarchically in collaboration with a client) • Future orientation (help a client set and achieve goals) • Reinvention (assist client to make a change) • Cognition (think clearly and strategically with clients) • Expansion (encourage clients to get their needs and wants met) (Location 806)

Masterful coaches go beyond the previous list of fundamentals to achieve the following in these five areas: • Partnership (demonstrate total commitment to the client’s success) • Future orientation (create a culture of possibility) • Reinvention (prompt personal transformation) • Cognition (think “out of the box” and see the biggest picture) • Expansion (encourage client to define and actualize a compelling vision) (Location 812)

Partnership

An average coach understands the concept of partnership: You, the coach, are an informed, collaborative equal with your client. (Location 819)

Masterful coaches take the partnership model to a higher level. They take responsibility to be a fantastic partner, going above and beyond the coaching agreement to be highly attentive and really desire their client’s success. Masterful coaches, according to Hargrove, listen for greatness. They listen with heightened focus and attention during the coaching session, and hear the full potential inside each client. A gifted coach who listens this carefully for greatness often senses a moment in the coaching session when a well-placed question or comment will lead toward a breakthrough for the client—where the client realizes something about herself, her work, or her life that she can change immediately to make life better. For an average coach, these breakthrough moments happen once in a while; with the great coach, they may happen in every coaching session. (Location 823)

Breakthroughs are possible when you listen on multiple levels. For example, you may be conducting a coaching conversation and listening to your client’s story or narrative on one level. But on a deeper, meta-level, you may be listening for • inherent strengths • values • what is said versus what is not said • indications of hidden resourcefulness • moments of unconscious brilliance on the part of the client • repetition, stuckness, self-sabotage, unmet needs (Location 829)

Future Orientation

An average coach is a competent strategist and can help a client set and achieve goals. ... But great coaches find ways to make setting goals exciting for a client because they help a client see the rich options inherent in any given problem or situation. They infuse the present situation with hope, while pointing the way to a better future. (Location 842)

Great coaches help their clients see their future potential, even in the face of normal setbacks and uncertainties. (Location 855)

Reinvention

An average coach helps a client assess a current situation and make changes in his life and work, using a plan broken down into action steps, with incremental markers of achievement. A great coach does this, too, but also can employ a nonlinear approach to prompt a process akin to evolution, where change happens more spontaneously. (Location 856)

Hargrove (2003) stated that with a masterful coach, reinvention occurs as the coach stands outside the system and makes sure, by asking the client to make big and bold steps, that the client won’t revert to old patterns and ways of behaving. With a masterful coach, personal transformation is lasting. The great coach is a willing and able catalyst for major change. (Location 859)

Cognition

An average coach uses the coaching conversation to help a client to think more clearly and deliberately. A great coach makes a coaching conversation a work of art, a lively dance that effortlessly generates changes in behavior for the client. The great coach does this by attending to what a client says as well as what is unspoken. Masterful coaches use their intuition to pick up on subtle hints or inklings, such as silences or certain word choices that a client makes, and then fearlessly asks a client to get to the truth of a situation. (Location 882)

Executive coach Richard Leider (1997), who trains coaches, stated in a training session that the obvious question a coach first asks is: What’s the gap between where you are now and where you want to be? The less obvious follow-up question that Leider then likes to ask his clients is: How will you know when you get there? (Location 887)

The right coaching questions can help clients feel suddenly empowered, confident, and eager to move forward with strong, decisive action. Hargrove (2003) suggested the following penetrating questions: What unintended results are you getting now? How are you contributing to them? How do you need to shift your way of being, thinking, behaving? (Location 890)

Great coaches frame their questions to cause a leap, to help a client jump over previous beliefs into new thinking. (Location 894)

Expansion

An average coach understands expansion to mean helping clients identify and meet their needs and wants. A great coach takes the concept of expansion more literally and sees her mission as one to help a client define a big vision of the future and move toward it without fear. (Location 903)

Margaret Wheatley, expert in organizational systems, wrote, “There is a new way of being in the world. It requires being in the world without fear, with play and creativity” (Location 906)

Define and Close the Gap

Many of the 30 top-earning coaches we interviewed explained that they could get the coaching relationship with a new client off to a good start based on their ability to define and close the gap. They clarify the parameters of the “gap”—the empty space between where a client is right now and where the client wants to be in the future. Then they coach the client to close it, fast. (Location 936)

When defining the gap, the focus is on the space in between the two points (present and future), not the end point. Coaches talked about the size and even shape of the gap. If the gap is too big, a client gets discouraged. If the gap is too small, the coaching isn’t exciting enough. If the gap is vague, the client feels confused. If it’s too narrow, the client feels constrained. Just like Goldilocks, the coach and client seem to know when the gap is just right. The perfect-sized gap can become its own motivating force. (Location 939)

Exercise: Define and Close Your Gap

1. Think of a goal you deeply desire that does not exist in your present situation. 2. What is the smallest goal you could set? Pay attention to the size of the gap. Does the goal excite you? 3. What is the largest goal you could set? Pay attention to the size of the gap. Does the goal seem impossible? 4. What is the narrowest goal you could set? Pay attention to the size of the gap. Does the goal feel too controlled or constrained? 5. What goal would be just right and cause you to stretch just beyond your normal comfort level, but not put yourself into a state of resistance, stuckness, or terror? Define the specific goal that makes you feel excited and motivated. Notice the size and shape of the gap. 6. Develop a written action plan. Who will you be accountable to for your actions and progress? 7. Take the steps forward to close the gap and celebrate each win with a trusted friend, family member, or your coach. 8. What degree of energy, courage, resolve, and motivation do you need to stay with this goal? This is the same energy that your coaching clients will need to find, so make sure you know firsthand how it feels. (Location 976)

Move Clients Forward

• Assess whether a client is coachable. (When in doubt, review the well-tested Stages of Change model [Prochaska, Norcross, & DiClemente 1995], to determine who is ready for coaching, and who is not.) Clients who are not generally coachable fall into the the “precontemplation” stage (have no intention to make a change, just want to talk) or “contemplation” stage (a bit closer, may be ready to take action in 6 months). Coachable clients are generally in the “preparation” stage (have taken some small steps on their own toward their goal) or “action” stage (well into the process of changing overt behavior). (Location 990)

• Make requests at every session. The request is a powerful coaching tool. Be clear and firm with your request. Don’t be shy about asking for behavioral change. There are three possible request responses from a client: yes, no, and a counteroffer. Learn to accept all three gracefully, and if you get a response other than a yes, get the client to clarify the objections or counteroffer, and make another request that the client can agree to. (Location 994)

• Use accountability. The best accountability agreements embody the SMART acronym (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time oriented; Whitworth, Kinsey-House, & Sandahl, 1998). When clients are vague and unspecific about their goals, they can’t move forward into action. A clear structure and weekly accountability (even with a gentle “How’s it going?”) can work wonders toward motivation. (Location 998)

• When a client is coachable and the coach makes requests and uses accountability and requests, but goals are still not getting met, some coaches say that it’s time to take a look in the mirror. “Coaching begins at home,” one of the senior coaches we interviewed explains. To get others moving forward, you must be a pro at moving forward yourself. (Location 1001)

A great coach needs to be able to be tough and have an edge, make large requests, and hold firm to the greater vision to move clients forward. (Location 1020)

Exercise: Moving Forward

1. This week, pick one goal you procrastinate about and take action to complete it. 2. Feel resistant and distracted? Push past your mental and emotional blocks. 3. Notice your self-talk. What role does it play in your motivational ability? Find a “Just do it” voice of your own, to help you stay focused. Notice where you might have gotten offtrack in the past. Keep going until the goal is achieved. 4. Identify the self-talk and other inner resources you rely on to accelerate your motivation. 5. Determine how will you use this inner motivational ability with your clients. (Location 1023)

Stand in Abundance

Great coaches help their clients recognize an abundance of time, money, information, creativity, prospects, love, happiness, peace, and support. (Location 1032)

Exercise: Spotting Opportunities

Partnering with others in new ways Brainstorming about new business Networking just for fun Thinking bigger and bolder Reorganizing what I already have or do Reconnecting with old friends or referral sources Modeling a successful strategy of someone else and following through to make it my own Spending money to make more money Trying something brand-new in my business, just because I want to Taking a bold risk that resonates with my vision Doing something that no one else I know has tried Doing something that everyone else I know has tried Taking a class or a workshop that stretches my skills Completing everything on my to-do list within 1 week Saying yes to things I would normally reject Doubling my goals in my prep form for the month and accomplishing them all Going into unfamiliar situations just to experience novelty Creating a project, budgeting for the project, and carrying it out to completion (Location 1057)

Decide which opportunities to pursue this month and note the additional abundance that comes from taking action. (Location 1075)

The Value of Training as a Coach

What could training offer you? Most coach training organizations offer: • Coaching curriculum • Information on coaching skills and marketing a coaching business • Other resources (links to other organizations, reading material, licensing programs, assessments, additional courses once you have graduated) • Certification within their program, which can be used as part of your future ICF certification • A community of other coaches for professional support and business referrals • A safe environment where you can practice your coaching, and get feedback, meet mentor coaches, and gain confidence. (Location 1078)

When selling your coaching services, especially in the business world, your prior experience and track record probably matter more to potential clients than your certification in coach training ... To sustain a coaching practice and to see results with clients, however, your depth of training may become an essential factor. (Location 1085)

Part of most coach training programs is that you, the coach trainee, can be coached by a mentor coach. If you have not yet worked with a great coach yourself, it is hard to understand truly the value of coaching. (Location 1090)

Unfortunately, because schools vary widely in terms of curriculum, cost, time required, benefits, and trainers, and since most are privately held businesses, we could not find any published comparative review of the various coaching schools. This means that you are on your own to investigate schools and compare tuition, course offerings, and overall benefits. We suggest that you train with those schools that are ICF-accredited (or pending accreditation). (Location 1100)

Be a Model of Your Services

A coach is not a medical expert, or a boss who can tell others what to do without following one’s own advice. If your life is not working well, it’s going to be hard to sell your services as a life coach. (Location 1113)

Being a coach may require that you think about yourself as a standard-bearer. To have a successful coaching business, you ideally need to be: • continually passionate about your work • an articulate educator • a skillful master of your methods • highly collaborative • interested in building a larger vision • motivated and self-actualized • grounded in your desire to serve others • an entrepreneur who loves business • confident about what you have to offer to the world • self-aware, continuing to grow personally (Location 1123)

PART II DIFFERENTIATION

CHAPTER 4 Four Questions to Your Perfect Fit

Finding your specialty as a coach is the first step in building a successful coaching business. Your coaching specialty is part business decision, part a decision of the heart. It’s a contemplative process. (Location 1160)

utilize, and your passions. Deciding on your coaching specialty may be the most important step you take to differentiate yourself from the competition and, if done well, will also serve to connect you to the core of your coaching. Your specialty not only defines your scope of practice; it also helps you determine the marketing niche that will be your home base. (Location 1165)

Question #1. What Are the Previous Work and Life Experiences that You Want Your Coaching Practice to Feature? (Location 1172)

To determine how to utilize your prior work and life experience in your coaching specialty, begin by listing all past knowledge, expertise, and learning that feels important to your work as a coach. (Location 1176)

What experience in your past makes your coaching credible, reliable, and convincing today? (Location 1179)

What are the aspects of your work experience that make you the most proud, as you look back, or were the most personally satisfying? When did you feel best appreciated by others? Who did you help and how? (Location 1181)

Look at your past life experience as well. What roles have you taken on in life? What challenges have you faced and overcome? What have you learned that informs how you coach others? What have you achieved in your relationships and your personal life that are part of the value you have to offer others in your coaching? (Location 1182)

Exercise: Work/Life Experience (Location 1212)

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What is the previous work experience that you want your coaching practice to feature? (Location 1213)

What is the previous life experience that you want your coaching practice to feature? (Location 1215)

What do you love to do in your spare time? (Location 1217)

In what capacity do you volunteer your time? (Location 1219)

What have you always wanted to do in your life or work that you don’t get a chance to do now? (Location 1221)

At the end of your life, what is the legacy you hope to leave? (Location 1223)

What needs do you see in your local community or society at large that go unfilled? (Location 1225)

Question #2. Where Have You Achieved Excellence in Your Life?

To become a great coach, you need to specialize in such a way as to showcase your excellence. When and how have you achieved merit on a personal and professional level? What are you proudest of in your life and work? What obstacles did you have to fight to overcome, and how did you rise to the occasion? (Location 1227)

What have you learned to transform? What handicap or limitation have you overcome? Where do you shine in your life of work? Your accomplishments can be a signal of the gifts you have to offer to others. Incorporated into your coaching business. They can make your coaching business stand apart from the crowd. (Location 1243)

Exercise: Excellence (Location 1245)

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Where have you achieved excellence in your life? (Location 1246)

Where do you stand out from others in the work you do? (Location 1249)

What limitations or problems have you overcome in your life that inform your coaching today? (Location 1251)

What are you best known for among your friends and colleagues? (Location 1254)

What accomplishments or achievements come easiest to you in your life or work? (Location 1256)

What challenges do you enjoy the most? (Location 1259)

Question #3. What Skills and Strengths do You Possess that You Want to Use Every Day in Your Coaching?

Exercise: Skills and Strengths (Location 1279)

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What skills and strengths do you possess that you want to use every day? (Location 1280)

What positive traits about yourself do you observe that keep repeating in various situations over time? (Location 1283)

What skills and strengths do you value, in their own right, regardless of recognition by others? (Location 1285)

As you rethink a recent goal that you accomplished, what natural skills and strengths did you use to achieve it? (Location 1288)

What social or intellectual skills have helped you to develop into the person you are today? (Location 1291)

Question #4. What are You Passionate About in Your Life and Work?

Coaches ask their clients to define their passions during coaching sessions because passion is a motivator and an inherent fuel for change. You need passion in your coaching business, too. Being passionate about your coaching specialty will help you in at least three ways: (Location 1294)

• Attraction: Your passion and enthusiasm are your main calling cards for clients. When you are selling an intangible service, if you don’t feel enthusiastic, it is much more difficult to interest or attract a potential client. (Location 1296)

• Congruence: If you want to help others find their passion, you have to go first. You can’t ask coaching clients to behave or attempt behaviors that you yourself shy away from. You must be passionate, open to new learning, and willing to take risks in order to inspire passion in others. (Location 1298)

• Pragmatics: With enough passion, you won’t mind all the marketing, administration, and other tedious tasks that owning and operating your own business require. Passion is the small business owner’s daily fuel. Your day-to-day interest and excitement will help you through the normal ups and downs of building a coaching practice, year by year. (Location 1301)

Identifying, owning, and then embracing what you are passionate about is essential in your development as a person and as a coach. (Location 1322)

Exercise: Passion (Location 1326)

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What are you passionate about in your life? (Location 1327)

What are you passionate about in your work? (Location 1329)

What do you look forward to each day? (Location 1330)

What inspires you or excites you to take action? If money were no object, how would you love to spend your time? (Location 1332)

What is your description of a great day at work? (Location 1334)

Putting It All Together (Location 1336)

Based on your prior experience, your excellence, your strengths and skills, and your passion, what is the coaching specialty that fits for you? (Location 1337)

The concepts of specialty and niche are interconnected, but, like many marketing experts, we make a distinction between the two terms. Here’s the difference: Your specialty is the precise what of your coaching practice—what you do and offer as a coach (your expertise, skills, methods, tools, information, advice, services, products). Your niche is the narrow who of your coaching practice—who you coach, the identified client base for your coaching services, the target market from which the majority of your clients and referrals will emerge. (Location 1356)

For most coaches, the ability to determine your niche, your specific market and audience, is the difference between business viability and business failure. (Location 1365)

Here are your first three steps: • Target your market. • Segment your market. • Identify your ideal client. (Location 1366)

Target Your Market

By targeting your market you will achieve three key marketing objectives: • Focus • Research • Ownership (Location 1372)

Focus (Location 1375)

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By focusing clearly on a niche, you can tailor your coaching message so that it has maximum impact. (Location 1380)

Research (Location 1386)

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Too often, we see coaches determine a specialty based on what they like to do, not on what is needed by their market. They quickly become frustrated when they find that the service they think is such a good idea is not one that is wanted. (Location 1393)

Ownership (Location 1423)

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If you target a narrow market, you can be a big fish in a little pond. (Location 1424)

Competition is often a good sign for the coach. It means that there is work available in that market. (Location 1434)

Sometimes it’s good to follow the crowd. Just figure out a way to stand out in that crowd. (Location 1437)

Exercise: Narrow Your Niche

What is a precise and specific description of my target market? (Answer in one sentence.) (Location 1453)

How can I narrow this even further? (Location 1455)

What are the benefits and results I bring to this targeted clientele? (Location 1456)

Who have I actually interviewed or spoken to who represents this clientele? What did I learn regarding their needs and wants in terms of coaching? (Location 1458)

What organizations should I join that serve my targeted clientele? What print material and Internet sites appeal to them that I could be reading? What steps can I take to find out more about the interests, needs, and demands of this narrow market? (Location 1461)

Do I think this market, as described, is small enough for me to build a reputation via public speaking, networking, and other marketing efforts over the next year? (Location 1464)

If not, how can I narrow my description of this market further? (Location 1466)

Do I have the right credentials, coaching materials, and programs or services to move into this market now? If not, what are my next steps in this regard? (Location 1468)

Who is my current competition in this niche? (Location 1470)

Segment Your Market

Segmenting is a marketing term that means to take what you know about your market, based on conducting interviews, talking to intermediaries, your own prior experience, and any other data that you may have purchased, collected, or developed, and analyze it to get a clearer understanding of who your coaching clients are and where to find them. (Location 1473)

Here are some segmenting categories with examples: (Location 1482)

Exercise: Segment Your Market

Define your target market in one sentence. (Location 1509)

Qualify or segment your target market by the following factors: type, size, buying habits, and any other information you may have. (Location 1512)

Further analyze your target market based on their needs, buying habits, or location. (Location 1514)

Does this target market purchase similar coaching services already? Are your services in line with what they normally pay? How much disposable income does your market have for self-improvement? (Location 1517)

Does this market have a lasting need for the services you offer, or will it be a one-time purchase? (Location 1520)

What are the best ways for you to reach this market (advertising, networking, word of mouth, speaking at conferences, writing articles)? Does location factor into reaching this market? (Location 1523)

Ideal Coaching Clients

Develop a one-sentence, conversational definition of the specific clients you coach, those who are best suited to your style, value, and skills. Your ideal client profile details your niche, and then explains additional qualities, desires, needs, and wants of those you coach best. A good ideal client profile helps you talk confidently about the kind of client you love to work with and can make it easier for a referral source to understand who to refer, or for a new client to understand what to expect when working with you in a coaching relationship. (Location 1527)

After you finish the following exercise that helps you define an ideal client profile, share it with your referrals sources to help them have a better sense of who to refer. (Location 1543)

Exercise: Identify Your Ideal Coaching Client

My ideal client needs (Location 1549)

My ideal client desires (Location 1550)

My ideal client values (Location 1552)

My ideal client expects (Location 1553)

My ideal client agrees to (Location 1555)

My conversational definition of my ideal client is: (Location 1557)

Now check off every item that is true for you. Try to incorporate all of these into your practice over time. (Location 1558)

I can identify 10 ideal clients or 10 ideal organizations all within my target, segmented market at any given time. I can find an introduction to these clients, as well as contact information, so that I can communicate with them this month. These people or the organizations they represent have a strong need or desire for my product or service (which I know based on evidence other than my wishful thinking). The potential clients in this niche have the money to pay for what I’m offering and have purchased similar services in the past. (Location 1559)

Planning for Business

Too often coaches avoid having a written business plan because it seems too cumbersome, especially for a small business. Research shows that success comes to those who do develop and use a written plan. (Location 1567)

Consider this user-friendly business plan as an aid to promote more business comfort. Let it guide you any time you feel unsure of what to do next or feel overwhelmed. (Location 1570)

Business Overview

To understand the transition you are making or have made into coaching, consider that most coaches approach coaching as a second or third career. As a result, they set up a coaching business in one of the following three ways: • Integrate: Professionals that integrate coaching use their coach training to enhance their existing career, without redefining themselves as coaches. ... • Diversify: Professionals that diversify have two careers and often two businesses, one a coaching business. ... • Reorient: Professionals who reorient cease working at their previous job or career and transition to the role of coach. (Location 1579)

Exercise: My Business Identity

My coaching specialty: (Location 1646)

My niche market: (Location 1648)

My coaching services: (Location 1649)

How my services benefit my clients: (Location 1651)

Recent coaching successes: (Location 1653)

My ideal client profile: (Location 1654)

The needs my coaching addresses within the local market: (Location 1656)

What I contribute to society at large as a coach: (Location 1658)

Business Goals

CHAPTER 6 Attracting Ideal Clients

Marketing Mind-set

Exercise: Resolve Your Concerns About Marketing

Write your five most common worries or negative beliefs about marketing. (Location 1714)

Now refute each statement. Refuting means that you use your cognitive ability to contest or counter the negative belief, which is often based on fear or anxiety. (Location 1718)

My refutations: (Location 1724)

Top Eight Marketing Strategies

1. Getting referrals from existing or past clients 2. Getting referrals from other professionals 3. Giving paid seminars, presentations, and workshops 4. Offering a free coaching session 5. Networking at local organizations 6. Writing and publishing a book or newsletter 7. Giving free talks 8. Having a Web site (Location 1731)

Strategy #1. Getting Referrals from Existing or Past Clients

The best way to bring in a new client, according to the coaches surveyed, is to let satisfied clients spread the word about your coaching. (Location 1735)

Ask for Referrals (Location 1741)

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In this business model, accepted referral requests can include the following: “I prefer to fill any openings in my coaching business with referrals and welcome any recommendations you might make.” “My business is based on referrals. I appreciate any potential clients that you think I could assist.” “I only coach people who have been referred to me by someone I know and trust, and especially like to have this kind of referral relationship with existing and past clients.” (Location 1747)

Exercise: Referral Request (Location 1752)

Compose a statement regarding your preference for attracting clients via referral that you can deliver conversationally to others or use in your printed materials. (Location 1753)

Offer Evidence of Results (Location 1757)

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It’s easier for your clients to be enthusiastic about your services when they are clear about their results. Help your clients to articulate their gains. Use measures such as a pre- and post-test, or other assessments. Keep notes of your own with markers of improvement, so that you can help clients understand the effectiveness of your services and carry that message more easily to others. (Location 1759)

Exercise: Measuring Gains (Location 1762)

1. At the end of sessions, leave time to debrief. “What was most important in our session today? How specifically might you make it count in your life this week? Was there anything that happened that you don’t understand?” 2. Have a 3-month verbal progress update with clients to evaluate results and gains from that time period. 3. Have clients complete a written result survey or a post-test every few months. (Location 1764)

Encourage the Buzz Factor (Location 1768)

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Malcolm Gladwell (2002) looked at the business and social power that is inherent in the quantity, not quality, of relationships you can develop. The power comes not from the depth of your relationships, but from their sheer number. Using a series of studies, Gladwell showed that those individuals who know the most people, especially superficially, have a much greater chance to gain business success. The new definition of poverty is not deprivation, Gladwell concluded; it’s isolation. (Location 1770)

in order to increase the natural buzz factor from satisfied clients about your coaching services, create talking points. (Location 1790)

Talking points are the articulated benefits of your services, written by you and posted on your Web site and your printed materials. The benefits should spell out specifically how clients improve and what they tangibly accomplish from working with you. The talking points are the messages you want others to carry for you. To control that message, take time to craft your talking points. Then make sure the talking points are able to be seen. (Location 1791)

Strategy #2. Getting Referrals from Other Professionals (Location 1797)

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Have a Compelling Introduction (Location 1807)

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Being passionate about your work is the best way to become a great coach; knowing how to convey that passion through the spoken word is the best way to network. (Location 1808)

Every coach marketing course encourages people to have an “elevator introduction,” a 15-second verbal opening (Location 1809)

Exercise: Craft Your Elevator Introduction (Location 1824)

1. No more than three or four short sentences. This is an introduction and you are going to memorize it, so keep it brief and easy to remember and hold in your mind at all times. (Location 1825)

2. No jargon or “glaze over” terms. If you use coaching jargon or glaze-over terms (words that are confusing, technical, unspecific, or vague), your listener will get confused or lose focus. Let the introduction be specific and oriented to the real, tangible benefits of your coaching. (Location 1827)

3. Target only one aspect of your coaching. You may have a diverse set of skills, and more than one niche or specialty, but this is a short introduction. You simply can’t say it all. Target the aspect of your business that you want to build—an area where you want to generate referrals. Are you trying to fill a new coaching group or attract an ideal client type? You will have more impact if you let this introduction speak to just one component of what you do. (Location 1829)

4. Learn to love to say this introduction. The most important part of this introduction is learning to love to say it. The words are just a vehicle to express your underlying feelings and enthusiasm. Passion is attractive. (Location 1833)

Tell Appropriate Success Stories (Location 1839)

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To explain the benefits of your coaching services, use a well-crafted success story that clearly explains the benefits of your services. A success story is a short synopsis of a successful coaching case, structured so that it doesn’t violate client confidentiality. (Location 1840)

To create a success story, think about your five “best” cases. Omit all personal, identifying details and highlight the outcome. What tangible benefits did your client gain as a result of the coaching? Practice telling your success story out loud, so that you learn to use a conversational tone. Now you have… (Location 1842)

Network in Professional… (Location 1845)

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How do you meet intermediaries and professionals who may become referral sources? The easiest way is to… (Location 1845)

If you are a life coach and want to meet alternative health professionals (nutritionists, chiropractors, acupuncturists), find the professional organizations that they attend. If you are an attention deficit disorder (ADD) coach and want to meet teachers who can refer students,… (Location 1848)

Almost every profession has several societies or associations. Locate them, get on their mailing lists,… (Location 1851)

Develop a Follow-up… (Location 1852)

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You need continual contact with professionals in order to… (Location 1854)

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Each time you meet someone, plan a follow-up campaign to help all your… (Location 1855)

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Exercise: Follow-up… (Location 1856)

1. Draw three circles on paper arranged in a bull’s-eye pattern. 2. In the inner circle, write the names of professionals you already know personally, who currently refer clients to you. 3. In the middle circle, write the names of professionals you already know personally, who you wish referred to you, but currently don’t. 4. In the outer circle, write the… (Location 1857)

5. Inner and middle circles: Create a written plan to increase the contacts you have with people in both the inner and middle circles. Contacts can include: having lunch, sending a letter with an article that the professional might find interesting, making a phone call to say hello, sending an e-mail to check in, inviting the professional to a meeting or conference at your expense, inviting the professional to a social event. Plan to contact the inner and middle circle people on a regular basis and note the date and type of contact on a separate calendar. Minimum suggested contact is once every 6 months; maximum is once a quarter. 6. Outer circles: Find people who can arrange… (Location 1862)

Strategy #3. Giving Paid Seminars, Presentations,… (Location 1869)

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To interest a sponsoring organization in hiring you as a speaker, you may need to do some preparation and self-packaging. Research the organization and their membership so that you have a sense of the topics they want. Have a basic speaker packet prepared (a speaker sheet with your biography, picture of yourself, list of previous sponsoring organizations, popular topics of talks, and endorsements; an article you have published and… (Location 1873)

Start by approaching the organizations and ask if they hire outside speakers. Decide if you will offer to deliver: • a keynote speech (an opening speech that starts a meeting or conference and appeals to the whole membership), • a breakout talk (a briefer talk given during the course of the conference, usually an hour long, on a topic that may not appeal to the… (Location 1877)

The range for speaking varies greatly. Nonprofit organizations often have honorariums that of $500 and under for a keynote or hour-long address; larger associations pay from $500 to $4,000 for a keynote or 90-minute presentation; corporations generally pay in the $5,000 to $20,000 range for a workshop to keynote speech. You want to negotiate for additional… (Location 1883)

Exercise: Get Sponsored to Speak (Location 1897)

What are the 10 sponsoring organizations I want to target? (Location 1898)

Who can help me gain introduction to these organizations? How will I make my first contact—phone call, letter, face-to-face meeting? How will I follow up? (Location 1904)

What are the titles of talks or presentations that I have successfully given in the past? Do the titles need to be revised to be more interesting or targeted to the organization? If so, what are my new titles? (Location 1907)

Are my materials ready—speaker sheet with picture, biography, list of past presentations and sponsors, and selection of topics? Do my business card, brochure, and speaker sheet look professional and reflect my message? (Location 1910)

Can I arrange with the sponsor to speak on a regular basis to their organization? (Location 1912)

How will I capture the names and information of attendees for my mailing list? (Location 1914)

hat is the smallest number of people I am willing to speak to? The largest? What is my ideal number? (Location 1916)

What will I charge for this presentation? What is the minimum I will accept? (Location 1918)

How might I help the sponsor to promote this talk? (Location 1920)

Strategy #4. Offering a Free Coaching Session (Location 1922)

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potential clients get sold on coaching by being coached. (Location 1924)

What is the retention rate of free sessions? Our informal poll of 50 coaches revealed a 50% retention rate from free sessions. (Location 1925)

Free Coaching Session Format (Location 1926)

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Here is the format, step by step: First, prepare. Send out a form with some questions for your potential clients to fill out and return (no more than 10 questions) to help structure the session. The questions might include desired goals and important values. (Location 1928)

Then, structure. Divide the actual coaching session time into three equal parts (for a 1-hour session, figure 20 minutes per part). Spend the first part building rapport. Use any methods or skills you know to help potential clients feel comfortable. No matter what you talk about, your focus will be on building the relationship. (Location 1931)

Spend the second 20 minutes coaching. Be a good listener, ask challenging questions, and try out a few coaching interventions with the clients. Be unconditionally constructive. To give the session some forward thrust, see if you can help clients develop a mini-vision of what they want from coaching. Be true to yourself, so that you can find out if potential clients are right for you, not just that you are pleasing to the clients. (Location 1934)

Spend the final 20 minutes debriefing the session and planning for future sessions. Say: “Let’s debrief for a little while. What we have done is similar to a coaching session. How was this for you?” Listen and reflect back what you hear. If you like the client, ask for the business. Say, “I liked the coaching conversation we just had. I feel that I can help you with the following goals and desires you express, and I’d be glad to work with you. Shall we go forward with coaching?” Take control at this point, don’t be passive. Make clear suggestions about what you can offer. Then take a few minutes to clarify logistics. Review your fees, plan to send your client a policy sheet and a contract, get billing information, and schedule the next session. (Location 1937)

Finally, future-pace. End each free session with a quick action plan for the client. Say: “What steps will you take between now and the next time we talk? I’ll be looking forward to hearing about your progress.” (Location 1942)

Strategy #5. Networking at Local Organizations (Location 1944)

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First, pick organizations that target your niche. (Location 1947)

Then get on a committee, sit on a board, write for their magazines, speak at their conferences, become a delegate at their conventions, and use the time you spend in the organization to get better known within your niche. (Location 1951)

Strategy #6. Writing and Publishing a Newsletter (Location 1970)

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Strategy #7. Giving Free Talks (Location 1999)

Note: .h3

1. Create an authentic relationship with your audience: To enroll successfully, you have to be willing and able to coach right from the point of contact. (Location 2012)

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The primary motivation for people to hire a coach is because they have a gap between where they are right now and where they want to be. If you approach your presentation as a quick fix, you remove their primary motivation for hiring you and make the work of coaching seem superficial. (Location 2016)

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Be a coach. Take your audience seriously. Don’t rush the solutions. Ask questions. Listen carefully. Be the same coach you are during a coaching session. (Location 2019)

Note: .c3

2. Show what you do: (Location 2020)

Note: .c1

Great coaches offer the potential of something bigger than a quick fix for potential clients. They offer transformation, vision, and lasting change. (Location 2024)

Note: .c2

Don’t just lecture, teach, inform, or facilitate. Coach. (Location 2027)

Note: .c3

3. Bridge from the experience you create to your services: Don’t be passive and assume that people will hire you if they like your talk. Be an active marketer. (Location 2028)

Enrolling in Action (Location 2033)

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Strategy #8. Having a Web Site (Location 2075)

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Your Web site should be information rich (articles, tips, ideas, high-value reading), articulate (expresses your message well, clear sentences, no typos), and easy to navigate (links and pages that flow well). But above all, if it is a marketing tool, it needs to have direction. (Location 2077)

Direction means that you have an objective in mind when designing your Web site. Having an objective for a Web site is similar to what a mystery writer needs to do: figure out the ending of the book first, and then work backward to the first sentence of the book, so that the story leads the reader in a desired way, to the right conclusion. (Location 2079)

Having an objective for your Web site means knowing what you want your Web site readers to do, feel, or think before they leave your Web site. Possible objectives are: contact you; feel better informed; contact you for a coaching session; sign up for your teleclass; subscribe to your e-mail newsletter. Pick one objective and design each page around it. (Location 2082)

Be transparent in your Web site (Godin, 2002). Make it easy to find all the essential information to hire you—how to contact you, what to expect from working with you, what you charge, and any other pertinent details. Don’t be subtle or vague. Don’t hide information. Put it out there and let your ideal clients self-select you as their coach. (Location 2087)

Your Marketing Plan (Location 2101)

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The biggest obstacle coaches face when marketing is that they don’t take the time to create an actual written plan, with dates, times, a budget, a tickler or follow-up system, and external support. (Location 2109)

Exercise: 30-day Marketing Plan (Location 2112)

What are my objectives? (Location 2113)

Who do I need to contact and in what way? (Location 2116)

Do I need to join an organization? How will I do that? (Location 2118)

What materials do I need to prepare? (Location 2120)

How often will I follow up with each person? (Location 2122)

What will I do each week and each day? (Location 2125)

What is my budget for the month? (Location 2127)

Do I need to budget more time, money, energy, or support to make this happen? (Location 2129)

Goals for my monthly plan: (Location 2131)

PART III ENTREPRENEURSHIP (Location 2142)

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CHAPTER 7 The Coach as Entrepreneur (Location 2144)

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Strategic Information (Location 2166)

Note: .h3

Those who are successful in business seem to know a lot about their business or business in general. (Location 2166)

Exercise: Strategic Checklist (Location 2171)

Note: Create a checklist-page in Notion on this section

Develop an Entrepreneurial Mind-set (Location 2265)

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Developing a business mind-set means knowing how to think like a successful entrepreneur, by adopting an optimistic yet pragmatic attitude in order to make the right business decisions. (Location 2266)

Successful entrepreneurs tend to display the following six qualities in their thinking: (Location 2276)

• Given a set of challenges, successful entrepreneurs see opportunities. Coaches face particular challenges just from being in a profession that is not well understood by those who could benefit from its services. To deal with this, you need to see the opportunities inside each challenge and keep an optimistic yet pragmatic attitude. (Location 2277)

• Given a problem, successful entrepreneurs are both optimistic and pragmatic. Being a successful entrepreneur means that you can balance dream with reality. (Location 2280)

• Successful entrepreneurs expect a lot from themselves and others. (Location 2283)

• Successful entrepreneurs operate from a state of abundance. (Location 2289)

• Successful entrepreneurs are persistent. (Location 2292)

• Successful entrepreneurs enjoy making a profit. (Location 2296)

Exercise: Develop Your Business Mind-set Review the above list of six entrepreneurial qualities and answer the following questions: (Location 2298)

Which of the six qualities do I currently possess? (Location 2300)

How specifically do I demonstrate these qualities in my life and my business? (Location 2302)

Which of the six qualities do I need to develop? (Location 2304)

What is my first step? (Location 2305)

Professional and Peer Support (Location 2307)

Note: .h3

Having sufficient professional support is the cushion that makes owning and operating a business less of a burden on you, the business owner. (Location 2308)

If you operate in isolation, without input from colleagues who can listen and advise you, you are going about business the hard way. Instead, find others who can support you in constructively. Your professional support system will tend to fall into three areas: (Location 2309)

1. People you hire (Location 2312)

2. People you attract—peers, colleagues, friends, or family members with whom you may or may not actually do business, but who offer support, advice, coaching, and brainstorming. (Location 2319)

3. People you are attracted to—those mentors and models of excellence who you seek out so you can shift to a higher level of accomplishment or awareness. (Location 2326)

Exercise: Identifying My Support System (Location 2332)

People I hire and why: (Location 2334)

People I attract and why: (Location 2335)

People I am attracted to and why: (Location 2337)

Do I need more support system right now? (Location 2339)

Which areas do I need to increase and how will I do this? (Location 2340)

Advisory Circles (Location 2349)

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Exercise: Advisory Circles Follow this format to create your own advisory circle. (Location 2360)

1. Who: Select four to six people for your advisory circle, including yourself. (Location 2361)

Each person should be someone you respect, someone whose advice and experience will be relevant, and someone you would like to give your support to, in turn. When advising, everyone agrees to speak from a place of the highest good, without personal agenda. (For this reason, you may not want to have your spouse or close friends sit in on this professional support circle, unless you are sure you can both remain loving and objective for each other professionally.) (Location 2363)

2. When: If the group has six members, everyone agrees to meet once a week for a minimum of six weeks. Each meeting will take an hour. (Location 2369)

3. How: The format of each meeting is simple—a different person takes center stage each time. One person takes 30 minutes to present one’s professional situation and answers any questions other members may have; then the group gives their best advice for the remaining 30 minutes. During the advice-giving 30 minutes, the center-stage person must sit quietly, without defensiveness. The members of your circle will now give you advice, direction, and suggestions, based on wanting the best for you personally and professionally. (Location 2372)

4.Why: The value of advice is hearing it cleanly, with detachment. You will hear many ideas that you may want to downplay or resist. Listen with an open mind and reject nothing at this time. Take notes. You are free to accept or reject whatever you like later, but first consider all the possibilities without excuses or explanations. When the time is over, thank your circle for their efforts. The next time you meet, it’s somebody else’s turn and you become part of their advisory circle. (Location 2378)

5. How long: Keep the circle meeting as long as it is useful to the group. (Location 2383)

Loving the Business (Location 2389)

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You may not have thought about what it would require to actually love your business, so we can help you along this path by suggesting that you adopt three simple premises. Premises are not necessarily truths, but rather strong suggestions about reality. We suggest you adopt these premises, as though they were true, in order to be successful in business by learning to love it. The premises are as follows: (Location 2391)

1. You are not your business. You may be a sole proprietor and feel like you are the sum total of your business, but I strongly suggest you see your business as a separate entity. A major cause of hating business comes from overidentifying with your small business. (Location 2394)

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Think of it as a child you birthed who has a lot of you in it, but is not you. Your business has its own needs, its own nature, its own moods, and as a good parent or good business owner, it’s your job to give your business what it requires to thrive. (Location 2397)

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2. Your business is an accurate reflection of your strengths and weaknesses. Even though you are not your business, your business will mirror certain aspects of your personality accurately. (Location 2400)

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Recognizing that your business is a good reflection of you means that when you want to make a change in your business, you may be able to effect this change more easily by making it in yourself first and then seeing it reflect in your business. (Location 2404)

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3. All actions you take in business are fear-based or love-based. (Location 2406)

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Every time you take a business action based on fear, you literally foreclose on your ability to feel affection and love for your business. (Location 2409)

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Every time you take action in regard to your practice, see if you can do it from a basis of love—love of self, love of others, love of your business, or love of the profession of coaching. (Location 2417)

Note: .c3

When you can give your business what it needs while not taking those needs personally, when you are willing to change yourself in order to make a change in your business, when you can take actions based strictly on having a positive regard for your business you will learn to enjoy the ride of business and be positioned for success. (Location 2419)

Resilience (Location 2422)

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Creating and maintaining a highly successful coaching practice requires persistence and a healthy dose of resilience. You must be able to bounce back quickly from setbacks, ready to try again the next day. And the next. And the next. (Location 2422)

Here are two strategies recommended by a sailor friend, which we offer as a metaphor for your business buoyancy: (Location 2428)

1. Become seaworthy: (Location 2429)

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When you hit rough water, it’s best to have less to attend to. Getting uncluttered mentally and physically in the face of business turmoil makes good common sense. (Location 2430)

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2. Heave to: (Location 2436)

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We take this to mean that when you are in the rough seas in business (or life), you slow down a bit, focus tightly on your goals, but anticipate and tolerate some drift. You will go off course and it may feel like you are wandering about, but as long as this drift is expected and you are still focused on your goals, you will be safely moving forward. (Location 2440)

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Exercise: Developing Resilience (Location 2459)

To become more mentally seaworthy and clear my mind, I will take the following actions each day: (Location 2461)

To become more physically seaworthy and clear my space, I will take the following steps: (Location 2463)

To set course and hold my position despite rough waters, my statement of direction is: (Location 2465)

My tracking mechanism to make sure I am on course will be: (Location 2467)

CHAPTER 8 Business and Your Emotional Intelligence (Location 2473)

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(Emotional intelligence refers to the concept of multiple forms of intelligence, as defined by researcher Daniel Goleman [1997], that shows that our emotions are part of the necessary data we need for making good decisions.) You will need all of your emotional business intelligence in order to make sound decisions about the present and future of your coaching business. (Location 2486)

An emotionally intelligent way to operate in a coaching business is to anticipate a range of normal (including negative) feelings that are natural for a business owner to experience. If you know what may occur emotionally, then you can prepare yourself so that when the emotions emerge, you can use them productively. (Location 2488)

The first step is to reframe every emotional upset during the course of doing business as a potential AFGO (another freaking growth opportunity). (Location 2493)

Letting Business Heal You (Location 2494)

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Sondra Ray (1980), personal growth guru from the 1970s and author of Loving Relationships, noted a difficult paradox about love. Although most people have an idealistic view of how love should be, Ray found that when one is actually in an intimate, loving relationship, the day-to-day process of love feels pretty muddled. Being in love feels wonderful and horrible because it brings to light all of one’s unresolved issues and insecurities, all the unloving thoughts and feelings we have about ourselves and others. (Location 2495)

That same paradox occurs to us when we talk to coaches about their feelings regarding business. The day-to-day process of closely relating to your business will bring up everything—irrational thoughts, deeply held negative beliefs, areas of your vulnerability—everything and anything unlike the cool, rational, businesslike attitude you would want to embody, for the purpose of your healing. (Location 2499)

Small-business ownership is an intense learning environment. If you started your own business thinking it would offer you autonomy, a degree of self-esteem, and freedom, you are right, it will … except when it doesn’t! In the course of building and operating a business, your business may also provoke a series of (sometimes irrational) feelings of anger, fear, disappointment, anxiety, constraint, and, occasionally, failure. On a spiritual level, you might understand the emotional process that small business ownership provokes as one of purification: like a boiling pot of water, your business will stir up any aspects of your personality that are immature and unresolved and bring them up to the surface of your conscious awareness for you to deal with. You get a choice when this happens. You can learn how to accept the difficult feelings and release them, like steam, for purification or renewal, or they can float on the surface, creating ambiguity inside you and clogging the daily workings of your business. (Location 2502)

Being in business takes courage. It is not for the fainthearted. Business will allow you to mature psychologically and move forward, or it can emotionally bankrupt you. (Location 2509)

Sometimes we tell coaches that to let this maturing process of business play out, all they need to do is “stop working so hard on your business, and let the business do its work on you.” What we mean by this is if you can accept and resolve the ways in which your fear, disappointment, or anxiety plays out as you go about the process of building your coaching business, you can use this heightened capacity to become a better entrepreneur. (Location 2510)

To let the business work on you, start by noticing any business challenges you currently face and get curious about their deeper, emotional source. Here is a list of common business situations we have gathered from coaches we mentor, and the difficult emotion or negative belief that they say contributes to each challenge: (Location 2513)

Business Challenges Emotional Source or Negative Belief Not enough clients Fear of putting self forward Invoices in disarray; slow to bill Negative beliefs about money Goes over the session hour; lateness Poor personal boundaries Charges under going rate Low self-worth Gossips about colleagues or clients Envy and insecurity about self Takes on too many volunteer projects Not ready to get serious about vision Business in constant crisis Uses adrenaline as fuel Business vision limited Afraid to succeed (Location 2517)

Exercise: Heal Your Business, Heal Yourself (Location 2524)

1. Make a list of your business challenges and the emotional source or negative belief that contributes to the problem. 2. If you have trouble figuring out your source issues, brainstorm with others. Stay open to what you hear. Don’t defend. Just see if the possible source resonates for you, and write it down. 3. Pick two internal source issues to address and correct this month. Heal the source issue, and often you will find that the business situation resolves much more easily. Let your business be a healing force in both your coaching business and your personal development. (Location 2526)

Anger (Location 2535)

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When business gets you down, you can blame others and feel secretly sorry for yourself, or you be a savvy entrepreneur and reduce anger by right action, a Buddhist term that means taking constructive action in a particular way that is an antidote for anger. (Location 2541)

Right Action (Location 2543)

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The right action approach for managing business anger is twofold: 1) Address feelings of anger by taking constructive action. 2) Express gratitude daily. (Location 2553)

Disappointment

If you take the ups and downs of business personally, you will feel weary and burned out. (Location 2576)

Building a full coaching practice takes most coaches several years. Your capacity to stay proactive, positive, and upbeat in the face of inevitable disappointment will be a bellwether of your entrepreneurial success. (Location 2584)

Keeping disappointment in perspective as an ordinary, expected feeling that results from trying to generate business is step number one. (Location 2588)

The antidote for disappointment is optimism, and one good way to effect an optimistic state is by using entrepreneurial self-talk. (Location 2592)

Entrepreneurial Self-talk (Location 2593)

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To recognize and contain your feelings of disappointment so that they don’t snowball into helplessness, you need to have an internal business voice, a way of talking to yourself about business that is positive, clear, and logical. (Location 2593)

Every coach in business needs ego strength. Your ability to use positive, realistic self-talk can build ego strength and allow you to learn from your mistakes, instead of collapsing into negative beliefs about yourself or about your world (Location 2619)

Anxiety

Calming Yourself (Location 2631)

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Calming Your Business (Location 2687)

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Stages of Client Connection Stage #1: Loyalty—During the first 3 months, you help clients to establish an initial bond with you, so that they feel trusting, in good professional hands, as the process of coaching unfolds. They develop a degree of loyalty to you and to your coaching process, based on a combination of how you connect with them and the initial results of the coaching. Stage #2: Advocacy—During the second 3 months, clients feel that you “have their back” and offer enough support to them and their goals that allows them to distance a bit. This stage requires a looser connection between coach and client, as you transfer the ownership of results to the client. Stage #3: Enthusiasm—From 6 months to the end of coaching, clients differentiate further, recognize and generate their own goals and gains, and, in articulating these gains, want to share their positive experience about coaching with others. (Location 2707)

Loyalty (Location 2716)

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The coach must be available, reliable, and attentive, without being too anxious or overprotective. When a healthy connection is in place, the client bonds in a healthy way with the coach and develops a sense of loyalty to the coaching process (trust for the coach, reliance on the usefulness of the coaching sessions, appreciation of the accountability factor), which fosters initial client retention. (Location 2717)

To enhance Stage #1: Stay open and curious about your client’s requests and desires. Don’t assume or prejudge what you hear. Don’t rush in with ways to “fix” the client: nothing is broken. (Location 2723)

Advocacy (Location 2727)

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After working with a coach for a while, clients seek a more individuated level of connection. The client is less vulnerable or dependent and, while wanting support from the coach, needs to own the coaching process, to feel increasingly confident of new skills and behaviors imparted through the coaching relationship. Clients at this stage need to leave and return, either metaphorically (challenging the coach, disagreeing with strategy, generating more of their own ideas) or literally (taking a break). The coach who can anticipate and gracefully promote this stage of differentiation with a client is rewarded by the client’s feelings of advocacy. (Location 2727)

Enthusiasm (Location 2741)

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As coaching concludes the first year, the client connection shifts yet again. Clients are more autonomous. Many still desire a coaching connection, but of a slightly different nature. The coaching relationship becomes a home base—a place to leave (again metaphorically or literally) for periods of time, yet one to return to for welcome and consistency. (Location 2741)

To enhance Stage #3: Make sure to add continual value to the coaching relationship, to help clients feel that the coaching environment is rich and ongoing. (Location 2750)

Adapt any and all new methods you may be learning, books you read, what you learn from your own mentor coaching, articles you write or collect, audiotapes, additional ideas, or even extra contact with you the coach. (Location 2753)

The key to adding value is to use a plan. Add services gradually, perhaps one new service every 4–6 months. (Location 2755)

Good Endings

Ideally, when clients finish their coaching, and the coaching went well, you want to leave the door open, so that when and if they desire to work with you again they can comfortably return. Businesses call this creating “lifetime” customers—customers who will stay with a company over the long term, repeatedly purchasing services and products, coming and going as need be. (Location 2806)

CHAPTER 9 Why Good Coaches Go Broke

CHAPTER 10 Staying Safe and Legal

Best Business Practices

Your clients need to know, ahead of time, what coaching is and is not; how to get their money’s worth from the coaching experience; and all the rules and policies that make for an optimal coaching experience. Here are four guidelines for best business practices: (Location 3277)

Don’t Overpromise Results (Location 3279)

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Underpromise, and then overdeliver. Offer only what you are sure you can provide. (Location 3286)

Her Web site stated: “By hiring me as your coach, you can expect to: • gain clarity about the challenges you face in your life and work • set goals that reflect the time you have taken to think them through • have my enthusiastic support to help motivate you • receive constructive feedback from me to further your agenda • know that I am checking on your progress weekly, holding you accountable for your progress, and celebrating with you when you reach your goals.” (Location 3295)

Note: Website copywriting inspo

Don’t Take on Multiple Roles (Location 3301)

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To lessen your risk, stay with one role. Be your client’s coach. Don’t take on conflicting functions, such as being both coach and close friend, or coach and psychotherapist, to the same client. (Location 3301)

Document Your Coaching Sessions (Location 3323)

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Create a system that allows you to take notes on each session easily. (Location 3327)

Maintain Straightforward Payment Policies (Location 3336)

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Follow accepted billing and accounting procedures. Don’t barter or slide your fee without giving this careful thought and talking to a mentor coach. Set a fee that you feel is fair and competitive within your niche and stick with it. Need some flexibility with clients? Package your services so that you can offer product and a range of fee options, not just one hourly rate. Don’t find yourself in a conflict-of-interest situation by having any financial dealings with your client other than selling coaching services and related products. (Location 3341)

Ethical Standards

PART IV PROFILES IN COACHING

CHAPTER 11 Executive and Leadership Coaching

CHAPTER 15 Life Coaching

Life coaching appeals to clients who consider themselves lifelong learners and are interested in self-actualization. (Location 4195)

Life coaching can be the most challenging coaching specialty for the coach. Because the topic of discussion is the client’s personal life, not business, life coaching comes close to mirroring therapy. The coach must be cognizant of the distinctions between therapy and coaching (Location 4200)

Although the topics of life coaching may touch on some of those that arise in psychotherapy, life coaches stay focused on present-day, here-and-now behavioral goals and actions. They work with “coachable” clients who use the coaching process to create tangible results. They don’t delve into historic complex issues or process difficult feelings. (Location 4202)

Most new businesses take 3 years before they show a profit. (Location 2842)

Reconcile Profit and Service

• Separate the caring and affection you may have for your coaching clients from your skills, recognizing that you charge for the skills, not the caring. • Sell specific, concrete coaching services with measurable results, not intangible or invisible services (such as long-term coaching conversations without ways to evaluate direct outcomes). • Think in terms of the time and value you provide that keeps working even when the coaching stops. • Be mindful of the viability of your business (if your business doesn’t make a profit you will no longer be able to provide services to anyone). (Location 2864)

Money Maturity

Your Coaching Fee

According to the 2003 ICF survey, the average fee charged by all coaches is in the range of $100–$200 per hour. (Location 3055)

With such a wide range in fees, your fee for coaching services should reflect three criteria: • Your business plan (make sure that your coaching fee is geared to your business vision and goals for the year, so it is grounded in your best projective thinking) • Current market information (know who is charging what and why, so that your fees are in line with other coaches who offer similar services or products) • The perceived value of your services (know what coaching services are highly valued by your target market and why, so that you can raise the perceived value of what you have to offer) (Location 3071)

Exercise: Setting Your Fee (Location 3077)

Raising Your Fee

Exercise: Raising Your Fee (Location 3093)

The International Coach Federation (ICF), the major professional association of coaching, maintains a standard of ethical conduct that each coach needs to read and follow. You can read the complete ethical code at www.coachfederation.org. (Location 3357)

In brief, the code addresses your need, as a coach, to: • honor coaching agreements and confidentiality • respect the creative and written work of others in developing your own materials • not overstate your coaching qualifications, expertise, training, or experience • not intentionally mislead or make false claims about the coaching process • not give clients misleading information or advice beyond your level of competence • encourage clients to seek other resources when they stop benefiting from your services • avoid conflicts of interest but openly disclose potential or existing conflicts of interest when they occur • disclose with a client any compensation from third parties that you may receive for referrals (Location 3359)

Dual Relationships

Dual relationships occur when a relationship with someone has more than one role or interest. Mike Brickey explained that when coaches offer services, they need to be particularly conscientious that dual relationships do not exploit or disadvantage the client (Brickey, 2002). (Location 3382)

Since the majority of coaching clients come through referrals, it’s likely that the coach may have some degree of acquaintance, friendship, or prior association with a client, even before the coaching begins. (Location 3389)

• Keep coaching structured and time limited. The easiest way to make a case for coaching within a dual relationship is if the coaching offered is highly technical, specific, niched, and time-limited, with measurable goals and objectives. • When in doubt, get supervision or mentoring. If the relationship with your client feels complex, it probably is. ... • Be open and transparent about potential conflicts with your clients. ... • Don’t let romance enter into the relationship. (Location 3393)

Confidentiality Conflicts

The ICF ethics code defines confidentiality as: • Respecting the confidentiality of client information, except as otherwise authorized by the client, or as required by law. • Obtaining agreement with clients before releasing their names as clients or references or any other client-identifying information. • Obtaining agreement with the person being coached before releasing information to another person compensating the coach. (Location 3406)

Social scientists believe that we are genetically engineered to gossip for important reasons: in a tribal culture, gossip helped us survive by providing social networking, influence within the tribe, and affiliation with those in power. (Location 3422)

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Note: .s Dont gossip even if youre naturally inclined to

Endorsement Concerns

Coachville recommends coaches not to ask for endorsements from prior clients, saying that endorsements send a signal to new clients of the expectation that a coach may have to use the new client for future promotion. We think that this recommendation has merit and suggest that coaches limit endorsements to those of a corporate, business, or organizational nature, and maintain anonymity for personal coaching clients, to protect confidentiality. (Location 3436)

Coaching Agreements

A coaching contract or agreement is your best chance at protecting yourself, by clarifying what you offer and what clients can expect. The more transparent you make the process of coaching for clients—your services, role, objectives, goals, timetables, policies, and procedures—the less likely you are to encounter client misunderstandings, unhappiness, and lawsuits. (Location 3457)

we suggest that your personal coaching agreement include eight specific sections. (Location 3465)

1. Services: Your services need to include a precise definition of what you do as a coach, your coaching model, and an explanation of what a coach is and is not. (Location 3466)

2. Payment Procedure: Define your payment and fee schedule clearly and specifically. (Location 3473)

3. Cancellations: Cancelled or missed sessions are a reality of any ongoing coaching relationship. You must define your policy for cancelled sessions, by you or by your client. (Location 3476)

4. Termination: Good endings make complete good coaching and open the door for possible referrals. Think through how you want to help your clients end well. (Location 3481)

5. Confidentiality: Define what you provide and guarantee in this regard. (Location 3485)

6. Definition of Coaching and Psychotherapy: Clarify the difference between coaching and psychotherapy for clients, to ensure that your services will be understood as coaching, not counseling. (Location 3493)

7. Nondisclosure and Intellectual Property: Define mutual protection for yourself and your client, regarding shared information, methods, or materials. (Location 3500)

8. Hold Harmless Provision: Include a clause that prevents clients from seeking compensation from coaches if the coaching goes badly, to help inform your client about the shared responsibility of coaching. (Location 3504)

Life coaches help clients define a life vision and set goals, prompt their clients to action, hold clients responsible for weekly progress with accountability, challenge their setbacks, and cheer on their successes. (Location 4208)

The best life coaches are models of their services. They present an example of a well-lived life. This pushes life coaches to look at all areas of their own lives and make sure they set an example of integrity, happiness, and responsibility. (Location 4211)

Life coaching conversations need structure, and coaches must be discriminating about their coaching process, by using a method of coaching based on accepted coaching standards and having some form of ongoing coaching supervision in place (that is, they are continually getting coached themselves or are part of a peer coaching mentoring group). (Location 4212)

According to the recent coaching surveys, life coaches charge less than executive or business coaches. The average fee is $70–$125 per hour, although some senior life coaches charge $175 per hour. (Location 4223)

Most life coaches work with clients in individual sessions, in person, or by phone, on a weekly or biweekly basis. A few also offer coaching classes for small groups; some give workshops. (Location 4224)

Kathy has advice for those who are thinking about becoming life coaches. She suggests that new coaches recognize that it is very difficult to coach a person to take steps to change the “familiar unhappiness” that we all can live in. Life coaches need to be patient. A typical coaching client may need 4–6 months to see deep, lasting lifestyle changes. Positive results come from clients taking action, so that they move away from a lifestyle that isn’t working. (Location 4294)