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Telling is NOT Coaching

Posted on September 13, 2021 by Cathy Liska

One of the concepts that comes up in talking about coaching is what is coaching and how coaching works. Telling someone what to do and giving advice is not coaching – that may be consulting, mentoring, teaching, or other professional services. Many people have the idea that being the expert, knowing the answer, and knowing the information is how to provide value.  Oftentimes, people come to coach training thinking, this is for me because I’m good at giving advice, as well as good at telling people how they can do it. Telling is NOT Coaching

That’s not coaching!  This is a very common misunderstanding. How do you explain coaching? How does one explain it to somebody who’s unsure? A term I’ve coined is, “coaching is advanced development for advanced results.”

When working with a client, think about multiple services that help them support them. Oftentimes, training makes sense. Alternatively, you may have somebody who’s done the training, and moved to a place where consulting or mentoring makes sense.  A consultant or mentor will give advice; they’ll assess what is going on and make suggestions in terms of what to do and how to do it.  As an advanced development tool, coaching comes after that.

Through coach training, a coach experiences clients as their own best experts.  A coach learns that when telling somebody something, the chances of them doing it decreases. When a coach partners with somebody so that they figure out what they are going to do, the chances of them following through go up because it is their idea, and they own it. The process for partnering is what is gained through coaching certification.

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Group Coaching Enhances Opportunities

Posted on September 9, 2021 by Cathy Liska

What is the potential?  In addition to group or team coaching serving clients well, it is a smart business move because it adds to the options and grows your client base as a coach. Group Coaching Enhances Opportunities

The pros of hearing multiple ideas, sharing common challenges and focus, plus being cost effective are great for clients.

For a coach it is a business builder – some clients will start with a group and then add individual sessions, plus it is another package – group and individual – that can be offered.

Group coaching is an amazing opportunity based on the niche of the coach.  For example:

  • A career coach is smart to offer a package of individual and group sessions with the groups focused on common areas of interest or effort such as job search strategies, networking, confidence, or interviewing.
  • A life coach may offer groups focused on managing ADD, relationships, or transitioning into retirement.
  • An executive coach may offer a master mind group for executives from different organizations or for leadership development.
  • A business coach may offer groups to small business owners wherein they focus on challenges, growth strategies, or succession planning.
  • A wellness coach may offer group sessions focused on nutrition, exercise, or wellness.

Get creative!  What focus is common amongst your clients?  Build a group around what they want to explore.

 

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Group or Team Coaching – A Smart Opportunity

Posted on September 6, 2021 by Cathy Liska

One of the most common areas of feedback following the Certified Master Coach or Certified Coach Specialist programs is how excited people are by the potential of adding group or team coaching to their service offerings.  Typically, this is accompanied by comments on how unexpected the outcome was as they hadn’t thought about it as a possibility. Group or Team Coaching - A Smart Opportunity

What was the previous hesitation behind offering group or team coaching?  Some say they were unsure of how to manage multiple people and others say they were unsure of the value.  Some were unaware of how it applies.  After they participate in and lead sessions, they are hooked.  Group or team coaching becomes a positive game-changer in their work.

What is group or team coaching?  Groups are people whose common interest brings them together whereas a team is people who are working on a shared objective.

Coaches working in organizations often offer both team and individual coaching.  Team coaching may involve working with a team focused on a project, how they function, their relationships, or designing processes.

Group coaching also occurs in organizations.  The difference is that in a group each person is working on their own goals and those personal goals are similar.  For example, the group may be high potential individuals working on their leadership skills.

Group and team coaching are high growth areas.  The Center for Coaching Certification offers free group coaching for coaches each week – email CoachSupport@CoachCert.com to learn how you can participate.

 

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Meet Susanna Theo, a CCC CCE Trainer, and part of our Coach Support Team

Posted on September 2, 2021 by Cathy Liska

www.TCACENTER.comSusanna Theo

Susanna Theo is a trainer and virtual assistant at The Center for Coaching Certification.  She enjoys teaching. Having recently moved, she is spending her free time restoring an old home.

What inspired you to become a coach?

I have business communications teaching and court mediation positions.  I already had clients requesting coaching services and one required that I had an ICF certification.

What specific areas do you focus on?

My niche is business and success.

What do you love most about coaching?

Watching people achieve their success points.

What’s your biggest coaching success story?

A client since 2016 has met and exceeded her goals from a just a seed idea.  She came from a super introverted standpoint.  By designing her own future, she bloomed and felt her inner strength.  It visibly changed her in an awesome way.  She became self-assured about her decisions.

What is the biggest obstacle you have overcome as a coach?

I look at things as moving forward, rather than obstacles.  I go with the flow and take everything as it comes.  I’m very cerebral and introspective and I think about my clients very deeply.

What is one of the biggest challenges you helped one of your clients through?

Confidence building – really knowing their worth and feeling things in their gut.  It is awesome when they feel it and it is a positive strong connection.  The client really takes ownership of the process.

What types of clients do you most like to work with?

Everybody!  I am very open to everyone.  I like to work with people who really want it.

What is your favorite coaching tool?

My words.

What message do you have for anyone considering becoming a coach?

I think everyone should become a coach.  I can see it working for everyone, from parents to teenagers and more.  It teaches us to be active participants in communication, rather than reactive and emotional.

You can check out the rest of our great team at: https://www.coachcert.com/resources/about/team-bios.html

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Meet Dr. Phildra Swagger, ACC, a CCC Trainer

Posted on August 29, 2021 by Cathy Liska

www.PhildraSwagger.com
www.CombinedExpertise.com
Pswagger@combinedexpertise.comDr. Phildra Swagger

Phildra Swagger is originally from North Carolina and holds a PHD.  She thought she wanted to be a school superintendent because she believes in being a teacher’s advocate then found did not like the bureaucracy involved.  She changed careers for nonprofit and charter schools to become a   principal.  Now She resides in Tampa, Florida and has been helping the world through education for 30 yrs.

What inspired you to become a coach?

I’ve been a mentor, advisor, and trainer – and coaching really helps people.  I realized that in coaching I can help you shape your own life and color your own vision.  I can help people live more fully.

What specific areas do you focus on?

I focus on women and empowerment, I’m a success coach.  I work with women who want to be leaders and entrepreneurs. We work on career and personal alignment to be equipped and fulfilled across the board to be your most authentic self.  “Being the CEO of your life.”

What do you love most about coaching?

I get to work with people who share their most intimate challenges and dreams.

What is one of the biggest challenges you helped one of your clients through?

The guilt of being successful.  Did they do enough for their children or marriage? (Other labels and expectations if they are fulfilling their next stage of life.) They feel guilty for being great.

What clients do you most like to work with?

Ones that commit to the process – they work on themselves and their business.

What is your favorite coaching tool?

The basic wheel of life so people can consider all areas of life.  I also like the mountain top view.

What message do you have for anyone considering becoming a coach?

I believe coach training is vital – learn how to be a professional coach.  Get strategies to make sure you can fully serve and be present.  Learn the correct way to provide quality service.

You can check out the rest of our great team at: https://www.coachcert.com/resources/about/team-bios.html

 

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Meet Sarah Roberts, a CCC Trainer

Posted on August 26, 2021 by Cathy Liska

www.ClarityMattersCoach.com

http://LinkedIn.com/in/Sarah-roberts-mha-acc/

Sarah Roberts is an ICF-credentialed ACC Coach working on her PCC.Sarah Roberts

Sarah lives in Colorado.  She enjoys traveling and looks forward to vacation in Michigan near sparkling blue water every summer.  Sarah came into coaching after years of advocating for employee professional development in state government.

What inspired you to become a coach?

I’ve always had a fascination with interpersonal communication, and coaching is a great way to help people develop themselves.  I used it informally as a coach approach in asking rather than telling.  Coaching unlocks the best within people.

What specific areas do you focus on?

I focus on leadership and executive coaching, helping leaders improve their communication skills and build trust within their teams.

How long have you been coaching?

6 years.

What do you love most about coaching?

I love it when people have ah-ha moments and discover something about themselves that they didn’t know. I also love how coaching can change the culture within an organization.  The leader becomes a more positive person, and everyone loves positive people.

I also love the coaching community and what I learn from other coaches around the world.

What is the biggest obstacle you have overcome as a coach?

Charging what I am worth.  I overcame it by listening to a book, “You’re a Badass at Making Money” by Jen Sincero and reading “Overcoming Under-earning” by Barbara Stanny. I also discussed it and had open conversations with my ICF group about what coaches charge.

What is one of the biggest challenges you helped one of your clients through?

Identifying their blind spots and seeing how other people experience or see them.

What types of clients do you most like to work with?

I like to work with clients who have really bought into developing their leadership capability for a mission driven organization for a community.  For example, leaders in social work or government that give back to society or help people. Their mission is to better the world, the community.

How do you describe your approach to the coaching process with a new client?

Doing a thorough assessment of their goals, creating a plan, and working the plan.  I like to measure where they are at the beginning, middle, and end of our engagement.

What is your favorite coaching tool?

The assessments.  I believe in explaining the assessments to the clients.  They can be very helpful in coaching.

In closing, what message do you have for anyone considering becoming a coach?

Just do it!  Coaching can change the world.

You can check out the rest of our great team at: https://www.coachcert.com/resources/about/team-bios.html

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Meet Jane Storm, part of the CCC Business Development Team

Posted on August 23, 2021 by Cathy Liska

www.JaneStorm.com,   Jane@JaneStorm.comJane Strorm

She is a New Yorker with a great passion for coaching.

 What a unique name! How did Jane Storm come about?

I was working for a vendor meeting.  On the wall of the creative department, they had a sign that said Jane Storm. I use that as the name of my company.  I give the freedom and space to create a unique and action-oriented business plans that move my clients forward. I Jane Storm, not brainstorm.

What inspired you to become a coach?

I love connecting with people.  I knew I had the ability to work in collaboration with people to move them forward.

What specific areas do you focus on?

I focus on a couple of different areas:
Transformation Coaching
Executive Coaching
Group Coachingg

What do you love most about coaching?

Getting people to their WOW is amazing.  Watching them transform and create opportunities for themselves is what I love the most!

What is the biggest obstacle you have overcome as a coach?

I have struggled with listening and less talking.

What is one of the biggest challenges you helped one of your clients through?

Helping someone who was stuck in a career that she hated, to move into a career that she loves.  Witnessing her inner light and courage as she was doing it.

 What types of clients do you most like to work with?

I love working with people who want to do the work.  They may not know how to do it, and they want to do it.

What is your favorite coaching tool?

The affirmation story and mind mapping are my personal favorites.

What message do you have for anyone considering becoming a coach?

Be unique.  Be trustworthy.  Be valuable.  Be reliable.  Be curious.  Listen.  Listen.  Listen. Find the coursework and the certification that taps into your rigor and passion because this is not an easy road.

You can check out the rest of our great team at: https://www.coachcert.com/resources/about/team-bios.html

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Meet Pandora Ray, host of our weekly Free Coaching for Coaches group as well part of the CCC Business Development Team

Posted on August 19, 2021 by Cathy Liska

Pdotray@gmail.comPandora Ray

Pandora Ray is a fabulous coach here at the Center for Coaching Certification who does our Group Coaching on Fridays.  CoachSupport@CoachCert.com

Pan grew up in North Carolina and went to a women’s college in in the bay area of California on a scholarship. She came from blue collar roots.  Her career has been in the business and public healthcare field making a difference in peoples’ health.

Let us discover more about Pan as a coach!

What inspired you to become a coach?

I have always believed it important to pay things forward.  I was involved in the Regional Institute for Health and Environmental Leadership Program here in Denver, Colorado.  Coaching was part of that program.  Later, because of my experiences there, I decided to implement a coaching program in my not-for-profit organization where I worked.  It made me curious about how to grow, learn, and give my best.  That is what brought me to the door of the Center for Coaching Certification.

What specific areas do you focus on?

Whole person coaching, in other words, asking clients: What do you really want in your life physically, emotionally, financially, and professionally?  I do a lot of leadership coaching.  Mainly I work with people who want to grow themselves, and in the way they want to grow.  One of my favorite quotes is from Mary Oliver, “You do not have to be good.  You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles in the desert to be good.  You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”  The poem is WILD GEESE.  We have one precious life, how are we going to live it?

How long have you been coaching?

Since 2014, 7 years.

What do you love most about coaching?

I learn more from coaching than my clients learn.  I love to mentor coaches and recruit them, and hear them say, “I have learned more about myself, and it makes me light up”.  I know they are using their skills, they are taking root.  It is a blessing.  To have one small finite granule of a contribution is unbelievable.

I’m learning more and more about myself as a person: how I show up, affect others, and how I can make a small difference.  I think we are drawn to people who similarly minded, and it is important for me to pursue conversations with people who show different perspectives and to say, “help me understand.  I want to know you.”

What is the biggest obstacle you have overcome as a coach?

Confidence.  When I just relax and am just present for the client, I’m good.  When I have to get from point A to point B, it’s an obstacle.  Letting the client do their work and me being a vessel of encouragement, acknowledgment, and inspiration. Prompting the client for their own accountability for how they want to move forward. Now it works beautifully.

What is one of the biggest challenges you helped one of your clients through?

A high-level director that felt his staff was not supportive of him.  He had a lot of degrees and accolades etc.  As he began to think internally to himself and become able to reach out to direct reports a different way. He created broader dialogue that created new plans, new thinking, and new operations.

What types of clients do you most like to work with?

People that want to grow and develop, internally reflect, and shift from status quo to change.

How do you describe your approach to the coaching process with a new client?

There is a lot of inquiry into who you are, what you want to be, where you want to go.  I support my clients and use reflective inquiry.

What is your favorite coaching tool?

The Power of Questioning!

What message do you have for anyone considering becoming a coach?

It is an art, a science, and a gift.

You can check out the rest of our great team at: https://www.coachcert.com/resources/about/team-bios.html

 

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Meet Genaro Torres, a CCC Trainer

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Cathy Liska

https://www.linkedin.com/in/genaro-torres

Here at the Center for Coaching Certification, we have a great team!  This blog series highlights some of these outstanding team members.

Genaro Torres is from Mexico City. He had his own consulting company in continuous operations improvement. A client was looking for a coaching background, so he wanted training and reached out to Cathy Liska, the founder of the Center for Coaching Certification.  Genaro Torres

What inspired you to become a coach?

I didn’t know that I was kind of coaching before I got involved.  It wasn’t that I knew coaches or of the profession.

I realized that organizations were putting value on what coaches were doing.

What specific areas do you focus on?

I focus on executive coaching, and I create a very strong bond because of the informed questions I ask with my business background.

What do you love most about coaching?

I love that people have increased self-esteem when they realize that they have the intelligence and tools to overcome obstacles to achieve whatever they want to achieve.

A coach is a strategic thinking partner; they partner with clients to solve for themselves, which boosts their self-esteem during the process.

What is one of the biggest challenges you helped one of your clients through?

When a client sets an audacious goal, that calls for self-esteem and trust in themselves. Sometimes they aren’t aware they can achieve the goal.  They may want me to answer questions and they know I won’t. To explore with them the true meaning of a goal, the time, the effort, the feelings, the value, and their ability to achieve it, that is what I do.

What is your favorite coaching tool?

Mind Jet Mind Manager which I use to take notes.

What message do you have for anyone considering becoming a coach?

If you are truly interested in becoming a coach, make sure you want to make it a lifestyle. It is more than a certification and keeping it pure is what benefits the client.  Your experience and background are not that useful; that is not the real value and that requires a lot of humility.

You can check out the rest of our great team at: https://www.coachcert.com/resources/about/team-bios.html

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Listening on Multiple Levels

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Cathy Liska

Listening – really listening – is a gift.  For the person speaking, to know they are heard and understood is a wonderful experience.  Reflect for yourself: how often have you experienced someone really listening?  How did you feel when it did happen?  Common responses to these questions are that it is unusual for someone to really listen and that when it happens if feels amazing – empowering and caring. Listening on Multiple Levels

Coaching sessions are an opportunity to have someone really listen and then go deeper and broader because the coach asks questions.  Coaching is both the gift of listening and the gift of being challenged to expand thinking.  The process opens eyes and doors to opportunities.

This is because coaches are trained to listen to understand their clients.  This includes listening for their personal style, their learning style, their experiences, their culture, their beliefs and attitudes, and where they are at in the moment.  Based on the listening, coaching questions are formulated to explore and to expand thinking.

The outcome of a coach listening on multiple levels is that the client gains clarity, awareness, and learns about themselves.  This in turn leads to the client choosing how to use their learning, develop their strategies, choose their actions, and decide how to manage their own accountability.

Listening is the start of creating the positive changes desired.

 

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