Youth coaching can make a fantastic and lasting difference to the lives of young people. Here, one of our Youth Coaches shares their experience of working with young clients to bring about self-change, growth and confidence.

The commitment from young people is huge, particularly for many who find attending school a challenge. Each time I’m in contact with the young people I coach, or when I attend the regular youth clubs and sessions, I leave knowing that I have made a difference. Whilst the focus is never on the events that brought them to coaching it is sometimes difficult for the young people I deal with to hold back on their need to tell stories (typically 15 to 18 year olds). Knowing the kind of challenges that they have faced makes their journey even more inspiring which is exactly why I went in to Youth Coaching.

The reasons why I feel youth coaching is so powerful are:

Listening to be heard

The impact of being heard can be profound. For the young people, their experience is more likely to be one likely being talked at rather than being listened to.

As a youth impact coach, my role is to actively listen; to engage verbally with the young people in order that they can create a new ‘conversation’; one that serves to help them move forward to achieve their goals.

My experience proves that by having someone truly listen they are able to develop more constructive relationships with others and themselves.

Experience the power of ‘belonging’

I set out to create a ‘community’ within youth projects that the participants can identify with and feel they belong to. Through the creation of the safe environment, they can explore the concepts of choice, possibility, responsibility and commitment.

The lessons learnt can be applied to other situations outside of the project.

Creating group action that leads to personal change

Change can often be a lonely pursuit, particularly when it is perceived to be so difficult. By working together in a group, change can feel less intimidating and results more rewarding.

Not only do the young people support each other in learning new skills, but they are inspired by each other’s successes, driving them to achieve more.

These group achievements can also be a catalyst for personal change.

Developing self-belief

Through an understanding of the ‘conversations’ that they have with themselves and their impact, the young people are able to develop a new self-belief. One that leads to the achievement of what they want from both the project and their lives.

As the months go by, there is no doubt that the young people on the project start to change. They show more confidence, and accept greater responsibility for their actions.

They are taking the small steps that are necessary to achieve their own goals.

For more information on becoming a Youth Coach visit The Coaching Academy website

Why coaching?

As far back as the year 2004, my work as a Marketing Manager at the multinational was overcoming me. I was completely overwhelmed even though everyday I was leaving the office late in the evening and working long hours.

I never had the time to delegate, I spent the days running from meeting to meeting, and I could seldom be with my children.

For my birthday, my wife gave me a very special present: coaching sessions. “Sessions of… what?” I asked her. “Just go and see what happens!” she replied to me.

Thanks to the coaching process I acquired new habits, a different way of prioritizing in life. I started to leave the office much earlier than before… and in a much better mood! After a few weeks, my manager called me to his office.

“Uh oh” I thought “he’ll probably tell me that my commitment has decreased, that I’m not working long enough… “. But he said that he and my team were really satisfied with my performance; that then I was much more in control of my work.

And he congratulated me for having matured so much. And I decided that “what the Coach had done for me is what I want to do for other people “. And here my vocation was born…

Who to coach?

One more decision had to be done yet: Who do I want to coach?

I cannot count how many times I had thought “If I had know this when I was a teen…”, “If I had realized that my life depended on my own decisions…”, and so on. So the answer came spontaneously, and today I’m one of the very few life coaches in Barcelona that work mostly with young people.

And I can tell you that this decision has helped me so much with my own teens at home, and even with my own personal growth.

Where to learn?

At The Coaching Academy, of course.
Let’s face it: Coaching teens is not exactly the same as coaching adults, and differences start by how scary it looks like upfront: How will I deal with teens? How should I manage the relationship with the parents? What are the legal procedures?…

I’ve always known that I don’t want to be just a Coach: I wanted to excel as a Coach. And the first step to do so was to get the best available training: the “Youth Impact Diploma”.  After several low-cost flights to London and a big bucket of patience from my family I made my objective a reality.

The Journey

Accelerator Days and the trainers were great. The provided materials and tools were excellent. But it was the qualifying process that really rocketed my coaching to a higher level. If I had to give just one piece of advice to new coaches it’d be: use your qualifying process as a learning tool. It is not red tape. It rocks.

Today

Now I’m really satisfied with my business.

From the qualifying process I acquired the habit of writing the key learning points for each coaching session and my commitment for development. And this knowledge is providing me every day with better coaching skills and also with the basement for conferencing to parents in schools.

Now I feel alive when I see my young clients’ eyes shining after setting clear priorities and goals, after discovering their own strengths, after realizing that they drive their own lives.

Now I feel alive after conferencing, when parents are loaded with the energy required to make changes, or feel proud to be parents again.

Yes, coaching teens is a wonderful job.

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>

I-Lan Hamilton qualified through The Coaching Academy programme and has enthusiastically agreed to share her coaching experience, so we have put her in the Coaching Hot Seat.

Here is I-Lan’s story:-

It was while taking a career break to start a family that I had the chance to take time to reflect on what it was I really wanted to do with my life.

My background was in PR and Marketing Communications for large technology and IT corporations but I knew I didn’t want to go back to the corporate world.

I wanted to work for myself and be ready to do something that I was great at once my youngest started school. Being self employed would allow me the creativity and freedom to work around my family life.

As I was brainstorming ideas and discussing possibilities, a number of family members and friends suggested I should look into life coaching and that I would be a great life coach.

I knew nothing about this so one morning I was intrigued and compelled enough to find out more and typed ‘life coaching’ into my Google search engine. From there I came across The Coaching Academy’s free introduction to life coaching weekend and immediately registered to attend the next available course.

The free introduction to life coaching weekend was a significant turning point in my life.

While being coached by a stranger I saw for myself the power of coaching: how it could highlight and change perspectives, and empower the individual to recognise strengths and identify and achieve their goals. I realised that if this could have such a profound impact on me, it would on others too.

I quickly signed up to do my Personal Performance Coaching Diploma. As I started on my own personal development and training journey I began to understand the value and power of the coaching methodology and I believed that this really should be accessible to everyone.

I found the flexibility of The Coaching Academy training programmes very useful when trying to fit it in and around my young family and busy life. I knew that I had to be self-disciplined and focused in order to complete the diplomas but I loved what I was doing and how I was growing as an individual so, for me, this was not a problem.

What was most rewarding was being able to share my learning and discoveries with those around me, particularly with my children. I believe I have become a better parent with my own raised awareness and self-belief. I can already see the benefits in my children as a result of my conscious ability as a parent to empower them through my new appreciation of listening and asking effective questions.

A key learning point for me was that coaching was not about giving advice but about listening and being present for that person. In doing so, you are able to provide a clear non-judgmental space for the client to really discover the answers that lie within. This enables the individual to take control of their own lives, goals and destiny. Becoming aware of how we listen to others was particularly enlightening and, through training and practise, a skill that can be fine tuned and harnessed.

After qualifying with a distinction in my Personal Performance Coaching Diploma, I made the clear decision that I wanted to work with young people and therefore decided to do the Youth Impact Coaching Course as my second Diploma.

The idea of working with young people excited me because of my belief in our youth. I wanted to give them the opportunity early on to discover their inherent greatness so that they can lead and inspire others.

As soon as I made this decision I found that other doors opened and opportunities presented themselves to me. I started doing voluntary coaching for youth organisations in schools and was then asked to become a freelance trainer for Youth at Risk, a charity organisation that delivers life-changing coaching programmes in schools and communities.

This really propelled me forward and I realised this journey was as much about my own personal development as it was about creating a career to become an outstanding and effective Life Coach and Trainer!

I developed and set up my business website and started to create opportunities that would allow me to gain more experience and work within my field. I then qualified with Distinction for my Youth Impact Diploma last summer and am now the Coach for Gloucester City for a programme called Coach in Every UK City – part of a national evaluation of life coaching in schools running until July 2012.

In October 2011, I was Lead Coach at the UK Youth Leadership Summit residential. In addition, I have developed and am currently piloting a series of seven themed Personal Development Workshops in two local primary schools.

I have most recently been given the opportunity to join the Youth Coaching Academy and become one of their trainers, delivering One Day Essential Youth & Life Coaching Skills Course in schools across the UK.

I once heard a saying, “If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.” This is so true. I love helping people and seeing the possibility in others. Being part of the process to support someone to discover their potential and achieve their goals is extremely rewarding. In many cases witnessing a client create something that they did not think or see was possible for them before, is truly magical.

Moving forward, I want to continue to develop myself and reach as many people as possible to share the tools that will empower and support them to achieve what they want in their lives. I see myself working predominantly as a trainer inspiring young people and the adults who support them.

For me, coaching really is a lifestyle.

My top tips for anyone thinking about a career in coaching is to find out what you are really passionate about – when you know this, get out there and take action! Do what you love doing and opportunities will come.

A lot of my work is voluntary but I would not be where I am now, with the experiences I have had and the exciting possibilities ahead, if I did not take action.

Finally, I would say never stop believing in yourself – you can make a difference!

Genevieve Knight qualified through The Coaching Academy programme and has enthusiastically agreed to share her coaching experience, so we have put her in the Coaching Hot Seat. Here is Genevieve’s story:-

What brought you to coaching?

Two years after graduating and working as an Analyst Programmer I changed career and trained to become a teacher. I had a burning desire to help others to improve their lives and achieve their dreams. I remember people saying to me that I was crazy to leave such a good job to go into teaching but I knew it was the right thing for me to do. I stood by my decision and never looked back. I focused on developing my teaching skills and then broaden my skillset to include coaching. I developed my passion for helping young people to increase their attainment in education, develop their employability skills and improve self motivation using my coaching skills.

What were your original thoughts for applying the coaching?

Whilst teaching I could see a great opportunity to blend coaching and teaching to create a framework that would effectively motivate and engage young people to think big and achieve their goals. Their focus on their goals doubled and so did their attainment in education.

What was the most rewarding part of the training/journey?

I set up my business whilst training to become a coach. I used my coaching skills to develop our flagship training programme for young people. The programme was so successful that the college where we were delivering it won two national beacon awards in 2007 and 2008. They even created an award for their students. Thousands of young people have benefited from our training and achieved fantastic results; going to university, getting apprenticeships, winning awards, starting their own business and performing on stage.

What is your coaching niche and why did you choose it?

Our work is primarily focused on developing young people’s employability skills and a personal brand to enable them to stand out head and shoulders above their competition to get into university or to get the job they really want. We also give them strategies to create their own employment and career opportunites.

I had chosen jobs because I had the ability to do the work but not because I enjoyed or felt passionate about what I was doing. That was my biggest mistake and that’s why even though I was excellent at my jobs I was never able to sustain them. My greatest fear was to leave university being educated and unemployed and this fear drove me to ensure that that didn’t happen. I was always successful at getting employment. I share strategies that I developed to help young people to get a head start in their careers and also to avoid the mistakes I did.

Where are you now? How are you using your coaching skills?

We have developed an employability toolkit for schools, colleges and other education providers. This toolkit also includes powerful career coaching questions for students.

Our first bootcamp event will train students to take a proactive approach to create their own career and employment opportunities, to passion proof their careers and make their free time count. Four major employers will be joining forces with myself, Dan Schawbel, personal branding guru from the US and Bev James, MD of The Coaching Academy.

Using coaching strategies that will be used at the bootcamp, a graduate that I have been working with has just been shortlisted for a finance position. His application stood out among over 500 applications.

What is the best thing that could happen to your coaching business in the next 2 years?

I would love to train young people from all over the world at our student career bootcamps. Young people’s lack of employability skills and youth unemployment is a global issue.

What is your favorite coaching question?

What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

What do you enjoy most about being a coach?

Coaching can facilitate amazing transformations. In working with students, we regularly observe that students often struggle to present their best qualities to employers and universities resulting in an obvious barrier to entry. Helping young people to develop a coaching mindset means that they are better placed to support themselves and be resourceful long term.

People who are looking at coaching?

Decide on what you are trying to achieve and then do your research to find out whether coaching would add value to what you want to do.

Those coaches currently in training?

Decide on a niche and test it whilst training. I recommend that coaches read Bev James’ book “Do It! or Ditch It” to help them to evaluate their ideas.

Coaches that are about to qualify?

Ask clients you have coached for testimonials and use this to market your coaching practice in your chosen niche. Start twittering on your topic to attract followers in your chosen niche and then create a squeeze page with an ethical bribe to build your list quickly.

People that are in a similar situation to yourself?

Become an expert in your chosen field. Learn everything you need to know, get to know your competitors and then intelligently position your business. Read books and take courses to develop your marketing and selling skills.

by Genevieve Knight