Frequently Asked Questions

The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential, which is particularly important in today’s uncertain and complex environment. Coaches honor the client as the expert in his or her life and work and believe every client is creative, resourceful and whole. Standing on this foundation, the coach’s responsibility is to:
• Discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve
• Encourage client self-discovery
• Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies
• Hold the client responsible and accountable
This process helps clients dramatically improve their outlook on work and life, while improving their leadership skills and unlocking their potential.

To determine whether you or your company could benefit from coaching, start by summarizing what you would expect to accomplish in coaching. When an individual or business has a fairly clear idea of the desired outcome, a coaching partnership can be a useful tool for developing a strategy and achieving the outcome with greater ease.

Since coaching is a partnership, ask yourself whether the collaboration with the coach will be helpful, do you agree with their viewpoints, and will their perspectives add value? Also, ask yourself whether you or your business are ready to devote the time and the energy to making real changes. If the answer is yes, then coaching may be a beneficial way to grow and develop.

The following are some points to bear in mind when selecting a coach:
1) A coach need not be an expert in a particular field. e.g. if you’re a doctor, it is not necessary to find a coach that is a medical guru. Having said that, strong general knowledge about your profession from the coach is however essential in building rapport and maintaining credibility.
2) Speak informally with your prospective coach first and see if you feel comfortable with them. For coaching to be effective it is important to feel that your coach is capable of completely listening to you, without judgment. Most coaches offer discounted or free preliminary sessions – use these to help you make your decision.
3) Try out a few coaches before you decide who you’d enjoy working with. Coaching is about helping you achieve your potential and exploring what works best for you is part of that process. When you find someone that works well for you, stick with them.
4) If you don’t know where to start looking, ICF (the International Coach Federation) is a global body that offers accreditation based on a combination of training and practical coaching experience. Coaches that attended ICF accredited courses or are ICF certified have at least proven that they are serious about coaching as these involve some investment in terms of both time and money.

An individual or team might choose to work with a coach for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:
• Something urgent, compelling or exciting is at stake (a challenge, stretch goal or opportunity)
• A gap exists in knowledge, skills, confidence or resources
• A desire to accelerate results
• A lack of clarity with choices to be made
• Success has started to become problematic
• Work and life are out of balance, creating unwanted consequences
• Core strengths need to be identified, along with how best to leverage them

It depends on where you are, where you want to go, and how quickly you want to get there. Some clients are able to achieve their goals in as little as one to three months. Most often, clients stay with a coach anywhere from six to eighteen months. After clients realize their first goals, they often identify other areas they want to work on. The coaching relationship continues as long as there is benefit to the client. It is important to remember that many coaching techniques and processes can be learnt and practiced on your own. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, a good coach’s goal should be to reduce your dependency on them as soon as possible – that shows you’re becoming more resourceful and that you’re learning to more effectively deal with new situations as they arise.

Coaching has grown significantly for many reasons, among them:
• Rapid changes are taking place in the external business environment.
• Downsizing, restructuring, mergers and other organizational changes have radically altered the “traditional employment contract.” Companies can no longer achieve results using traditional management approaches.
• With the growing shortage of talented employees in certain industries, companies must commit to investing in individuals’ development.
• The disparity between what managers were trained to do and what their jobs now require of them is widening due to increasing demands for competitive results.
• People are wrestling with job insecurity and increased workplace pressures to perform at higher levels than ever before.
• Companies must develop inclusive, collaborative work environments to achieve strategic business goals and to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.
• Individuals who have experienced the excellent results of coaching are talking to more people about it.
• People today are more open to the idea of being in charge of their own lives. Coaching helps them do just that.
In short, coaching helps individuals and companies focus on what matters most in life and business, and so the industry continues to grow.

Coaching is a meditative practice for me. I use our sessions as an opportunity to quiet my mind completely. This enables me to calmly listen to exactly what you are and are not saying. I listen with clarity and without passing judgment. I utilize a collection of self taught learning, life experiences and corporate coaching & development to support your coaching session.
An essential part of the coaching process is asking relevant and often challenging questions. My experience allows me to do so in a way that will keep you curious about yourself and stretch your thinking. The point of each session is to make you more resourceful to find your personal path.

Coaching typically begins with a personal interview (either face-to-face or by teleconference call) to assess the individual’s or business’ current opportunities and challenges, define the scope of the relationship, identify priorities for action and establish specific desired outcomes. Subsequent coaching sessions may be conducted in person or over the telephone, with each session lasting a previously established length of time. Between scheduled coaching sessions, the individual may be asked to complete specific actions that support the achievement of one’s personally prioritized goals. The coach may provide additional resources in the form of relevant articles, checklists, assessments or models to support the individual’s or business’ thinking and actions. The duration of the coaching relationship varies depending on needs and preferences.
• Assessments: A variety of assessments are available to support the coaching process, depending upon the needs and circumstances of the individual or business. Assessments provide objective information that can enhance self-awareness, as well as awareness of others and their circumstances; provide a benchmark for creating coaching goals and actionable strategies; and offer a method for evaluating progress.
• Concepts, models and principles: A variety of concepts, models and principles drawn from the behavioral sciences, management literature, spiritual traditions and/or the arts and humanities may be incorporated into the coaching conversation to increase self-awareness and awareness of others, foster shifts in perspective, promote fresh insights, provide new frameworks for looking at opportunities and challenges, and energize and inspire forward actions.
• Appreciative approach: Coaching incorporates an appreciative approach, grounded in what’s right, what’s working, what’s wanted and what’s needed to get there. Using an appreciative approach, the coach models constructive communication skills and methods to enhance personal communication effectiveness. He or she incorporates discovery-based inquiry, proactive (as opposed to reactive) ways of managing personal opportunities and challenges, constructive framing of observations and feedback to elicit the most positive responses from others, and visions of success as contrasted with focusing on problems. The appreciative approach is simple to understand and employ, and its reach can be profound, opening up new possibilities and spurring action.

The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on the individual’s or team’s needs and preferences. For certain types of focused coaching, three to six months of working may work. For other types of coaching, people may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer period. Factors that may impact the length of time include: the types of goals, the ways individuals or teams prefer to work, the frequency of coaching meetings and financial resources available to support coaching.

Overall, be prepared to design the coaching partnership with the coach. For example, think of a strong partnership that you currently have in your work or life. Look at how you built that relationship and what is important to you about partnership. You will want to build those same things into a coaching relationship. Here are a few other tips:
• Interview more than one coach to determine “what feels right” in terms of the chemistry. Coaches are accustomed to being interviewed, and an introductory conversation of this type is usually free of charge.
• Look for stylistic similarities and differences between the coach and you and how these might support your growth as an individual or the growth of your team.
• Discuss your goals for coaching within the context of the coach’s specialty or the coach’s preferred way of working with an individual or team
• Talk with the coach about what to do if you ever feel things are not going well; make some agreements up front on how to handle questions or problems.
• Remember that coaching is a partnership, so be assertive about talking with the coach about any concerns.

The coach:
• Provides objective assessment and observations that foster the individual’s or team’s self-awareness and awareness of others
• Listens closely to fully understand the individual’s or team’s circumstances
• Acts as a sounding board in exploring possibilities and implementing thoughtful planning and decision making
• Champions opportunities and potential, encouraging stretch and challenge commensurate with personal strengths and aspirations
• Fosters shifts in thinking that reveal fresh perspectives,
• Challenges blind spots to illuminate new possibilities and support the creation of alternative scenarios
• Maintains professional boundaries in the coaching relationship, including confidentiality, and adheres to the coaching profession’s code of ethics.

The individual:
• Creates the coaching agenda based on personally meaningful coaching goals
• Uses assessment and observations to enhance self-awareness and awareness of others
• Envisions personal and/or organizational success
• Assumes full responsibility for personal decisions and actions
• Utilizes the coaching process to promote possibility thinking and fresh perspectives
• Takes courageous action in alignment with personal goals and aspirations
• Engages big-picture thinking and problem-solving skills
• Takes the tools, concepts, models and principles provided by the coach and engages in effective forward actions

To be successful, coaching asks certain things, all of which begin with intention. Additionally, clients should:
• Focus on one’s self, the tough questions, the hard truths and one’s success.
• Observe the behaviors and communications of others.
• Listen to one’s intuition, assumptions, judgments, and to the way one sounds when one speaks
• Challenge existing attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and develop new ones that serve one’s goals in a superior way
• Leverage personal strengths and overcome limitations to develop a winning style
• Take decisive actions, however uncomfortable and in spite of personal insecurities, to reach for the extraordinary
• Show compassion for one’s self while learning new behaviors and experiencing setbacks, and to show that compassion for others as they do the same
• Commit to not take one’s self so seriously, using humor to lighten and brighten any situation
• Maintain composure in the face of disappointment and unmet expectations, avoiding emotional reactivity
• Have the courage to reach for more than before while engaging in continual self examination without fear

Measurement may be thought of in two distinct ways: external indicators of performance and internal indicators of success. Ideally, both are incorporated.
Examples of external measures include achievement of coaching goals established at the outset of the coaching relationship, increased income/revenue, obtaining a promotion, performance feedback that is obtained from a sample of the individual’s constituents (e.g., direct reports, colleagues, customers, boss, the manager him/herself), personal and/or business performance data (e.g., productivity, efficiency measures). The external measures selected should be things the individual is already measuring and has some ability to directly influence.
Examples of internal measures include self-scoring/self-validating assessments that can be administered initially and at regular intervals in the coaching process, changes in the individual’s self-awareness and awareness of others, shifts in thinking that create more effective actions, and shifts in one’s emotional state that inspire confidence.

Working with a coach requires both a personal commitment of time and energy as well as a financial commitment. Fees charged vary by specialty and by the level of experience of the coach. Individuals should consider both the desired benefits as well as the anticipated length of time to be spent in coaching. Since the coaching relationship is predicated on clear communication, any financial concerns or questions should be voiced in initial conversations before the agreement is made.

Professionally trained, certified coaches charge fees in line with other highly trained professionals. Fees vary from coach to coach, and are based on a variety of factors including whether it’s in-person or over the telephone.

We charge based on the project and duration. Upon completion of a complimentary 30 minutes session we will have a better understanding of your current challenges and goals. Payment for sessions are made monthly on the 1st of each month. Payment can be made by either cash, check, or credit card.

*Corporate Pricing contains separate parameters and payment terms. Please contact us for additional information.

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Yes, you can increase or decrease sessions at any time after signing up.

We work with clients all over the world. Most remote sessions are conducted over Skype, Face Time, the telephone or via email. If there is a special need, we are able to travel worldwide for coaching projects.

You can reach us through the below link to the Contact Page. Please include your contact information, a brief idea of your project/challenges/goals and a good time to reach you.

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Mount Laurel, NJ