Guide for Maximizing the Value of Coaching

The following tips are written in the first person, because I like to relate more personally. I'm sure you'll find them helpful, regardless of who you choose to work with as a coach.

Get to Know Yourself Newly

Working with a sensitive and empathic coach is a healthy way to grow. Most clients hire a coach to accomplish several specific goals and much of the time and focus is on these goals. Yet, with coaching, don't be surprised if you discover new parts of yourself or find your goals adjusting as you discover more about who you really are. This discovery process is a natural, organic process - just be willing to let it happen. Accelerated personal and professional growth is the hallmark of being coached!

Double Your Level of Willingness

Get ready for me to ask a lot of you. Not too much, I hope, but certainly more than you may have asked of yourself recently. I want you to be willing to experiment with fresh approaches and to be open to redesigning the parts of your life that you are able to redesign right now. This will enable you to use your unique gifts to more easily reach your goals, live an integrated and fulfilled personal and professional life, and enjoy life as it was meant to be enjoyed. Here's a sampling of what I ask you to be willing to do:

• Change your behavior, a lot

• Examine some of your current assumptions

• Experiment and try new things

• Start telling the absolute truth, regardless

• Remove all sources of stress in life

• Eradicate all triggers of adrenaline

• Redesign how you spend your time

• Get support you need to handle a problem

• Set goals that are much, much bigger

• Raise your personal standards even higher

• Start treating people much, much better

• Stop tolerating things and/or suffering in your life

Underpromise, Don't Overpromise

Having stated that I will ask a lot of you, I'll also mention that sometimes you may find yourself promising yourself and/or me too much. I find that most people do better promising less and accomplishing more. Playing catch up with too many promises to too many people robs you of energy. Stay open to my suggestions and challenges, yet underpromise, produce more and enjoy the surplus!

Relentlessly Get Your Needs Met

Needs? Like air, water, shelter, love? Just like those kinds of needs, there are others, which, when not met, keep you from expressing your values, reaching your goals and living your vision. Authentic needs are unique to each person, and I will help you discover your personal critical needs and how to get them met. Recognize that getting your needs met is not optional. It is absolutely essential to creating a fulfilling life.

Get Yourself Heard

Being fully listened to ("gotten") is an integral aspect of the coaching experience. The more you are fully heard, the more you can accomplish. So, make sure I'm hearing all of what you're saying, even if you can't articulate it fully! You'll sense when you've been fully "gotten". Settle for nothing less!

Keep Yourself Well Between Sessions

Coaching can require energy: emotionally, intellectually, and physically. Given this, I ask that you take extraordinary care of yourself while being coached. Only you know what this looks like, but I encourage you to go much farther than you ever have before in your self care.

Come to the Coaching Call Prepared, with an Agenda

Coaching is a gift you give yourself, so be ready and willing to receive what you are offering yourself! Make your coaching sessions a priority. Be on time. Be rested, present, focused, and ready to work. To make the most of each session you'll probably find it helpful to jot notes about some of the following points prior to the call:

• Successes and wins that you've had during the week
• Report on the homework you've completed
• Problems you faced and how you handled them
• Advice you want from me regarding a situation
• What you're currently working on and how it's going
  New skills you want to develop
• Insights, aha's or a new awareness which excites you
  Strategies you wish to develop

Enjoy the Call

There is work to be done, but you may find that there's a lot of laughter during the calls. Coaching calls aren't frivolous, but they needn't be intense in order to produce the miracles you know are possible. We'll laugh at life, at how things evolve, at how obstacles that seemed impenetrable sometimes turn to mush. Feel free to set the tone of the calls and I will respect and deliver what you need.

Feel Coached Between Sessions

There are 10,030 minutes in a 7-day week. Coaching can occur during any and every one of those minutes, not just during your coaching session. What is talked about during your call will resonate with you throughout your week, and some of the seeds or ideas that have been discussed will grow. Stay fully alive to your life and open to applying aspects of your coaching throughout every day!

Be Willing to Evolve Through Seeing Things Differently

I've already touched on this point a bit, but let me say it in a different way. Coaching is both a developmental process and an evolutionary one. You'll be learning how to accomplish more with less effort - that's the developmental aspect of coaching. But, like life itself, you'll also be evolving - actually thinking differently and expanding yourself and your experience of your world. You will be working with your goals (the "what") and your strategies to reach these goals (the "how). More importantly, perhaps, you will be working on you (the "who"). You'll be reexamining your assumptions, ways of thinking, expectations, beliefs, reactions and approaches to success. You won't be forced to make any changes, but you'll be asked to stay open to new concepts, principles, distinctions and evolutionary steps that might work better for you than your current approaches.

Inspire the Coach, In Good Times and Bad

All coaches, including me, work best when inspired by the client - by your actions, by what is happening in your life. It's easy when things are going well, but how do you inspire the coach (and yourself) when you've hit a snag? The pivotal word here is inspired, not impressed. You inspire by being human, by fully communicating what you are feeling, by listening to the coaching and by getting back in the saddle when you're ready. You inspire by being fully present to the moment, and open to whatever it may bring.

Tell Others About Being Coached

You soon find that you are growing faster and accomplishing more through working with a great coach. Having a coach should not be a secret. You'll be amazed at how talking to others about your coaching experiences helps to reinforce your awareness and your continued growth! Accelerate your success - share with others what you are learning and accomplishing!