The coaching soap bubble

From time to time, journalists turn their heads towards coaching and decide to write about what’s going in with this market. It’s just that most of the time, they miss the point. And I get annoyed.

As Andrea Lee said on the stage of the ICF Conference, back on March 8, 2012: look at the things that ANNOY YOU and become best at them.

Journalists often ask the same things: “what is coaching?”, or “how much money does a coach earn?”, or “how much does coaching cost?”

First of all, coaching isn’t just about money. Many people think that you become a coach and suddenly start to earn loads of dollars. This is a soap bubble, an illusion, because it’s really not that way in most cases. Even great coaches still opt out to give free coaching hours sometimes.

Coaches often put a lot of effort in getting better at it. They go to schools, get accredited, they practice a lot and so on. Sometimes, your first paying client comes only after a couple of years of learning. Till then, and even later on, asking for $200 per hour for example is just a dream.

But as I said, coaching isn’t about money. It doesn’t matter the price, as long as you cannot prove YOUR VALUE. It is about the results of your client.

It is about that manager who gets promoted as a team leader and he must integrate his NEW ROLE and take his team towards obtaining sustainable results. It’s about that employee who gets promoted as the manager of the team he was once part of and struggles to change the way he communicates with his ex comrades. He must find the NEW POSITION from which he will be accepted and listened to as a leader.

This person will have to work on her mindset, her perspective, and her feelings. She is now STUCK in a place where she believes that she still has to do EVERYTHING by herself and forgets about the team. She needs to get out of this paradigm and understand her new role, thus being able to speak and reach her team with a clear and authentic message.

Coaching is also about that woman who gave birth, raised a child and she is now preparing for her comeback in the workforce but doesn’t feel ready for it.

Talking about results, a writing coach for example will help his client to UNDERSTAND his role regarding writing, OVERCOME obstacles, CHANGE behaviors, and maybe launch a blog and write something daily.

A mentor business coach helps his client to make an assessment of the level he reached in developing his business, marketing or sales.

Everybody talks about coaching and thinks about money, instead of what results you can achieve through it. It is not the coach who should talk about coaching, but his clients.

YOUR GIFT: Post a comment below and share your thoughts on how it was FOR YOU to coach or to be a coaching client. YOU CAN WIN a 30 minutes strategic session with me.