FAQ Coaching

1. What is the business value of coaching and who works with a coach?

We would like to answer this question with facts and statements of a 2008 report by The American Management Association: “Coaching, a Global Study of Successful Practices”.
The report states that the need for coaches will continue to grow for two reasons:
Demographic trends: “As the Baby Boom generation retires… there will be a greater need for speed and effectiveness in developing the next generation of leaders. Coaching is suited to fill this need.”
Business trends: “Coaching will be especially suited to handling the faster cycle times and more diverse management challenges associated with global business.”

• Who works with a coach? “Employees who receive coaching are often successful senior leaders who are facing career challenges as a result of organizational or industry changes.”
• Who works with external coaches vs. internal coaches?
  Executives: 42% choose external coaches; 28% internal
  Managers: 27% external; 46% internal
  Supervisors: 13% external; 43 % internal
  “Employees at the top of the organization place a high value on confidentiality … that may only be possible with an external coach. Additionally, a party external to the organization may be more willing than peers or subordinates to deliver painfully honest feedback to a high-level employee and go on to develop a goal-directed plan of action.”
• What factors are important for the success of a coaching program?
  Clear goals
  Success is measured
  A good match between the coach and the client/coachee
  The coach has business and consulting experience

2. I am interested in executive coaching and confused by your statement that you coach the clients’s whole life. Could you please explain this?

In answer to this question, we are quoting an extract of Karen Kimsey-House’s blog. Karen is one of the founders of CTI and its Co-Active Coaching Model.

The Client’s Whole Life: Our public education system was birthed at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. We needed to train people to compartmentalize themselves, to do one thing over and over again with accuracy and precision. So, much of our current educational processes are based on compartmentalization; creating distinctions between this and that. There is much emphasis placed on the PARTS of something and not so much reaching to integrate the whole. Western medicine falls into this same trap. We have an amazing understanding of the components of the human body. Western medicine is truly gifted at fixing our PARTS and yet, at a core level fails to grasp both the mystery and the importance of the whole.

Human beings are more than just a collection of parts and we must approach working with people in ways that are holistic and integrated.

Even in coaching there is such a rush to “specialize”. We often get the question at CTI: do you train Career Coaches or Executive Coaches or Education Coaches? I understand the importance of specialization in any practice. It helps us identify ourselves in the market place and provides a focus for the development of tools that speak to specific audiences. Hooray for that. That said, at its core, Co-Active Coaching understands that we are always working with the WHOLE of a person, whether we are working with them at work or at home and whether we are working on their career or their parenting.

It’s an illusion that we can separate or isolate one part of a person’s life and work with that only. Each part is irrevocably connected to the other parts in a fluid and ever changing constellation of emotion, desire, experience and understanding.

3. Is it important for the Coach to have my industry background?

The benefits of the Coach not having the same industry background is that it allows the Coach to be completely free of assumptions and judgements which might lead to recommendations instead of a coaching with curiosity.

4. What makes Co-Active Coaching different from other coaching models?

We believe that one of the main differentiators is the strong and deep belief that people are naturally creative, resourceful and whole. It’s an inner attitude which goes beyond words. and because it is a deep belief (and not words which just sound good) it truly empowers clients into magnificance.
Furthermore, as co-active coaches, we coach with are not attached to one system of coaching, but coach with broad spectrum of tools and skills.