FAQ about Coaching

What is coaching?

According to the International Coach Federation:

“Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

Professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches’ help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives.

 Coaches are trained to listen, to observe and to customize their approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally creative and resourceful. The coach's job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has.”

How is coaching different from CONSULTING?

Generally speaking, consultants are paid to diagnose problems, prescribe specific solutions and often times offer implementation of those solutions.  The assumption with coaching is that you are capable of generating your own solutions with the coach providing skilled support, discovery based approaches and framework.

How is coaching different from THERAPY?

Coaches don’t “treat” mental health disorders.

• Coaches are collaborators rather than psychological “experts.”
• Therapists rely on psychological theory, etiology and treatment plans for wisdom while coaches look within the client for wisdom.
• Therapy often asks, “Why?” and concerns itself with the client’s past; coaching often asks, “What?” and concerns itself more with the present and future.
• Therapy seeks to single out and fix unresolved psychological issues; coaching is more concerned with thinking and behavioral patterns in the pursuit of greater fulfillment, dynamic balance and big goals.
• Co-Active coaching focuses on the client’s whole life; traditional psychotherapy targets specific symptoms.
• Traditional therapists withhold intuitive thoughts; coaches blurt intuitive thoughts.

How is professional coaching different from SPORTS coaching?

Professional coaching leverages similar principles as sports coaching, like teamwork, going for the goal and peak performance. But unlike sports coaching, most professional coaching is not defined by a set of defined rules of play or focused on external competition.  We help you define your own “game(s)” in life and strengthen your thinking and behavioral skills in order to “win” the game of life.

How is coaching different from A BEST FRIEND?

Friendships are incredible gifts but the relationship between you and your coach vs. best friend is quite different.  The coach/client relationship is a professional partnership with the focal point being YOU.  This wouldn’t’ be appropriate for a friendship.  Often times, our friends want to offer advice rather than guide us through a process of self-discovery.  And lastly, “best friends” are typically not trained objective professionals you can trust to process through some of the most important aspects of your life and/or business without a personal motive or bias.  Have a best friend and an RCS coach.

Why is coaching becoming so popular?

Coaching is becoming popular for several reasons:

• Many people are tired of doing what they "should" do and are ready to do something special and meaningful for the rest of their lives. The problem is that many can't see it, or if they can, they can't see a way to reorient their life around it. A coach can help them do both.
• People are realizing how simple it can be to accomplish something that several years ago might have felt out of reach or like a pipe dream. A coach is not a miracle worker (well, they are, sometimes) but a coach does have a large tool kit to help the Big Game become a Reality. Fortunately, people now have time and resources to invest in themselves in this kind of growth.
• A culture that values independence is moving towards one that increasingly values interdependence.  We call it the “single warrior mentality.”  Simply put, we can do much more, much better and much faster with a coach helping us win the game of life.

Please, give me some context about coaching...

A professional coach is like having a sports coach but more completely and in a much bigger way.  Your RCS coach will challenge you and will take the time to find out what living a successful life means to you. Your RCS coach will be a confidant, accountability partner, mentor at times, friend on occasion and above all, you’re most influential resource in fulfilling your God given purpose.  Your RCS coach is someone to hold you accountable for choices you make, actions you take and results you create, making sure you really do live up to your potential.

Your RCS coach is trained to see the potential in you that you may not see in yourself.  That’s often times all we need, someone to see our true potential and help us see more within ourselves.  It is the nature of people to want to attain more, become more, be more, and we all struggle with how to get what we're looking for.

Most people believe that "hard work and doing it on your own" are the keys to finding the life, success, money, or happiness that they seek. They believe that a price must be paid to attain what they want, and often that price is poor health, not having enough time to enjoy life, strained family relationships or lessened productivity. The saddest part is that, even though this effort may result in more of something, it is often not the something you had in mind, and you are back where you started, or worse, further from your real intentions.

Athletes and performers know about this trap. They know they need someone else, a trained someone else to help them set goals, discover real needs, and work effectively toward ultimate goals of excellence. So, they are willing to hire a coach or a teacher. No serious athlete or musician would expect to progress very far without one.

Can a dependency be created between coach and client?

Desire perhaps, but not dependency.  Because clients’ often recognize that coaching helps them maximize their opportunities and accelerate their growth, they often choose to continue leveraging this powerful and unique relationship.  Dependency is neither something your coach will want nor is it something he/she will allow.  Remember, we're not resolving issues here. The coach is helping you to create a better future: more success, more money, and a higher quality of life.

Can coaching hurt someone?

No. How? We aren't doing psychological work or offering medical treatment.  We're not trying to control or manipulate you either.  We’re asking questions, helping you discover more of yourself and providing skills to manage your thoughts and behaviors for success.  It’s a collaborative partnership.

How long must I commit if I start working with a coach?

Expect to work with your coach at least 6 months because that’s what it usually takes to achieve most big goals and see significant tangible results in your life and career.  However, if you see during the first month that the coaching is not working for you, we offer several options including assigning a different coach to establish better chemistry or discontinuation.