This newsletter is intended to bring you thought provoking ideas related to coaching, whether you are a coach, thinking of becoming a coach or work with a coach, there will be something for you.

Your contributions will make this a truly interactive journal, a place for you to share your ideas.

• Coaching explosion

• Gaining support

• Christmas cheer

• New Year and goal setting

• Have your say

• Solutions

• Events Calendar

If you would like to contribute in any way or let others know what is going on then please contact Christina on 0118 979 0677

Coaching Explosion

Over the last 5 years I have wondered if the world has changed into a coach training paradise. I have heard that in the U.K. alone 6000 new coaches are being trained each year, there has been an explosion of coach training organisations and the coaching community has grown as a result.

With a population in the U.K. of 6 million it will take a long time train enough coaches to work with everyone who wants a coach.

I am not at all sure what has brought about this sudden rush of people wanting to help others to grow and develop, and I must admit that I like the idea of people becoming more self aware and interested in taking charge of their future, it seems very empowering and will be of great value to the world.

Where I become concerned however is the dreams and hopes that people are being promised and the disappointment that has quite often ensued when they are unable to build a business that generates sufficient work and income.

What therefore can people who have been in this profession for many years offer as support and wisdom to anyone wanting to retrain or take up a career as a coach. How can we help people to be realistic about the process of building a business that will generate enough income whilst helping the new coaches to gain in experience and confidence during those tough times.

Since 1983 I have been offering my services and facilitating change both in the corporate and personal world and I have not always found it easy to find enough clients avoid the ups and downs of selling a service rather than a product. I seem either to have had so much work that people had to wait three months to see me followed by times of famine, and I have had to learn to deal with this over the years.

How I would have valued someone to guide me who had overcome the difficulties I faced and that is what I would like this journal to offer.
How can we as established coaches and those finding their place in the world work together and share experiences.

Will newly qualified coaches to-day find life much easier because coaching has become port of our every day world? Will they learn about marketing and join up with others to create successful businesses or will they also find that there are times of feast and times of famine. It is my hope that with good media coverage, many of them will have a rewarding career and help start the creating of a world that is changing and empowering people to take charge of their destiny.

In a short while there will be much more stringent regulations about what level of training will be required for someone to call themselves a coach, especially one that is working with internal change.

It will mean also that if coaches are really interested and keen to make this a profession that is taken seriously then there will need to be structures and ethical principles that are agreed and adhered too.

Supervision will probably become an accepted method of continuing professional and personal development.
 

Where do you as a Coach get your support?

It is quite surprising to me that little is said or mentioned about support or supervision in the coaching profession, although the Association for Coaching is now accrediting coaches and those who are accredited agree to have regular supervision.

Many coaches have little understanding about the purpose of supervision and therefore never think that it is something they could benefit from.

They may have little understanding about how supervision can be helpful on many levels. Firstly having someone who will help with gaining understanding about what might be going on for a client at a deeper level is very supportive.

The role of the supervisor is to support and challenge practice, it is to help with gaining professional development by being objective and a witness to what is going on in the coaching relationship.

Supervision will help raise awareness to blind spots and areas that are being overlooked because being in the coaching relationship sometimes means getting drawn into the clients issues and therefore becoming part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Having had supervision for most of the time I have been coaching I find the time and money spent has been worth the effort.

I know that if there is a client who is not progressing as I would have hoped a talk with my supervisor will help me to think of things in a new and different way, it may even give me confidence to try out something which I would not have naturally thought of.

Supervision stops me getting into a rut of doing things in the same way, but most importantly it is a check and balance mechanism which means I don’t feel I am out there doing it alone, it means I feel as though I have someone to turn too who will be beside me and guide me during those difficult issues and for that I am always grateful.

Although for many coaches they may feel that supervision is un-necessary I would challenge you to try it out and see what you get form it, test out the water and you may be surprised just how valuable you will find the experience.

Even coaches, who have been working in the field for many years, have reported that getting a supervisor was one of the best choices they have made in years.
 

Christmas Cheer

Are you all geared up and ready?

One of the things I still miss at Christmas time is the dreaded office party, that time when people get too drunk to remember what they have said, but everyone else does. Apparently Xerox are making thicker glass on their photocopiers to take the weight of various heavy parts of peoples anatomy that are shared with the rest of the party goers.

What I have missed for some years now is the getting together of people I may not have seen for many months and catching up with what has been happening in their world.

I have recently joined several networking groups, not because I think this will bring me some work, but because I want company of people who are also people who have similar areas of interest.

The bonus to these activities is the invitations I have received (and accepted) to several Christmas lunches so I will have to be careful not to overindulge so much that I need the assistance of a health and fitness coach in the New Year.

To keep yourself from becoming too isolated make sure you take this opportunity to celebrate your success and share your experiences with others who may be just like you.

New Year and setting goals

Looking ahead to 2006

Think about what you want to achieve in 2006, what do you need to do to achieve the goals you are about to set yourself?

Review 2005 and see what you have learnt from your experiences.

If we spend all out time trying to help others to get their life in order and forgetting to help ourselves or asking someone else to assist us on our journey are we engaging in as much development as we need to, to make sure that we are doing the best we can for our clients. It is rare that a year goes by without some new issue raising its head to be looked at with the helping eye of a trusted practitioner.

Perhaps there are some goals that you would still like to achieve and you could get the support of someone just like you.

Have Your Say:

This is the first journal I have written and I am sure I will get better at it as the time goes on. I would like this to be a question and answer newsletter which has contributions and questions from you the readers, so please contact me with any thoughts, any questions, even any courses or offerings you would like to make or advertise here, it is currently free, however if the workload gets too big then that might change.

Please send in your questions, you stories or anything you think would be of interest to other people. I am particularly interested in courses you are taking that you think would benefit others.

Coaching Solutions

Dr. Delia your Coaching Agony Aunt will help you to find solutions to any issues related to coaching. She has a team of highly trained individuals who will assist with: Marketing, Training, Clients, and Personal Development, anything that is getting in the way of your practice. A bit like supervision on line.

Events Calendar

If you want to add any of your events on this calendar
 

Contact

Christina Bachini on 0118 979 0677
Email: cb@my-coach.org
Web: www.lifebalancebydesign.co.uk

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