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What's Up With All These Coaches
Tony Davies
If you are anything like me, you may have noticed a tremendous
increase in the number of coaches that have appeared recently.
Traditionally, coaches existed primarily in the world of sports,
but you could also find voice, acting and singing coaches.
Today however, this has all changed. Lifestyle, relationship,
personal development, business, soul, life, leadership, executive,
career and countless other types of coaching are now widely
available. So what can these coaches do for us?
The dictionary defines the term "coach" as "someone who instructs
or trains others". From this definition, at least we can draw
a potential connection between the coaching profession and
ourselves.
So how do you know if you need a coach? Basically, if there
are areas of your life which you would like to improve or
enhance, the opportunity exists to employ a coach.
The Dream Team
In everyday life, we all employ "specialists" to perform various
functions because we have neither the skills nor knowledge
to do the job. You wouldn't consider attempting to fill a
tooth if you had a toothache - you would go to your dentist.
Would you complete your own tax return if your objective was
to minimize tax exposure - no, you would visit an accountant.
If you were feeling ill, you wouldn't (or at least shouldn't)
self-medicate - you would contact your doctor. It all comes
down to the fact that these professionals have skills and
knowledge that provide faster, better, safer and more satisfying
results than you could possibly achieve on your own.
I refer to this group of people as a "Dream Team" - a group
of professionals to help you achieve that which you want -
in the above-mentioned cases, a nice smile, more disposable
income and good health.
So why stop there? If there are other areas that you want
to change, the same principle applies. If you have a desire
to improve your levels of health & fitness, you could join
a gym. The problem is that the novelty quickly wears off and,
unless you are incredibly disciplined, it is difficult to
keep going on your own. There is also the dilemma of not knowing
which equipment to use or which exercises to do. In fact,
a real issue is not having specific goals at all which will
leave you lost. The result? You stop going to the gym and
your membership fee is wasted. Even worse, you will feel like
a failure which in turn will lower your levels of self-esteem,
negatively impacting many areas of your life.
The solution? Get yourself a personal trainer! Make this person
part of your Dream Team. Your trainer (or coach) will help
you define your goals, provide a specific program to follow
and will also give you moral support. This approach offers
a much higher likelihood of accomplishing your goals in this
area at a much faster rate.
Other areas that most of us want to improve include key relationships,
levels of success or financial freedom. Time management and
career counseling are other potential areas for improvement.
The problem is most of us don't know how to improve or make
things better in these areas. We have our own ways of handling
things, along with the inherent issues - which of course,
has us where we are now! We all know that the definition of
insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting
different results!
The solution of course, is to change your approach, and that
could mean finding someone that can help you in the specific
area you want to improve - in other words, a coach, to become
part of your Dream Team.
But Whom Do I Choose?
As in all professions, it is a fact that not all coaches are
created equal! In order to select a coach, I would recommend
spending some time to identify your objectives, create some
"interview" questions for potential coaches, define your budget
and do some research to compile a list of potential candidates.
There are a number of coaching organizations and associations
on the web, that have lists of their coaches names, complete
with biographies, qualifications and areas of expertise.
When interviewing your prospective coach, ask yourself how
comfortable you would feel working with the person. Are they
someone to whom you would be comfortable sharing personal
information? Do you like them? Do they seem to have an action
plan and strategy process that will help you achieve your
goals? What is their fee and what can you expect for that
level of investment? Can you work with them? Is their interest
and commitment mainly around helping you or collecting their
fees? Interview 3 - 5 candidates. Once you are comfortable,
make a selection and get started! You will quickly be on the
road to achieving your goals.
Please note one thing; hiring a coach, to help you improve
the various areas of your life, requires commitment! The process
is likely to take several months and you must be prepared
to "do the work" that goes along with affecting change in
your life. If you are not fully committed to the process,
the result will be frustration (for both of you) and failure,
not to mention a bunch of money spent on nothing! Affecting
meaningful change will take time. Old habits will need to
be broken and new, supportive habits created. It took you
years to get where you are today, so it is unreasonable to
expect that accomplishment of your goals will occur in just
a few weeks!
Coaches are not miracle workers; they cannot do the work for
you or wave a magic wand to make things easy. What your coach
can do is help you to define what it is specifically that
you want, work with you to develop strategic and tactical
plans of action, provide guidance and moral support in your
quest and keep you accountable for following the plan.
With commitment, dedication and a good coach, you will be
amazed at what you can accomplish!
Tony Davies is a Business Consultant as well as a
Business & Personal Coach. He is an expert in the areas of
Leadership and Personal Development and in integrating these
two, seemingly different, disciplines. Tony is successful
at this as the result of personal experience - a solid business
background combined with a passion, and gift, for personal
development and helping others. To find out how Tony can help
you to live your best life, check out his website at www.momentumbusiness.ca,
and contact him directly.
Article Source: http://www.upublish.info
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