Letter To A New Personal Performance Coach - Part III
Continuing the discussion of beginning Coaching questions, our young Performance Coach also asks: "When can I call myself a Coach? Some people say; "you’re already a Coach," "others say that I’m not a Coach until I have training."
I was a psychotherapist in private practice for nearly twenty years, and had been coaching for five of those years when I first started coaching school - I’m a CoachU grad. Though I’ve never had a problem charging fair fees for my time, I did feel in the beginning, even with the depth of my practice and experience, that I "had no right" to call myself a coach..even though I’d been doing it at a professional level for years. Coaching as a therapist is far and away a different thing from Coaching strictly as a Coach however, and I felt that difference strongly when I first started out.
We got a quick comeuppance the very first day of class when our teacher, knowing we were a bunch of newbies, addressed us all as "Coaches". Someone objected, saying what we were all feeling "But we’re NOT Coaches - yet!" and the teacher proceeded to explain Thomas Leonard’s viewpoint that EVERYONE is a Coach. If you’ve taught someone to bake cookies, make gravy or tie their own shoes - you’re coaching. And having coached before, you know something of the process.
You don’t tell someone how to do it A-Z and then guide their movements closely. You hang back, let them make their own mistakes. In making mistakes, they learn. When they’ve made enough mistakes on their own and truly don’t know where to go next (or when asked), you step in, and gently guide them in how to make sure the next batch of cookies doesn’t burn, or in how to beat those pesky lumps out of the gravy, make sure the "rabbit goes into the hole" in tying shoes etc.
It’s the same thing with coaching of any kind, though of course there are nuances and processes to learn. So in a way, you can call yourself a Coach right now, before your training is over. In another way, I would fully disclose that you are not yet fully trained, as ethically, any clients you work with have the right to know where you are in your training and experience.
When I train my Energy Coaches, not a one of them feels they have the right to call themselves Coaches at the outset - or sometimes even, many weeks into the program. And what I always say to them is what I’ll say to you, and that numerous coaches and teachers have said to me. And that is…
Stay tuned for Wednesday’s wrap-up of this topic, where you’ll learn the greatest gift, talent and skill you have to offer your clients…and what Coaching and meditation have in common that YOU can leverage! Published on Wednesday, November 8th.
************************ COACHING OPENINGS ************************
With Maryam Webster, M.Ed, M.NLP - Life Changing Energy Coach
Right now, I have three open coaching slots for women in the helping
professions working on BIG personal projects (health, work, home,
relationships) & MUST get it Right the Very First Time. Does Success at the "speed of thought" turn you on? Then you will definitely get a lot out of the Energy Coaching I offer.
Are You My Ideal Client? Check here: http://maryamwebster.com/coaching.html
Then get in touch here: http://quantumflow.com/contact.html
.jpg)
