The Coaching Academy, conducted a survey to gain a better understanding of where the coaching profession currently is and where it is heading in the future.

The main purpose of the survey was to develop some evidence base on the practice that we know is thriving and growing.

Over the past 10 years, we have seen coaching grow and develop immensely and it is very encouraging to know that 86% of coaches found their client base has remained stable or increased in the past year.

Take a sneak peak into our findings displayed in this infographic and keep your eyes peeled for our full report.

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<a href="http://www.coachingacademyblog.com/infographic-make-up-of-a-modern-day-coach/" target="_blank"><img title="Infographic: The Make Up of a Modern Day Coach - The Coaching Academy" src="http://www.coachingacademyblog.com/wp-content/infographic-the-make-up-of-a-modern-day-coach-the-coaching-academy-large1.jpg" border="0" alt="Infographic: The Make Up of a Modern Day Coach - The Coaching Academy" /></a></div><div>Source: The Coaching Academy – The UK’s largest school for <a title="The Coaching Academy - The UK's largest school for Life Coaching" href="http://www.the-coaching-academy.com" target="_blank">Life Coaching</a></text>

Life Coach Rebekah Fensome shares the journey her client made as she learnt how to be more assertive and shares some of the assertiveness techniques they developed together and which were put into practice.

Tracey, 31 from London, has come a long way. When she first came to see me she knew she was lacking in assertiveness but her excuse for not wanting to change was that she was worried about people seeing her as arrogant.

However, once I helped her see how her lack of assertive behaviour was affecting her, she realised that it was causing problems in all areas of her life and ultimately making her unhappy.

“People are always taking advantage of me, my friends, family and work colleagues. I know it’s my fault as I allow them to see me as a pushover. I’m a nice person though and I don’t like to let people down. However, I find that I don’t have time for myself as I’m always helping other people out.”

After having a couple of sessions with Tracey, we together agreed that she needed to start putting herself first and not feeling guilty or worried if she wasn’t able to help one of her friends, or family members. She also had to start saying ‘No’ more at work.

Here are 10 assertiveness tips and techniques that you can put into practice:

1. Clear Communication

When communicating your opinion, complaint, etc ensure that you are being direct, clear and precise.

2. Take Responsibility

Don’t shy away from the point you want to make or action you want to take. Commit to it and take full responsibility. For example, say “I think” rather than “we think”.

3. Don’t apologise when you don’t need to

Don’t apologise before of after you talk to someone about something as again this takes away any strength or emphasis from you.

4. Use strong verbal and body language

Use the correct tone of voice and body language when talking. For example, don’t talk into yourself or have a tremble in your voice. Maintain eye contact and use a solid strong voice but with normal volume.

5. Are you being listened to?

Check with people that they have listened to what you have said by encouraging them to summarise your opinion, complaint, request, etc.

Don’t allow people to make excuses for having misunderstood and stick to what you’ve said.

6. Get out your comfort zone

Don’t avoid particular people or situations that you don’t feel confident in. In fact push yourself into as many of these situations as possible and practise your new assertive self.

If there are certain people you find difficult to approach then walk up to them confidently and smile at them before you start talking.

7. Stick to the facts

Being assertive doesn’t mean making things up to support your opinions, complaints, etc. You should stick to the facts and not exaggerate. It’s good to be seen as objective rather than emotional.

8. Keep it objective

When you’re in a difficult situation with people don’t make personal references. For example, don’t say “I find you really annoying”, say instead “Please refrain from talking to me like that.”

9. Observe assertive role models

Watch assertive people and pick up words, tones and body language that you think makes them successful at being assertive. Keep a list of these attributes and add them to your portfolio.

10. Reward yourself

Each time you’re successfully assertive, note this down and reward yourself. Try and exhibit your new assertive behaviour so much that people start giving you feedback. This is your ultimate reward!

Also, don’t get disheartened when you’re not successful. Just realise where you went wrong and correct it next time.

by Rebekah Fensome

Want to find out more about assertiveness and confidence coaching? Attend workshops on Power Persuasion and Power Pitching as part of The Coaching Academy’s CPD For Coaches programme.

 

For further details visit www.the-coaching-academy.com/cpd or call our team on 0208 4399 440.

LAST 5 PLACES AVAILABLE

MAKE 2012 YOUR BEST YEAR YET WITH THE COACHING TOOLBOX

Join Nic Rixon – Friday 20th January 2012 and discover all you need to succeed in 2012!

The Coaching Toolbox has been created to help you:

• Maximise your coaching revenue
• Improve client engagement
• Increase referrals
• Create an easier sales process for your business
• Establish your market position – a focus or niche for your coaching
• Demonstrate the power of coaching and deliver tangible results for your clients

For more information, click here to visit the website.

The interest in this event has been absolutely immense and based on the response we’ve had so far, availability is now limited to 5 places.

Call us on 0208 4399 493 now to book your place and avoid disappointment.

Alternatively, you can book your place online.

Best wishes,

Bev James

Managing Director
The Coaching Academy

The Coaching Academy’s Senior Trainer, Pam Lidford, answers your questions about supervision.

How often do supervision sessions happen?

It varies on the coaches requirements.

Usually 4-6 weeks apart though it can be a longer gap, ie up to 8 weeks. All Coaching bodies now recommend supervision and give a guideline ratio of 1 hour supervision for every 8 hours coaching (1:8) up to 1:15

Do you conduct them on the phone?

Yes, though they can be done face to face if appropriate for coach and client and if part of a coaching circle, supervision can take part in groups

What is the role of a supervisor?

Supervisors have three main functions:  (Kadushin 1976) (Proctor 1986)

1) the educational development of the practitioner and the fulfilment of potential
2) the practical and psychological support to carry through the responsibilities of the role
3) the promotion and maintenance of good standards of work and adherence to policies and good practice

What actually happens in supervision sessions and the roles of the supervisor and coach?

The process usually involves the coach presenting a specific case, issue or questions that are concerning them to their supervisor during a session. The aim is to acquire a deeper understanding of what is taking place for:

a) the client,
b) for the coach and client relationship and;
c) for the coach.

This provides the coach with a deeper understanding about their work and role as a coach, steers them towards good practice and leaves them feeling guided and reassured. It can also include session content that the coach wishes to discuss or explore as well as any tools or interventions they used in the session.

The supervisor is used at different stages of a coaches’ journey and is now seen as paramount for good practice in the same way as in counselling, therapy, social work and clinical psychology.

Supervision offers a time and place for reflection on a coaches’ work with a senior colleague. The purpose is to support the coach with any work assignments that are complex or difficult so they can gain clarity around their professional practice in order to enhance the work with their client.

They are there for the coach to discuss, share and explore thoughts, feelings and situations that arise during coaching sessions they take part in.

The supervisor is there to ask them questions, listen to their anxieties or challenges, offer them support and reassurance around difficult or challenging client cases and give them ideas and suggestions to continue their learning and professional development.

Mirror and self exploratory work may be part of a session especially if the coach knows they feel particular emotions or find their mind wandering when working with a client, ie frustrated, bored, etc

As a trainee the coach may use the supervisor for clearer guidance and to share and explore any anxieties they experience at the start of their journey. A senior coach may look for a more equal and consultative approach.

What kinds of things are brought to the discussion?

Lack of rapport and or empathy for/with a client and what makes that client difficult to work with, reassurance and support to get the coach to experience important insights that free them up to work more effectively with this particular client and future clients with similar characteristics. These kind of scenarios are often brought to supervision sessions.

Leading on from that, a coach may be too supportive and not challenging enough and vice versa, supervision will help the coach to recognise this and may lead onto further personal development in order to understand and then address any underlying issues that need working on.

Coaches sometimes feel stuck as their client isn’t progressing but they don’t fully understand why, this is a topic for supervision.

Peter Bluckert has a table of client ‘types’ Excellent, good, average, poor and inappropriate to intervene right now. Some coaches (trainee and experienced) find themselves working with the last 2 or 3 categories and can get stuck, lost or start to attempt to rescue.

Exploring this in supervision sessions helps the coach to gain another perspective and be able to make the appropriate choices regarding working with such clients (or not).

Your client may have a struggle or dilemma with an issue at work that is outside of your coaching expertise or comfort zone, your supervisor can provide you with reassurance and or guidance.

You may suffer a confidence challenge and wonder if you are really able to make it as a personal or executive coach. You will find the space to safely explore and understand what is going on for you at this moment and receive the support you require to aid you in moving through this challenge back towards confidence.

Your supervisor will also support your professional development through understanding and working with your learning style, form of intelligence, main drivers, developing your inner supervisor, giving and receiving feedback as well as working with and developing your learning cycle. You may bring personal as well as professional topics to a session.

Peer supervision or coaching is often the chosen option for new coaches due to ‘no cost’ being incurred, however, if the trainee coach does not have some intervention by a senior experienced coach who has a sound understanding of supervision processes, it could hinder the development of the trainee, as peers may be too inexperienced to comprehend some of the complexities and in turn prevent the coach from their best practice.

Supervision serves the interests of the coach and client as it ensures you are working ethically and responsibly, it also supports your education and learning. Their job is different to a trainer as they are expected to provide information and also look out for any poor practice in order to support the coach in developing and improving their professional skills.

A supervisor is someone who should have good professional experience and practice, know their topic well, understand supervision and have been through the process themselves. It is suggested supervision may well become one of the main methods of regulating the emerging profession of coaching.

Coaches may use their supervisor as mentor, trainer/teacher, coach, for personal as well as professional development. It is now expected when applying for corporate tenders, that the coach will have supervision as part of their ongoing professional development.

So here’s the final installment of the most common marketing mistakes made by coaches. Judging by some of the feedback already received, this series has been well followed and welcomed which is always great to hear.

By passing on my experience to you I hope you will be well equipped to learn from my mistakes and move closer to combining a coaching heart with a commercial mind.

Here’s marketing mistakes 9 and 10 and how to avoid them:

• Marketing Mistake 9 – Relying Upon Exchanging Your Time for Money as the Only Way to Make an Income

Most coaches earn money only when they are either on the phone to a client, or meeting face to face, but there are many opportunities to create, sell or distribute products. It is relatively straightforward to create MP3 downloads, CDs, tip books and so on that can be made available and sold on your website or added as extra products to your coaching courses.

As interim support between coaching sessions you might want to provide a series of downloads that can be delivered on a weekly basis to your client’s inbox. That way even while you are sleeping there is the potential for you to be making money if someone downloads one of your products. The bonus is that you can capture their email address and register their potential interest in your coaching services in exchange.

Whether you are busy, on holiday, ill, or asleep, there are more ways to be earning money – it’s not just about charging for your time.

Everything you sell or give away will help your prospective client to decide “do I want this person to coach me?” and the answer should be “YES!”

• Marketing Mistake 10 – Undercharging or Charging by the Hour

Think of a situation or a problem that a coach could help you with right now. If this problem disappeared what would that be worth to you in both commercial and personal terms? If you were to hire a coach how much would you be prepared to pay for one hour’s coaching?

Very often the price we are prepared to pay for specialist advice equates to the price we are confident about charging for our own services. If you would pay only £45 for a coach yourself, but you are thinking of charging £100 for your services there is an incongruity and likely to be in internal conflict. The price you charge depends on your confidence in your competence and the way you position yourself as a coach.

If you are positioning yourself as an expert (and I suggest that you do) then you are likely to become highly sought after and people will be prepared to pay more for your help.

Focus on selling a course of coaching sessions. After a short telephone consultation you can assess how many sessions a client is likely to need.

You can then say something like, “I would estimate that we will work together for about six weeks. During that time will have four face-to-face (or telephone) appointments with email or telephone support between sessions to share your success. The price for a 6-week course is £X.”

Offering a coaching course that is paid for in advance encourages a greater level of commitment from both coach and client.

Bev James

Learn from the UK’s leading coaches and business experts at the next Entrepreneurs Business Academy for Coaches event. The next Marketing Fundamentals day takes place on the 26th November in London and we will show you how to turn your coaching skills into a successful business.