A couple of weeks ago we announced our new “Ask Bev” feature that we’d be including in our weekly PS Online e-zine.

We’ve had an amazing response to this announcement and have already received a considerable amount of questions from you on how to GROW a successful coaching business. Each week we’ll pick a question to be featured and publish it on The Coaching Academy blog.

So, without further ado, we kick off the “Ask Bev” feature, with the question below from Keith in Nottingham:

What are you thoughts please on whether to offer a 30 minute (ish) introductory meeting free of charge / or to charge for it?

Dear Keith,

This is a very important question.

So here goes, what is the best way to conduct a coaching consultation:

1. Offer a 15 minute telephone consultation free of charge. Fifteen minutes is easy for people to fit into their day or lunch hours. Free because at this stage you don’t know if they are the right client for you and they don’t know if you are the right coach for them.

2. If someone phones to book a consultation NEVER offer it on the spot, if you do that it gives the impression that you are not busy. Take their details and arrange to call them back (don’t ask them to call you back). Aim to call them the same day or within 24 hours of the enquiry if possible. Don’t be too cool calling people back – remember “another day older another day colder”.

3. Don’t make the mistake of offering a “mini coaching” session as part of the consultation, the purpose of the initial consultation is to find out what they would like help with and for you to demonstrate that you are the right coach to get them from where they are not to where they want to be.

A few questions to kick off with could be:

• Have you worked with a coach before?
• If we were to work together what result would you like to achieve, what have you tried already?
• If you were to achieve your goal what difference would it make to your life?
• How has this problem held you back in the past and how might it hold you back in the future if you don’t deal with it?

4. The purpose of the questions is for you to get a clear understanding of their situation and desired outcome. Listen for limiting beliefs, attitudes and behaviours that could he holding them back.

5. Having had the initial consultation you will be able to give the caller an expected number of sessions / costs and can confirm if they would prefer telephone or face to face coaching.

6. Ask how soon they want to get started and see if they have their diary to hand to explore dates.

Using this process 90% of my telephone consultations turned into immediate clients.

I look forward to hearing about your future success!

Next time on “Ask Bev” we will be answering the question “Should you put your prices on your website?”

I wish you well,

Hiring a life coach helped Morgan Nichols to completely transform her life and as she explains, to enjoy the process not just the results.

I started life coaching because I was confused. Confused about how to get out of my dead-end job. Confused about my next step to becoming self-employed and financially free. And most of all, confused about which of my many interests to focus on.

One of the most useful things I learned through being coached was that I didn’t have to focus.

Focusing is one way people achieve success but it’s not the only way. It was only one of my many ‘a-ha’ moments in my process where I discovered that my way could be just right for me.

What a relief!

I had spent years trying on various jobs and careers, either because I was presented with them, or I saw them as a stepping stone to something else. The problem was, I had been in the job market for five years and was stuck in debt and a job that didn’t inspire me. I was underpaid for my skills and experience.

My coach helped me to discover that I had been going about things with an external frame of reference. I needed to re-connect with what made me tick, and investigate what kind of work could satisfy my needs and values.

During the course of my coaching this changed from having a holistic business (although this is still a long-term dream of mine) to returning to my lifelong love, writing, as well as building on my yoga teaching which was naturally expanding.

I learned how to not only set goals but to engage with them, transforming goals from “shoulds” to “want to’s”. I learned techniques of neuro-linguistic programming to transform the way that I visualised my life, and to deal with fear of failure.

I discovered that I am by nature a multi-tasker and can make that work for me rather than trying to follow others’ moulds.  My coach pointed out that the ‘focus’ theme is used so often in self-help literature because it’s exactly what people don’t do. But once I liberated myself from the mentality of “I have to write x pages a day or I won’t be a success”, I could see opportunities that had been closed to me.

My positive projection began to attract people and resources that could help me reach my goals. For example, I was asked to appear on radio shows to perform my poetry, and one of my poems was accepted for publication in an anthology.

Meanwhile, even at my “dead-end” job I was given an opportunity in line with my broader goals of serving society: I began to supervise less experienced members of staff, thereby getting a chance to apply some of my counselling training.

An unexpected pregnancy came just at the time when I was looking for another job. While I had always wanted to be a mother some day, I had ruled out being ready for it at this stage – I wasn’t financially well-off enough, I hadn’t established my career, and so on.

This could have been a serious spanner in the works, but in fact it gave me a welcome break to re-evaluate my career and where it was going. I realised during my pregnancy that I wanted to create work that fitted around my life, not the other way round.

I stopped working two months before my due date and used this time to rest as well as write, plan projects and await this next phase of my life. I learned a lot about pregnancy and birth which has inspired me to do doula training inj the future, as well as begin an antenatal yoga teacher training later this year.

Looking back at the past year, I can hardly believe that I came from such a stuck point; from being unable to sense and trust my own direction, to being motivated and sure of my path (even the many unpredictable twists and turns on that path!)

In the past 8 months, I have qualified as a yoga teacher (writing my exam at eight months pregnant!), had work published in literary magazines, made radio and live performances as a poet, finished the first draft of my novel, started a successful mother-and-baby yoga class, and started to get back into freelance writing.

And the biggest creation of all: giving birth to my beautiful son six months ago.

The best thing is that all of this was without driving myself on mercilessly, as I used to do.

I have enjoyed the process and not just the results.

Nikki Warnes 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 Nikki’s story:-

What brought me to coaching, or rather, what brought coaching to me?

I had spent my life ‘fixing’ stuff. If someone had a thing to sort out I’d tell them how to fix it. Finances, emotions, relationships etc.

If I didn’t know how to fix it, I’d find someone who did and learn from them so I could pass on the information.

I thought this would be great, useful, inspiring and maybe a little bit helpful. Unfortunately that doesn’t quite happen with family and after a couple of big eye opening moments with my sister (organising her paperwork as I organise mine to simplify a system that she couldn’t work with or benefit from) I realised that this was daft. Everyone works in their own way, with their own blueprint and their own systems.

This is where I found Tony Robbins. Ironically my sister had the audio box set “Get The Edge”. It blew my mind. Simply the easiest thing to follow in the Universe. I bought into it 100% but he wasn’t telling me what to do. It was the question ‘What if I could?’ What would I ‘be, do, have, if I could?’

I wanted to know more and even though there are so many life coaching ads and companies offering training, The Coaching Academy came up time and time again.

The free weekend did it ! It got me started. The GROW model, wheel of life , there’s no more to say but WOW and Bev James telling her coaching story to her dad really made me laugh.

Yes coaches do take you to where you want to go and also to places you’ve never been before. Yes, the wheels will fall off sometimes but it’s all repairable and replaceable. It’s your reality NOW not your reality of your future that you start from.

Before coaching I’d worked in food hygiene, quality control, cleaning management and even Parliament before finally setting up a child-minding business for my mum after a ‘big wheels falling off’ moment in my world. I started working with her, it would only be till I was back on my feet.

At the point in time that I found The Coaching Academy I had left the business and stepped back 10 years to an old role thinking it would be easier to work for someone else rather than myself. Big mistake.

It is quite challenging having a boss when you are used to being one ! I stepped back into the business and opened my world to coaching. Two years later we’ve just got our Outstanding from Ofsted and passed our Quality Mark !

My journey

I love to motivate, inspire and help others achieve. The Coaching Academy qualification would give me the base I needed. If it’s to be, it’s up to me.

My folder turned up and boy what a folder. It was huge. I kick started my training with a week intensive accelerator. 5 accelerator days back to back. It was amazing. I went home every night with new ideas, concepts and strategies to move my game forward.

On the Friday I came home and put the book and a whole pad of notes, on the shelf. Where it sat for 6 months ! Life took over.

From starting in September 2009 I finally qualified in March 2011 !

The most interesting bits I learnt were about myself. The most rewarding bits were that I took every single activity and used it on me. If I knew I could use it then my future clients would too. I enjoyed everything about it.

What could I do ? Wow the sky really is the limit.

The paperwork took a fair amount of time. I had found my practice clients quite easily as I was so enthusiastic about what the benefits of coaching were. The practical assessments were very daunting until me and a fellow trainee decided to ‘just do it’ in the famous words of Nike.

We booked all 3 sessions in with Jan, there was no going back. Was I ever going to be ‘good enough’ ?

Session one went well. Session 2 was awful. I even stopped talking at one point just watching the clock ticking away, with not a clue what to ask next. After a good dissection afterwards I realised that it’s all about the moment. No amount of notes or prompts will keep it flowing. So just listen and stay curious.

Session 3 was good. And I sat on my space hopper the whole time ! No I’m not joking! Keep it light, don’t tie yourself up in knots over the right or wrong thing to say and most of all ….have fun!

Also it’s the people you meet along the way. Connection is one of the 6 human needs according to Tony Robbins. The people around me have made such a profound impact on my life and I am very grateful for that.

I am part of the Essex coaching network group and it is fabulous. For support and a change in perspective if you need it, I would recommend joining up with a group of like minded people. It will keep your momentum up !

So where am I now?

I’m running several avenues at the moment. My child-minding business, the house, I have 2 young children, my passion for fitness and motion has blossomed into a fitness class where I take people out to move and coach them at the same time ! My biggest step was to get a contract with the local authority working with families in school.

My niche is parents and families.

This stems from the childminding but also from a deep care of nurture and growing self esteem, young or old, this can have such a big effect on many peoples lives. I want to be able to make a difference. To help people find their happiness.

My next 2 years are set to be awesome. Starting with a business coach this year I want to open up coaching to the wider community. Parent workshops and life skills are all in the pipeline. To be able to talk on stage at a big event, with confidence and the knowing that I am inspiring others is what I am really looking forward to.

My favourite coaching question always will be ‘what if you could?’ I enjoy watching people open their mind to new possibilities. I love that about coaching.

My top tips for those coaches currently in training:

Don’t get overwhelmed by the process. Chunk it into manageable bits. Smile, it changes your ‘state’.

My top tips for coaches about to qualify:

Be organised enough that as you read through each section, you have your final paper sitting right there too. This will save having to re read each section. I wish you all the fun and laughter you can possibly stand in your life and good luck x

If you want to get in touch with me please feel free to contact me through The Coaching Academy LinkedIn Group.

Revolutionaries normally carry guns but in boardrooms across the globe, they come armed with a radical mission – to overthrow old-style management practices and bring in a new order to re-engage employees.

Dictators everywhere – be warned: the days of control freak bosses are numbered.

As report after report comes in showing that the majority of employees are disengaged from their work, which is in turn depressing productivity and profits, it becomes increasingly evident that existing management practices aren’t working.

It doesn’t matter how many times the office is revamped or the mission statement is rewritten, or how employees’ incentives or punishments are raised – it’s not making any difference to how much employees like turning up for work.

Something has to change – and if you’re of the “my way or the highway” management style, that something is you.

Statistics like those from the Gallup Management Journal and Right Management Consultants (the world’s largest career transition and organisational consulting firm) that show only between 20% to 30% of employees are fully engaged (working with passion) in their jobs.

A bigger percentage say they are actively disengaged (causing trouble at work) and the majority are in a sleepwalking type of state, putting in the hours but not the energy or passion.

Engaged employees stay in the job longer, and are safer, more productive and more profitable – so it is imperative that something is done to address a situation where between 70% and 80% of employees are working with varying degrees of alienation from their jobs and companies.

The fundamental problem is that there has been a dramatic change in the workforce – with companies outsourcing and taking advantage of lean manufacturing processes and technological advances, existing employees are being paid primarily to think, create and innovate – and as yet, management hasn’t caught up with that development.

Leaders are still too often using old-style practices where they give orders and expect people to follow directions, instead of allowing them to think and create for themselves.

For the first time in history, the employee often knows more about how to do the job than the manager.

When you don’t have all the answers, being directive may not be the best way to drive performance. One of the things that’s broken and needs fixing is the way we manage performance. In the majority of situations, you get a better performance from people by helping them to think better, rather than by just telling them what to do.

When people start to have ideas and have the ability to act on them, they certainly are significantly more engaged in the job than they were before. Letting people come up with their own ideas is a deep well of motivation to tap.

That is the essence of quiet leadership: improving employees’ thinking – literally improving the way their brains process information, by creating opportunities for people to make new connections themselves. A quiet leader is always focused on the development of their people: they’re putting their people’s learning and development and growth as the number one issue rather than their own ego rewards.

Six Steps to Transforming Performance

These six steps describe a new way for leaders to have conversations when they want to make a difference another to another person’s performance. They describe a new way to interact, to give feedback, to influence, to stretch and grow people and to bring out the best in others.

Step 1: Think about thinking; to let people do all the thinking, keep them focused on solutions, stretch their thinking, accentuate the positive and follow good process.

Step 2: Listen for potential and not to get too close (or involved).

Step 3: Speak with intent; in other words, to be succinct, specific and generous in your communication.

Step 4: Dance toward insight by getting permission for harder conversations, placing people so they know where you’re coming from, using thinking questions so that others do the thinking and then clarifying their responses.

Step 5: Create new thinking. Get people to become aware of their mental dilemmas and reflect more deeply on them by asking questions about their current reality. Once they’ve had an insight, we explore alternatives for how to move their insight into action then we tap into the energy given off by the new connections being made.

Step 6: Follow-up. Following up can make a big difference to the emergence of new wiring (neural connections in the brain) so we focus on the facts and people’s feelings. We encourage, listen for learning, look for implications and then look for the next goal to focus on.

It takes commitment to develop this new management style, but it is worth it.

And like any revolution, it needs massive support and so far, the signs are good – change is indeed in the air.

Arifa Chakera 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 Arifa’s story:-

What brought you to coaching?

I was a typical “Chartered Civil Engineer” who worked with teams to build things and everyone were always task oriented.

As my experience grew and gradually moved away from design and construction projects to leading Change and Transformation projects, I realised that people were an important aspect to enable a successful delivery.

I wanted to learn more about how people work and how to motivate and drive people with sensitivity and support. All in all, wanted to understand what makes people tick and how to ensure I could get the best out of them (and myself).

What were your original thoughts for applying the coaching?

Coaching to me is a valued proposition for my company as I lead and manage large transformations projects.

I believe by really understanding what drives people and what motivates them, I have been able to create ownership from the start during a time on uncertainty. This has lead to successful project completion and delivery.

I have delivered a number of Mergers and Acquisitions and Organisational Transformations.

By focusing on both the hard project delivery timelines and understanding / supporting the behaviour of individuals has made a drastic improvement in project delivery by focusing on ownership and sustainability.

What did you find most interesting to learn?

I think the most interesting thing I found through coaching was how I think, work and play.

By really understanding myself and my drivers, I was able to be honest with people and get the best out of me. Subsequently by understanding myself better, I am able to understand my clients, colleagues, friends and family better and support them appropriately.

I have become a more sensitive person and moved away from assuming they way I think is the way everyone thinks and vice versa.

What was the most rewarding part of the journey?

I believe the most rewarding part of the session in meeting like minded people and sharing knowledge and supporting each other though the training sessions. This has given me the much needed confidence to growing my business.

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

As I continue to grow my business, I use my coaching skills pretty much every day.

Majority of my work is within transformation projects therefore helping people adapt to new environments, new processes and new ways of working in the quickest sustainable way requires in depth coaching.

In parallel, I have learnt to be sensitive, supportive and the art of active listening, which has helped within my personal life.

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

My coaching niche is coaching companies, employers and employees through change to make them more successful.

I mainly work in the corporate sector. I chose this sector as I enjoy the challenge of transformation and making the change sustainable.

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

The best thing that could happen is that I break into the local Yorkshire and North East market and get known to be an excellent coach.

What do you enjoy most about being a coach?

Really invoking their beliefs, especially when someone says I don’t think I can do that? Explain to me what is stopping you. This always brings people to highlight their beliefs and challenging them is fantastic, especially when they have a light bulb moment saying “wow, I did not realise I am stopping myself”

What are your top tips for:

- People who are looking at coaching?

Get someone who complements you; get recommendations, test them out yourself and see if you feel comfortable with them challenging you.

Coaching is like a relationship and needs to be built on trust, openness and confidentiality. If there is no mutual trust and comfort, coaching will be superficial and therefore you don’t feel right about the coach, tell them. Follow your instincts of getting the right coach.

- Those coaches currently in training?

If you are training, nearing qualifications or qualified, I would say the most important aspect is be keep your CPD up to date whether it is through coaching, meeting colleagues, reading manuals and attending more training.

Keep all the tools and models in a central place and review them regularly so that it becomes second nature.