Working With A Life Coach

Exactly which role your life coach will play will depend upon you. You determine what you want to accomplish. You decide where you want to go, and possibly even how you want to get there. Your coach will be there to help you achieve that.

If it's goal setting you have a problem with, you'll get help with that. If it's motivation or overcoming procrastination, you'll get a kick in the pants when you need it. If it's figuring out your best strategy, you'll get help with that too.

Below are a number of types of life coaches, or more accurately, areas of focus and the roles they may play, and some detail on what each type of coaching involves.

Motivation Coach
Feeling inspired and getting motivated on a daily basis can be difficult. Sometimes, everyday life gets in the way of progress. Often, we truly cannot see the forest for the trees. As your Motivator in Chief, that's where a coach comes in to help you focus, get inspired, and stay motivated.

Personal Development Coaching
The personal development coach role is broader in scope and elements of this role are present in every type of coaching. In fact, life coaching can be said to be all about personal development and growth.

Typical areas of focus including personal inspiration, motivation, personal responsibility, and breaking down barriers to success. Coaches work with clients to eliminate old behavior patterns that tend to produce less than stellar results. In short, they help accelerate positive results!

Executive Coach
Executive coaching is a common subset of the life coach field. Executive coaching deals specifically with the challenges faced by the fast paced and often fragmented schedules of corporate executives. Sessions are done either one on one, or in a group setting (usually paid for by the company). Many executives who have taken this type of "training" will report gains in excess of 10 times what the coaching cost their companies.

Small Business Coach
Another common area of focus is for small business owners. This is either for people who just getting a business off the ground and need a business plan, or for those already in business who need a kick in the pants to bring things to a higher level. Sometimes, just organizing your life and taking charge and can dramatically improve the health of a small business. People often forget that they are a business owner, and not just a worker who happens to own a business.

Career Coach
The same types of goal setting techniques, strategies, and steps used to succeed in business can be applied to a career. Some turn to a coach to help them get ahead in their career. Others are looking to make a change in careers and need guidance and support. Still others are stuck in jobs they don't like or that don't pay enough. They want to break into a new career or start a business but aren't sure what will suit them best. Or, perhaps they lack the confidence to make a change.

Relationship Coach
Whether it's dealing with bosses, employees, or family members, coaches often work with people in the capacity of a relationship coach. People getting married, going through breakups such as a divorce, or those going out in the dating world again can benefit from this type of coaching. Again, the coach works with the client to focus on personal responsibility and getting one's own house in order.

Ready to work with a life coach?

Many coaches will offer a free coaching session from time to time so that you can get a feel for how they go about things. This allows you to not only try out coaching to see if you are ready for it, but also to try out the individual coach and see if you "get" their style or not.

Dawn Abraham, a certified life coach, offers a sample life coaching session. Fill out the form on Dawn's website to get started.

So what does a coach do?

What does a coach do for you? Essentially, your coach is there to inspire and motivate you to do better and achieve more, in a specific way. Typically, you choose the areas that you want to work on (objectives), and your coach works with you to bring about change.

Life coaches provide a level of accountability that normally does not exist in most of our lives. When someone is counting on you to succeed, you will be much more apt to be inspired to do so!

Coaches often work with the majority of their clients by phone. Most life coaches will establish a monthly routine with you that includes several phone sessions ranging from a half hour on up, and "pep-talk" type calls that are usually 10 to 15 minutes as needed.

While not all coaches work quite the same way, some combination of long and short phone sessions are usually common. You are given not only theory, but real world examples, and exercises and "homework" to do that raise your skill levels. Your life coach will take you step by step to the next level of achievement.

Rarely, you would meet in person with your coach one on one. Depending on the reputation and track record of the coach, these one on one sessions can be very expensive. Many coaches will do group sessions in person or on the phone, and some are called to appear as motivational speakers at larger venues.

Tony Robbins has a great "life coach in a box" type program that you can do at home on your own. It's the Personal Power II audio series. Another word of caution here! Working with a coach over the phone or in person has a level of accountability to it. Here, you'll have to make sure that you follow through on your own.

Note: Keep in mind that most people who buy books and courses of this nature either never take the course, or never act on it! Don't be one of those people! Action will always set you apart from the crowd every time! I've taken this course and followed through with spectacular results, and I highly recommend it... if you're ready to be your own life coach at home.

Some folks who have been successfully coached end up pursuing a career as a coach themselves. If this intrigues you, you might want to have a look at David Wood's system for developing a coaching career. So, who knows? If you like being coached, you may love coaching!

So, if you're in need of a change, or ready for a change... or if changes have happened to you that you didn't expect... get a life coach! The greatest, most highly respected and highest paid athletes in the world have coaches, why don't you?!

For more insight on what coaches do, have a look at my email interview with certified life coach Dawn Abraham.

New! Comments