Changes
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There are many wonderful helping professionals out there with a wide variety of experiences and approaches. Remember, if you have an experience with a helping professional that is not what you are looking for, it may not indicate a poor fit. It could reflect your own discomfort in addressing an aspect of yourself that has long been neglected. Whatever it is, dialogue can be helpful. Your discomfort or a discrepancy of outlook is unlikely to be a reflection of the profession itself. Remember, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” Seeking a professional who is a great fit should raise just as many questions about yourself as it does about the person you are looking for.
For more information about creating changes or working with a helping professional, find some free helpful tools and strategies here: www.arcintegrated.com/changes
CHAPTER 23 ACTIVITY
The questions below will help you find someone who is the best fit for you in terms of communication style, philosophy, and values. It will be valuable to track your answers in one place.
Describe three valuable exchanges you’ve had recently. Write down each exchange as a story, and be sure to include all the details. Specificity in your account will clarify the dynamic of the exchange.
What did you appreciate about each of the exchanges?
Describe the process by which you think positive change occurs. Use this description to help you find a helping professional that fits your needs.
Ask your prospective helping professional how they think positive change occurs. Do your descriptions match? If not, can you still work with this person? Still not sure? Share what you wrote here with your prospective helping professional, and see where the conversation goes. Take notes on this conversation and reflect on what seems promising and what might be a challenge.
What does your budget look like? Consider writing out your price range and availability prior to setting up an interview with a helping professional.
After interviewing each helping professional, write down his/her name and how you felt after speaking with them. Did you feel excited, curious, tired, inspired, or irritated? Pay attention to what your body and intuition are telling you about compatibility.
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The Difference Between Coaching and Therapy
Choosing a coach or a therapist can be a tough decision. This chapter provides the information you need to determine which one is right for you.
Working with a therapist often concerns a pain or dysfunction that needs to be addressed. It could be related to depression, anxiety, trauma, substance abuse, or some other unresolved condition. When looking for a coach, you may be more interested in developing better business practices, advancing or changing careers, or improving your health, finances, or leadership capabilities, something new, improving something already in place, or advancing in career, health, finance, leadership, or in relationships.
As previously mentioned, the coaching is more forward-facing and goal-oriented. The International Coach Federation, a leading authority in coaching, defines the coaching process as “a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires [clients] to maximize their personal and professional potential.” 105
Since we’ve already discussed the various types of therapy, let’s take a look at the different types of coaching.
Life Coaching or Personal Development Coaching – I rarely use the term, life coaching. I choose personal development coaching as an alternative term because it puts more emphasis on the client’s choice. Our own development is something that we actively choose, or don’t choose. Unfortunately, many people go through life without making choices that move them toward self-improvement.
Life is a given, life-development is a choice.
Personal development coaching can be related to work, relationships, finance, wellness as well as many other factors. This type of coaching may involve exploring strengths and challenges in order to build on individual passions, successes, motivations, disciplines, and experiences.
Leadership/Executive Coaching – Executive coaches often work with organizational or business leaders on improving business strategy or leadership. Alternatively, executive coaches work with clients on self-care, stress management, self-awareness, and other interpersonal dynamics that impact business. Areas that executive coaches may focus on with clients include communication, leadership, time management, team dynamics, change management, employee engagement, workplace culture, and employee/employer conflicts.
Career Coaching – Just as it sounds, with a career coach you’ll explore what kind of career to start, transition from, or change. Working with a career coach may be helpful when trying to identify insight, talents, strengths, or blind spots that affect work and career options.
Similar to therapy, coaching involves setting goals and pursuing specific outcomes. Unlike therapy, however, coaching involves a forward-facing strategy and is not focused on resolving dysfunction or processing pain. While these issues may come up, the focus in coaching is primarily on action, taking steps to reach goals.
If you decide coaching is the route to take, remember that, as with therapy, there are lots of options.
Here is one way I like to visualize coaching and counseling/therapy:
Regardless of specialty, what qualifications should one look for in a coach? As pertinent as this question is, it’s also tricky because, as with all the disciplines within the wider field of behavioral health, coaching continues to evolve. Plus, without mandatory licensure, anyone can call him or herself a coach. (As we’ve learned, Psychologists, Marriage and Family Therapists, Professional Counselors and Social Workers, do require licenses.)
Compared to therapy, coaching is a newer field and therefore less institutionalized. Coaching courses only provide certification, not licensure. Though not strictly necessary, you can obtain a certificate in a wide variety of coaching disciplines and areas of expertise.
Does this make coaching less credible? I don’t think so. While coaching is not governed with the same level of scrutiny as are the other mental health professions, the good work performed by the highly skilled professionals in the coaching field should not be discounted.
There are many advantages to the coaching process. For instance, there are fewer restrictions pertaining to working with clients remotely. Effectively, this means that you can hire a coach from anywhere in the country just as easily as you could hire one in your own neighborhood. Many states place heavy restrictions on therapists in regard to remote work. That said, the issue of virtual client meetings within the various helping professions continues to evolve. Again, as opposed to therapy, which often addresses pain or dysfunction, the coaching process is often more forward-facing and solution-oriented, which is desirable for many clients.
Ultimately, it comes down to three questions:
Do you identify with this person?
Do you trust this person?
Do you believe you will gain valuable insight through working with this person?
These are important questions to ask of anyone, regardless of the title they use.
In my opinion, both coaching and therapy are valuable. Your decision between them should depend on two factors: the approach you are looking for and the area in which you are seeking change.
For additional information on coaching, try the well-respected resource, The International Coaching Federation.106 For access to more information about therapy, visit the online resources I mentioned last chapter, Good Therapy or Psychology Today.
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Beginning the Search
Honestly answering the following questions will help inform your search for a coach or therapist. Once you begin your search, use your responses as a guide to compare how the professionals explain their services. An overlap between your answers and their explanations may indicate a good fit!
1. How action-oriented do you want this process to be?
2. How much time do you want to spend processing current situations and/or past experiences?
3. Are you struggling with some kind of traumatic experience?
4. Is the change you are searching for more goal-oriented or process-oriented? If you are more interested in processing something, what form do you imagine this taking? Would it be helpful to search for the root of the problem, or would it be more pragmatic to focus primarily on current solutions?
5. Do you want to gain insight into this issue or are you just interested in changing circumstances?
When interviewing therapists or coaches during your search, you can now use your answers to these questions, as well as the previous chapter activities as material for discussion. Your answers will offer valuable clues to finding the right fit for you.
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Coaching for Organizational Success
Now that you know more about the differences between coaching and therapy, let’s take a closer look at the results of working with a coach. In this chapter you’ll learn more about the benefits that coaching brings to individuals and organizations.
Coaches typically help individuals or organizations identify goals, set commitments, and build on strengths to institute changes that lead to growth. The demand for coaching is on the rise. As of 2019 numerous universities offer coaching certificate programs. The most prestigious include Northwestern, Columbia, UC Berkeley, George Washington, and Harvard. In addition to these highly reputable universities, there are also hundreds of other coaching programs that are less selective. For a comprehensive list, consult the International Coach Federation (ICF), the major accrediting institute for all coach-training programs.107
In the last chapter, we reviewed various coaching specializations. Despite the various types, there is also much convergence. For instance, personal development coaching overlaps with all other types of coaching since exploring our beliefs, behaviors, aspirations, and expectations pertain to our career, relationships, and just about any change we are seeking.
In the coming pages, we’ll explore what it means to be coached and, in particular, how a coach is relevant to business and organizational success.
A couple things to remember from the last chapter:
The field of coaching encompasses a variety of specializations including: executive coaching, life/personal development coaching, leadership coaching, and career coaching.
Coaching usually does not have an emphasis on processing a particular pain or dysfunction. There is more emphasis on goal setting and personal optimization.
I think it may be helpful at this point to describe the actual process of working with a coach. In many ways, it’s similar to working with a therapist. Typically, coaching begins with some paperwork and discussion about goals and desired changes to be made within a certain time frame (six months, for example). Like therapists, coaches often use assessments, but they do so for different purposes. Coaching assessments help clients build insight into various workplace or professional attributes such as leadership, communication, motivation, and emotional intelligence. Coaches work with clients in 60-90 minute sessions in person or remotely. The frequency (weekly, monthly, etc.) depends on the coach’s recommendation and the client’s resources.
The International Coaching Federation (ICF), the leading professional organization for coaches, has about 25,000 members. Also, according to the ICF, the number of coaches in America has tripled in the last 10 years.108 As coaching evolves and becomes even more popular, this number is expected to grow at its current steep rate. The two most reported reasons people seek coaching are work-life balance and personal growth. According to The Center for Creative Leadership, coaching can also improve self-awareness, improve understanding of others, enhance the ability to communicate as well as enhance the ability to coach others.109
Coaching is also popular and effective for organizations as a whole. According to a study by The Miles Group and Stanford University, nearly one-third of all executives work with coaches, while nearly 100 percent report desiring a coach.110 The study also found that 43 percent of executives reported conflict management as their top priority in seeking a coach. Turning to coaching to develop leadership and communication skills also ranks highly.
While making improvements in conflict management, leadership, and communication skills is important, there are underlying principles that must be developed first as a foundation for those goals. Principles such as compassion, empathy, and self-awareness have been proven to be valuable assets to executives.111
Coaching can offer great insight into the needs and concerns across an organizational hierarchy. For example, research by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University suggests that as one’s professional power increases, one’s empathy decreases.112 In this respect, coaching on self-awareness and empathy can play a corrective role in effecting personal and organizational success. As one assumes a greater leadership role, one bears greater responsibilities. Foremost among these is connecting with others, an essential quality of effective leaders.
Coaching is not just about improving the organizational bottom line, although this is often the result. Coaching can also impact professionals at the personal level. According to a survey by the Harvard Business Review, while only 3 percent of coaches were intentionally hired to help address a personal issue, 76 percent report having assisted executives with personal issues.113 These figures suggest that while personal issues are a key focus in executive coaching scenarios, there is still a general misunderstanding about how entangled business and personal development truly are. Clearly, there is a demand for coaching, especially when people are honest with themselves. The survey also revealed that those who had a desire to learn and grow and were willing to address personal issues experienced the greatest success with executive coaching.
So, you may be asking, what is the true financial return on investment (ROI) when working with a coach? According to a study by Manchester Consulting Group, which looked at Fortune 100 executives who had received coaching, there was an ROI of six times the cost of the coaching program.114 Coaching resulted in improvements in relationships, teamwork, and job satisfaction across organizations.
But what kind of organizations are implementing coaching? You may think this is only for Fortune 500 companies. Not so. In addition to working with global corporations, I have consulted with a wide range of small organizations, including individual startups with minimal staff and family-owned businesses. In addition, I have worked with clients in a variety of industries from global manufacturing to higher education to landscaping. The value of coaching does not depend on what field you are in or the size of the company you work for. You don’t need to be Google to invest in your workplace culture, prioritize employee satisfaction, or set up opportunities for trust, transparency, positive communication, and inspiration-based leadership. You also certainly don’t need to be a corporate CEO to invest in your own continued development, which will absolutely impact your business’s bottom line.
Development is vital in any industry. For instance, I once worked with a company in the landscaping industry that was invested in its workplace culture, employee development, and personal and professional development. I worked with the leadership team as well as employees. The company leaders are of particular relevance to this book. They were able to see how communication, leadership, and emotional intelligence impacted the bottom line. Moreover, they came to understand how their communication style, management of stress, and general disposition as leaders also played a role in their personal lives. Having discovered how the parts of their development were connected, they were able to take aspects of our work and apply it to their lives outside of work. Through our hard work, we uncovered valuable insights into how they managed stress at home and how they engaged with their families.
My hope for all my clients is that they can connect professional and personal development to ensure the success of both.
Your success depends on your personal level of commitment and readiness for change. If you are ready to take a look inward to
uncover your barriers to success, then coaching is a great choice.
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Explore the following questions and consider how each leads to an action step. This activity will help you decide if coaching is right for you and, if so, will help you determine what kind of coach would be the most fitting, given your current needs.
Understanding what you want and how to get it is important. The next step is to ask for it.
Does your organization have an internal coaching program? If not, consider presenting some of the data from this chapter to a leader in the organization to start the conversation about implementing such a program. Perhaps it would also be useful to inquire about your organization sponsoring your coaching as a component to your professional development. Yes, organizations do this. We see it all the time.
What would be the added value to your organization if you pursued coaching?
More specifically, if you were to work with a coach, what types of outcomes would most benefit your organization (leadership, emotional intelligence, productivity, delegation, etc.)?
What would be the value of pursuing coaching independent of your organization?
Based on what you have learned about the benefits of coaching so far, what value do you think a coach would add to your pursuit of personal or professional goals?
Journal about how you would create connections between personal development and your ability to succeed in your career.
Refer to your responses as you consider which coach is the right fit. Also, consider sharing your written responses with coaching candidates. Your responses will offer the coach a window into who you are. They may also serve as a springboard to a robust conversation that will help you determine goodness of fit.