What is coaching?
What are the benefits of coaching?
How do you know if coaching is right for you?
What are some of the typical reasons people come to coaching?
What has caused the tremendous growth in the coaching industry?
How long does a coach work with you?

What is coaching?
Coaching is a partnership with you that involves active listening in a thought-provoking, non-judgemental and creative environment. It is also important that you feel safe so that you can express your thoughts freely.  Unlike counselling, coaching is a forward-looking process that reviews where you today, how you want to design your future with the resources you have available and then between us we create a plan to achieve it.  This approach works well for emotional, personal and profession goals.

What are the benefits of coaching?
Coaching gives you the chance to enjoy the following benefits: 

• you'll get new perspectives on your personal challenges
• you'll identify more options to make the changes you need to make
• your coach will challege you to move beyond your current thinking to create new ways of looking at old issues
• you'll have the support of your coach to guide you through this exciting time and help you if you get stuck
• you'll get honest feedback on your progress so you can see what is working and where you need to make changes to your plan
• having a coach will makes you accountable for your goals and dreams so you can't so easily give up on them
• through consistent commitment to your goals, you can expect to see improvements in productivity, personal effectiveness and greater satisfaction with life and work 

How do you know if coaching is right for you?
Ask yourself the following questions:

• do you find it useful to collaborate with someone else to get another viewpoint and see new perspectives?
• are you ready to devote the time and energy to making real changes in your life and work?

If there answer is Yes to these questions then coaching could be truly beneficial in helping you turn your dreams into reality through coaching

What are some of the typical reasons people come to coaching?

• there is something at stake (a challenge, a goal or an opportunity) and it's urgent, compelling or exciting or all of the above
• there is a desire to accelerate results
• there is a need to change how your life is working for example, work is creating unwanted stress
• there is a lack of direction in your life and you need clarity and more choices
• you are successful however this success is now becoming a challenge
• work and life are not in balance creating unwanted pressure and consequences for eample, you are seeing less of your children, family and friends
• you desire a less complicated life/ work situation
• a major relationship has broken down and you are not sure how to move forward
• there is a need and desire to be more organised, focussed and self-managed for example, as a result of a redundancy where getting back into work is urgent

What has caused the tremendous growth in the coaching industry?
Coaching has grown significantly for a number of reasons.  Mainly as a result of global changes that affect us and our lifestyles.  Coaching a useful tool in dealing with these changes.  for example, coaching is a great tool for today's job market with increased redundancy and unemployment.  There is also more job transition, self-employment and small business startups.

Some real life factors include: 

• organsational changes, mergers, restructuring and downsizing means long term employment cannot be guaranteed putting pressure of employees and managers who may have to work with limited resources
• there is a growing shortage of talent in some industry sectors - to attract and retain top talent, companies must commit to investing in individuals and their personal and professional development
• there is a widening disparity between what managers are trained to do and what their jobs now require them to do in order to stay competitive
• staff are wrestling with fears around job security and increased workplace pressure to perform at higher levels than ever before

How long does a coach work with you?
The length of time vaires depending on your needs and preferences. You may need a single one-off session so you can quickly re-focus and get back on track with your goals.  You may have more involved needs which may anywhere from 6-12 sessions.

Factors that impact the the length of time are:

•  the types of goals
• the way you like to work
• the frequency of the coaching sessions
• the financial resources available

This will all be discussed at the outset of the coaching process