Dear All

Fanfare please….

So – an exciting announcement for you.

As you may know, we send out surveys to all of our qualified coaches asking them how they found the training with The Coaching Academy.

Whilst the feedback we receive is almost always fantastic – we are always looking at ways to improve, to offer more and to meet the needs of our students.

One topic that keeps popping up is “OK – so I’ve got the skills. How do I GROW a successful coaching business?”

So with that in mind…

I am delighted to be able tell you about a brand new feature we will be including as part of the weekly PS Online e-zine.

ASK BEV

Bev James – our Managing Director and best selling author of “Do It! or Ditch It” – has agreed to share her wealth of knowledge, ideas and experience around a subject she is no stranger to – GROW-ING A SUCCESSFUL COACHING BUSINESS.

Having trained with The Coaching Academy in 2005, Bev embarked on her own coaching career and soon found herself working with a growing client base of personal clients, small businesses and larger organisations such as Manpower, Swarovski and David Lloyd Health Clubs before settling on her coaching niche, working with Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs.

As Managing Director of the world’s largest coach training organisation Bev still sets time aside to work with a select number of Entrepreneurs.

Bev works with TV Dragon, James Caan providing mentoring for business owners and also works with Dame Kelly Holmes as part of the DKH Legacy Trust, a trust that provides coaching/ mentoring to retired Olympic and Wold Champion athletes – whatever your niche, Bev is ideally situated to answer your business related questions and share her hints, tips and solutions.

And what might you ASK BEV?

Any questions you have with regards to setting up and growing your coaching business from attracting more clients to setting your coaching fees.

So what do you need to do?

Simply complete the short form below with your question for Bev to answer and it will be submitted to the PS Online Team.

Bev will pick out a few questions each week to feature as part of PS Online. I am certain you’ll find this an invaluable resource as part of your business development strategy.

Wishing you continued success.

Happy Coaching!

Kris Robertson
Operations 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.

Ann Skidmore is a Coaching Academy trainer and has trained, coached, mentored and developed over 14,000 people in various industries such as the health service, the airport industry, financial services sector, I.T., manufacturing, education, leisure industry, coaching industry, retailing and sales.

This week Ann shares with us her top 10 tips for managing pressure.

‘Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.’ – Shakespeare

Top 10 tips for managing pressure

1. Make the best use of energy, and pay proper attention to your health.

2. Balance work with recreation — and set aside a time each day for reflection.

3. Review your values — make sure that you are not putting yourself under unnecessary pressure by confusing your priorities.

4. Express your feelings — discuss with others possible areas of conflict before they become acute.

5. Accept what cannot be changed — have the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference.

6. Use negative experiences as positive steps to learning.

7. Check your time management skills — don’t set yourself unrealistic deadlines, order your priorities, delegate effectively, and approach tasks methodically.

8. Regard symptoms of stress positively, as early warning signals, and do something about them.

9. Face squarely anything that worries you. Often identifying honestly the worst that can happen will help relieve anxieties.

10. Count your blessings, not your afflictions, and live each day as it comes.

Coaching Academy Trainer and Professional Personal and Business Coach, Andrew Jenkins, offers his views on reaching career crisis point and what you can do about it.

Unless you are one of those lucky people who love your job, then changing career can be a daunting challenge. If you have heard yourself say: “I must get out of here”, “I hate my job, I’m stuck-in-a-rut”, or “I’d like to find a more satisfying job, but I don’t know what I’m good at”, then you maybe at a career crisis point.

This is what happened to Andrew Jenkins.

Andrew’s previous career was in operations, managing multi-million change programmes. He said “I became increasingly unfulfilled in my role. My natural strengths and talents were the ‘softer’ and more people-based ones”. So, Andrew left his high-flying position with 3i (the global venture capital giant) and re-oriented his career into coaching.

He now runs his own coaching and mentoring consultancy company, specialising in coaching people, both inside and outside of their organisations, on their career, performance and personal development. He says “I now feel I am doing what I enjoy most and am best at.”

For many of us, work takes up a lot of our lives, but various surveys suggest that only around 30% of working people report being happy in their jobs. Leaving the rest dissatisfied or unfulfilled. Many claim to be unable to change their situation, due to factors such as: money, age, or lack of experience. Often however the real reasons lurk deeper-down within us. These are to do with our limiting beliefs about ourselves, or fear of change, so we accept our present crisis-situation.

According to Andrew, surprisingly, many of us have little sense of our natural talents and strengths, much less the ability to build our lives around them. Instead, guided by our parents, school teachers, and bosses at work, we have become experts in our weaknesses. We spend unfruitful time repairing these flaws, whilst remaining unaware of our dormant strengths and talents.

So, how does one get out of the career doldrums?

Andrew says, “firstly, it’s not just about your skills. There is a huge difference between doing something because you have the necessary know-how and doing something because you actively choose to”.

The key difference is to search for what motivates you most and apply these to the process of change. Your career aspirations must sit comfortably with your highest values though, because our values are core to what motivates us.

“Secondly” he says, “you need to reinvent yourself, and rediscover what your true dreams and ambitions are, and what you’re truly best at. You need match your unique-self to your dream-job”. He states, that we must eradicate our limiting beliefs to accept change; explore our highest values and motivations; and identify our strengths and talents.

You need to ask yourself: “What am I really good at? What do I want to do most of all? What is most important to me? What do I want to be remembered for?”

Coaching Academy trainer, professional coach and motivational speaker Rasheed Ogunlaru highlights the importance of focusing on what you do have rather than what you don’t.

Do you tend to focus on what you have – or on what you lack? Far too many people that I meet constantly focus on what they lack rather than what they have. It’s a symptom of today’s consumer-driven material world, where we are bombarded with ideas of how we should look and what we should have.  But you can change all that – and enjoy more success by looking at life differently.

Be thankful for what you’ve got:

This autumn season leads up to what the American’s call Thanks Giving. It’s a time where they are thankful for what the harvest and life has given them. Many religions and spiritual practices invite you to give thanks. But how often do you actually give thanks and credit outside of a place of worship. You will find that those who are most grateful are those who are most happy and fulfilled.

What’s in store?

If you were going shopping it would be wise to check your fridge and cupboards before you write your list and go shopping. If you don’t do this you may come back to discover that you already have much of what you need and that some things may be beginning to rot and go off due to neglect. The same is true of you, your abilities, and your possibilities.

If you constantly are looking outside of yourself you may well be overlooking your potential. So sit down right now and list your skills, talents, qualities and what you’ve already achieved. Once you’ve done that ask yourself what is it that I can go on to create with these ingredients?

Your potential:

All things in nature are created with their own innate potential; the acorn becomes the oak tree and the kitten becomes the cat. It is innate. All of the information is there within the DNA. And so it is that you are born with all parts. You never grow an extra brain or extra limbs. You are complete. No matter what shape that completeness takes. Too often we overlook our innate abilities and become caught up in our ideas about what we might achieve.

By remembering you are already complete; mind, body and spirit opens you up to a deeper sense of wisdom, knowledge and confidence about yourself and your place and possibilities in this world.  As this happens you will move from an attitude of lack, scarcity and fear to one of thankfulness, acceptance, generosity, richness and growth.