Coaching Blog

The Trouble with Empathy

Posted by Julia Stewart

Coaching and Empathy

We live in an age when empathy is extolled as a virtue.

 

And so it is. Without empathy in the world, all our relationships would be transactional. Our need for love and belonging could never be met. Kindness and social intelligence would be nonexistent. No one would have a  sincere desire to help and meanness would reign, instead.

 

Not pretty.

 

Many personal growth programs offer to help you develop more empathy. And that's good. But have you thought about how much is enough? Can you ever have too much? How do you know if you have the right amount of empathy? And once you do have enough, how do you manage it?

Please read on...

So what is empathy, exactly? There are three major types:

 

  1. Cognitive Empathy: Basically, you know what others feel. You understand and can imagine what someone else has experienced, both positive and negative.
  2. Emotional Empathy: You feel what others feel. This occurs, in the moment, mainly when you are physically with someone or are talking by telephone, but you may continue to carry those feelings even after the interaction.
  3. Compassionate Empathy: You want others to feel better. This is empathy + a desire to help + action. When you understand or feel a need that another is experiencing, you want to help, and you do.

 

Which types of empathy do you need to coach effectively?

 

Cognitive empathy can help a coach perform the skills of coaching. But without emotional and compassionate empathy, the coach may be more likely to manipulate their clients, by directing or controlling, or may simply be unmotivated to coach.

Compassionate empathy does motivate coaches. But they need to practice discipline in the ways they help. If they also have cognitive empathy, that can help them imagine how their help will impact clients in the longrun. Will they become relient on the coach or will they grow? If the coach creates dependency in the client, that's good for the coach's ego but not for the client. Because no one reaches their full potential if they need someone else as a crutch.

Emotional empathy is, literally, at the heart of great coaching. Without it, many advanced coaching skills taught in coaching schools like this one, will make no sense to the learner. But coaches with emotional empathy need to develop the ability to distinguish their own emotions from those they pick up from others. Cognitive empathy can help with that, but it takes effort.

 

So what's the trouble with empathy?

 

Western culture, with its emphasis on independence, seems to encourage less and less empathy. Social media has been found to excelerate this. And psychologists tell us that leadership and success both tend to diminish a person's levels of empathy. The result is a culture that is increasingly manipulative and often mean. So more empathy might be the answer, but that's only half the problem.

Some people are born with a higher capacity for emotional empathy. But until they develop self-awareness and self-management skills, they may just experience chaos, especially when around others who are highly-emotional.

 

Living with high emotional empathy is like riding a wild bronco until we develop emotional intelligence.

 

When I was a little girl, I tried to ride my grandmother's horse, Danny, but he tried to buck me off. Within seconds, with both feet out of the stirrups, I was perilously close to being trampled as I hung off the side of the bucking horse, with just one little hand gripping the saddlehorn. Seeing what was about to happen, my grandmother ran out, grabbed the reins, and calmed Danny down. And yes, she made me get right back up on the horse and ride him around the corral again, so I wouldn't develop a fear of horses.

 

My grandmother's courage, calm, and skill saved my life that day.

 

So that's the problem with empathy and also the answer. When we have too little, or only one type, we tend to treat people unkindly. When we use it in an unskilled manner, we can harm people without meaning to. And when we have too much empathy with too little management, we're out of control. Other people can get hurt, and we are prone to trauma, depression, and anxiety.

 

If you have high levels of empathy, especially emotional empathy, and you develop the courage, calm, and skill to manage it, you have the raw material to become a great coach.

 

In addition to managing yourself, learn manage your environment so you can be at your very best. Develop your courage to set boundaries, your calm with self-care, and your skill at getting your needs met.

 

A great coach can help clients develop and manage their empathy.

 

The upcoming course on Values, Needs, and Strengths (the three most important subjects in coaching); will help you develop and manage those skills and abilities.

 

But get started with the FREE Become a Coach eBook:

 

Get a free Become a Coach eBook here.

 

 

PS: I still love horses.

 

Topics: become a life coach, Master Certified Coach, coaching schools, coaching skills, coaching call, Strengths, Needs, Values, setting boundaries, highly sensitive, self care, Empaths, empathy

Coaching Trends & the Future of Coaching

Posted by Julia Stewart

Future of Coaching

 

What’s on the horizon for the profession of coaching?

 

 Let’s look at today’s trends and then imagine the implications…

TREND: With artificial intelligence expected to replace many humans in professions that rely on knowledge and linear thought, such as medicine and law, thousands are training for fields, such as coaching, where intuition, creativity, people skills, and communication tools are more difficult to replicate in machines.

TREND: Coaching skills have become wide-spread among workers who manage others.

TREND: Coaching horror stories are on the rise.

TREND: Hundreds, if not thousands, of privately-own coach training schools have formed.

TREND: However, coach training is increasingly found in universities with sky-high tuition.

TREND: As the climate crisis continues to grow, distance communication, working from home, virtual meetings, and other forms of distance work will rise.

TREND: Webinar training tools, video chat, and other distance-learning and communications systems are evolving and improving.

TREND: Scientific Research on coaching is on the rise, proving a peer-reviewed scientific basis for coaching results.

TREND: Positive psychology has become a source of powerful coaching tools.

TREND: It is too late to prevent climate change, climate resilience for seven billion people, is a worldwide goal, and resilience is a top deliverable of positive psychology coaching.

TREND: Neuroscience and neuroplasticity powerfully inform effective coaching interventions.

TREND: Technology will continue to disrupt modern life at an ever-faster pace, with most people experiencing several major transitions in their lifetimes.

TREND: The number of coaching professional organizations and certifications that claim to be the ‘best’ continues to increase.

TREND: Professional coaching can now be found in virtually every part of the world.

TREND: Movements have been afoot, around the world, to regulate life coaching and other forms of professional coaching for decades, but so far, coaching remains unregulated.

TREND: Most coaching clients say they prefer to work with certified coaches.

 

If current trends in coaching continue, what is likely to happen in…

 

10 years:

Coaching Growth: The number of new professional coaches swelling the ranks will continue to grow. The number of professional coaches will level off over time, with a less-prepared, less-motivated coaches dropping out, due to increased competition.

Coaching reach: Coaching will no longer be considered exotic or only for the rich and famous. It is almost as common as personal training, today. In addition, non-professional coaches will exist throughout society and many people will experience the benefits of coaching from childhood onward.

Coaching delivery: Technology will provide coaches with excellent options for coaching their clients internationally, but local in-person connections will continue to be important, as technology continues to integrate online with offline. Coaching in corporate settings may continue to be delivered person-to-person, but most coaching will be likely to be delivered via computers, smart phones, and other mobile devices.

Coaching fees: Coaching fees have traditionally been sky-high since coaching’s inception. Fees will level off, with a furthering split between a relatively small group of elite certified coaches, who deliver high-end, high-paid coaching, and a much larger group of coaches who offer lower-paid services.

Coaching regulation: Professional coaching may be regulated in some countries, with many more in the process of developing regulations. These regulations will require coach-specific training, certification and/or college degrees, as well as adherence to standardized codes of ethics as requirements for coaches who coach for pay.

Coach training: Coach training via teleclass will go the way of the buggy whip. Many privately owned coaching schools will go out of business, leaving mostly coach training schools at accredited universities. Coach training will be delivered via live and recorded multi-media distance learning and less via live training in hotel conference rooms. As universities attempt to take over the job of educating coaches, the cost of coach training will skyrocket (Ex: Currently Penn State University offers the Master of Applied Positive Psychology for Life Coaches, at a cost of over $50,000 for one year of training.)

Coach certification: Coach certification will increasingly move toward research-based coaching skills, with peer-reviewed research generally preferred. To meet this demand, new certifying bodies, like the IAPPC, will emerge as important certifiers of coaches to meet this demand.

Coaching skills:

Certifications and degrees: Consumers will commonly be aware of coaching horror stories and will know not to work with uncertified coaches. There will be no one certification, whether from a not-for-profit organization, or from a school, that dominates or is preferred – this will lead to further confusion amongst those who hire coaches, as well as those who want to become coaches. Newer coaches will have coaching-related degrees, certifications and/or certificates from schools and universities. Older coaches, those with years of coaching experience, but not the newer certifications and degrees, will survive only if they have excellent reputations as effective coaches.

 

20 years:

Coaching will be a mature profession that continues to evolve. Virtually all professional coaches will be trained and certified, and coaching regulation will be the norm. People will expect much more from professional coaches, partly because amateur coaches will be everywhere and partly because the dramatic transformations that occur with high-quality coaching will be expected, not just hoped for. Hyper-complexity, via technology and climate change, will be challenges that prompt people to hire coaches more often.

More dramatically, as a result of coaching's growth, society will evolve, with more people living values-driven lives. People will upgrade their expectations of life and will find creative ways to satisfy their new standards. Non-professional coaches will exist everywhere in society and many people will relate to one another with a ‘coach approach’. It will become common for people to be coached at every stage of life. What is considered masterful coaching today will be considered average professional coaching.

 

30 years:

Society will continue to transform due to the effects of climate change, pandemics, artificial intelligence, and professional coaching, and coaching will be a highly respected profession. Excellent professional coaches will continue to earn high fees, but professional coaching will be regulated virtually everywhere. In addition, people throughout society will be coaching others for free. Since coaching can be used for ‘evil’, there will be both positive and negative effects, but the awareness that comes from coaching and being coached will make it harder to manipulate groups of people. Far more will be expected and required from politicians, business leaders, teachers, coaches, and other leaders. Individuals will live their lives more courageously and having a coach to partner through important transitions, will be considered an absolute necessity, which means virtually everyone will have a coach.

 

What do these coaching trends mean to you, the new coach?

 

  1. The future looks extremely bright for the cream of the crop. If you plan to be a professional coach and you want to be well paid, do whatever it takes to distinguish yourself as one of the best. That includes training, certifications, and evidence-based coaching skills.
  2. If you want to stand out quickly, take advantage of this small window of time to study with a privately-held school that will help put you head and shoulders above this increasingly crowded field. If you can afford to spend $50,000 on your training and there is a good-quality university coach training program that will actually teach you to coach, consider it. Because currently most universities only teach about positive psychology, leadership, and other related fields, but neglect in-depth skills and philosophies that make for great coaching and for coaching success.
  3. Get at least one coach certification from an independent organization, such as the IAPPC. Consider getting more than one such certification, since that may soon be a requirement for practicing coaching where you live and it’s impossible to predict which current organization, if any, will prevail.
  4. Continue to upgrade your knowledge and skills throughout your career. It will help you stay up-to-date on important trends, earn higher fees, and it’ll help you stay in business if/when regulations occurs.
 

The School of Coaching Mastery Certified Positive Psychology Coach Program provides coaches with the skills and certifications they need to prevail now and well into the future. Get the facts about this innovative program...

 

Get Certified Positive Psychology Coach Fact Sheet

 

Topics: coach training, coaching success, Coach Certification, Certified Positive Psychology Coach, coaching schools, get certified, coach training program, coaching career, coach training school, Positive Psychology, experienced coaches, Neuroplasticity, positive psychology coach, IAPPC

Thomas Leonard and Professional Coaching: Ten Years Later

Posted by Julia Stewart

Thomas Leonard RIP

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Thomas Leonard, the Founder of the Coaching Profession. Nostalgic coaches everywhere are marking this day in whatever ways are meaningful to them. (Here's a Facebook group that's giving away free coaching, today only.)

If you missed knowing Thomas, well you missed the man who inspired a profession that is still one of the highest paid and fastest growing in the world. No small accomplishment for a man who died suddenly of a heart attack at only 47.

Here's what you don't usually hear about Thomas: he was a genius marketer. He could even write a sales page (You know, those awful web pages with yellow highlighting that try get you to buy stuff) that you'd read to the very end, even when you knew you weren't going to buy the product, because his writing inspired and enlightened you instead making you want to commit harakiri.

So the next time you find yourself saying, I wish I could just coach without all the marketing and sales, consider upgrading, instead.

Thomas called coaching, "advanced communication skills", which is what great marketing is, anyway. Today, I don't find many coaches who remind me of Thomas, but some great marketers do. (Here are two marketers who elevate marketing to advanced communication: Seth Godin and Chris Brogan.)

I pay homage to Thomas pretty much everyday, by taking what I learned from him at his two coaching schools and always looking at what the next step needs to be in the profession and if I think I can create it, I do. Such as taking his brilliant Values- and Needs-based coaching and integrating it with Strengths-based coaching to get the full picture.

Years ago, I discovered the rough draft of Thomas' bestselling book, The Portable Coach, on the web via the Wayback Machine, which Thomas offered to the world to use freely. It's a detailed account of his 28 Principles of Attraction (not to be confused with the Law of Attraction). I took what he wrote verbatim, typos and all, and split it into 10 weekly, easy-to-digest ecourse lessons that show up in your inbox. It is, of course, free.

Want to become irresistably attractive to the best people and opportunities? Thomas will teach you for free:

Get Thomas' 28 Principles of Attraction Free eCourse

Topics: professional coaching, Facebook, Thomas Leonard, Law of Attraction, coaching schools

Why Online Coach Training is Better Than In-Person Coach Training

Posted by Julia Stewart

Online Coach TrainingIf you're thinking about becoming a coach, then you're probably wondering whether you should get online coach training or in-person business and life coach training.

It's an incredibly important issue for you, because it impacts your career, your passion and your ability to make a great living. So be sure to get this right.

I may be biased, but I've experienced coach training in virtually every possible format, so I have a useful perspective to share with you and I've concluded that online coach training is best for the following reasons...

REASON #1: MONEY. Most professional coaches-to-be are concerned about the money they spend on coach training and rightly so. However, ultimately you also need to be concerned with your Return On Investment (ROI), which refers to how much more money you'll make as a coach and how soon. Because depending on your training, your life coach salary could range from zero to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. That's huge.

In person coach training almost always involves travel and lodging costs in addition to the training itself. And because hotels and classrooms are expensive for coaching schools, in-person coach training almost always carries higher tuition costs, as well, sometimes as much as $20,000 or more.

Plus, in-person business and life coach training tends to be offered in short workshops and seminars, that last as little as a weekend or even one day. The event itself may be great, but if you've ever gone to a seminar, workshop or conference, learned fabulous new stuff and were certain that it would change your life - only to go home and find yourself living your same old life one week later, then you understand the 'extinction principle' which says that even great training wears off massively if not followed by systems and environments that support change. Which means your $20,000 coach training may leave you inspired, but with no viable coaching business. That's bad ROI.

By contrast, online coach training usually costs less, involves no travel, time off from work, lodging costs, traffic jams or other delays. Just show up for class from where ever you are. And since online coach training is usually ongoing, you'll have supportive systems and structures to help you succeed, built right into the process. You're likely to spend less on training, start making money as a coach sooner and make more money overall. That's great ROI.

REASON #2: TIME. I just touched on time, above, but here are some more time-related issues to think about: While it's important to optimize your training time, your brain will absorb what you learn better and you'll learn to apply what you learn more quickly if you spend a couple of hours per week in class and then apply your lessons to your own coaching business during the week.

It would be great if you could just go to a weekend seminar and walk out ready to be a successful coach, but as a smart savvy person, you know transforming your life means changing a myriad of old habits to new ones. That takes time.

A few dedicated learning hours per week, stretched out over a couple of months - or even a couple of years - will allow you to take what you've learned and begin applying it in your life and business, especially when your coaching school includes reinforcing structures, such as study groups, mentor coaching, online forums, and most of all, live online classes with homework. (By the way, that's exactly how effective business and life coaching works: you have a live conversation with a client, who experiences life-changing insights with you. Then they go out and apply those insights to their life or business and report the results to you. Rinse and repeat.)

As Aristotle said, “We are what we habitually do. Excellence then is a habit, not an act.”

REASON #3: LEARNING. I mentioned the learning issue above, but here's a deeper look at that. Most folks assume the they will learn more in in-person training, but that's usually because they haven't experienced high-quality distance learning. I'm not talking about turning in written papers online and I'm not talking about audio CDs and MP3s. While those can be helpful adjunct tools for training, nothing beats live, conversational classes for learning coaching. Let's face it: coaching is live in-the-moment conversations, followed by strategic action. That's what effective coach training is, as well.

I'm also not talking about teleclasses, which are still a popular training format in some of the older coaching schools. And I'm not talking about standard webinars, which usually involved little or no conversation in a class. Today's technology allows us to do everything in what I call a 'tele-webinar' that we can do in person, except shake hands (or get stuck in traffic).

Tele-webinar training is perfect for learning business and life coaching, because it allows you to join from anywhere, using your iPad, computer, and/or telephone; and have a highly interactive conversational class that allows you to learn in whatever learning style works best for you: audio learning, visual (in the form of slides, live demos, co-browsing, videos, etc.), questions and answers, live practice and feedback, downloading materials before, during or after class, move your body, take notes, take an instant test, go out and apply it along with class colleagues, whatever learning strategy works best for you. Little by little, you learn new habits of excellence and get inspired by your own, and your classmates' successes. Together, you succeed.

If you'd like to get started learning to be a successful coach and get life coach certification quickly, using the tele-webinar format, try Coaching Groundwork Advanced.

 Click me

Topics: business coach, coach training, life coach salary, ENVIRONMENT, coaching schools, teleclass, Life Coaching, how to become a coach, In-person coach training, online coach training

10% of Coaching Schools Go Out of Business Every Year

Posted by Julia Stewart

coaching schoolsThe Sherpa Executive Coaching Summary, a large-scale annual survey on the state of executive, life and business coaching, was just released yesterday, with a startling statistic that 10% of all coaching schools worldwide go out of business every year - every year.

I've heard this statistic tossed about in reference to specific years, but now it's becoming an annual trend? This flies in the face of an old coaching myth, that the real money is in coach training, not coaching. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Why are coaching schools going out of business when the profession of coaching is still growing?

1. One theory is that there are too many coaching schools. As Donna Steinhorn mentioned in her recent The Truth About Coach Training post, 10-12 years ago, there were only a few coach training schools, but now there are well over 100 coaching schools, worldwide. Sherpa says there are actually over 300 coach training schools in the world. In fact, peer.ca, which tries to compile all the coach training schools worldwide, lists 508, as of today.

That means around 50 coaching schools will go out of business this year. Will one of them be yours?

2. Another theory is that many professional coaches, believing the myth that 'the real money is in coach training', started coaching schools when their businesses were challenged recently during Depression 2.0. If that's the case, I'm guessing most of them have/will go out of business, because it is actually much more expensive and time-consuming to run a quality coach training business than it is to run a coaching business.

Personally, I made more money per hour as 'just a coach' than I do running School of Coaching Mastery. Education, done well, is labor-intensive and labor is expensive.

Why do I do it? SCM is a labor of love for me. I have a vision of one million master coaches worldwide and I'm just getting started.

3. Another theory of why 10% of coach training schools go out of business, is that coach training has become a commodity. There is so much competition that schools are competing on price, rather that value. This was further supported by the incredibly high unemployment rates of the past few years, when people were desperately trying to start coaching businesses with little or no money.

When money is extremely tight, unlikely promises, such as the promise of one coaching school mentioned by Sherpa, that you can 'Become a Certified Professional Life Coach in Just 16 Hours' for $397 or $497, or whatever the price du jour is, become alluringly tempting. If such a school also brags about their 3000 successful graduates, you have to wonder about their criteria for 'success'. I've talked to quite a few 'graduates' of these 2-week wonders (because eventually they realize they need more training and contact me) and not one of them has told me they ever got a single paying client.

So in the race to the bottom, some schools, even the huge schools that were founded in the mid-nineties, have become less profitable. And if you're not in it for love, you'll get out if there's not much profit.

School of Coaching Mastery is about to turn five years old in March. We've weathered Depression 2.0 and our international Ultimate Coach Training coach-students are spreading their masterful coaching skills to thousands of grateful (paying) clients. 

I wouldn't close this coaching school for anything. I've got too much work to do to get those one million master coaches out there changing the world for the better.

What do you think? Do 10% of all coach training schools really go out of business each year? Why or why not? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section, below.

Click me

Click me

Topics: Coaching, executive coaching, coach training, School of Coaching Mastery, free coach training, Business Coaches, Life Coaches, coach training schools, coaching schools, economy

How to Become a Certified Coach Free Course

Posted by Julia Stewart

Certified CoachIf you're a professional business or life coach who is considering coach certification, you're not alone.

One of the biggest trends in coaching, in 2009, is that veteran coaches are finding for the first time that they need coach certification. For years, prospective clients and employers didn't even ask about it, but that has changed. However, if you've been coaching professionally for a while, you don't want to go back to the very beginning and start your coach training at an accredited coaching school.

And you really don't want one of those embarrassing fly-by-night certifications

So what are your options? That's what our free 4-hour mini-course on how to become a certified coach is all about. It's led by SCM President, Julia Stewart, IAC-CC. It'll cover some of the pros and cons of various certifications, plus it'll hook you up with some valuable resources that can help you get there faster. 

The 'How to Become a Certified Coach' course is taught live via webinar (or you can just access it by phone) on two separate days. Each class is a total of 2-hours long, broken down into 90 minutes of instruction, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A.

You'll come away with clarity, tools and a path to success. It may not take you as long as you might think to qualify for a respected coach certification.

 

The free course has been completed. Check our course catalog for upcoming courses, including some that are free.

 

Are you ready to get started and quickly become a certified coach?

 

Join the Certified Competent Coach Course Now

Topics: ICF, becoming a certified coach, Become a Certified Coach, How to Become a Certified Coach, Life coaching school accreditation, coaching schools, get certified, IAC, certified coach

How to Become a Coach

Posted by Julia Stewart

Confident CoachThere's never been a better time to become a business or life coach.

There's also never been a more confusing time to become a coach! It used to be that you could rely on the better coaching schools and professional associations to provide solid information on how to become a coach and that is still true.

But these days, "black hat coaching schools" are buying website addresses that sound like well-known coach training schools and coach certifying organizations and passing themselves off as the the real thing. How do you know who to believe?

Add that to competitive marketing among the hundreds of legitimate coach training schools, plus the lack of universal standards in the coaching profession and the new coach is often confused, at best, and paralyzed with uncertainty, at worst. Confusion and paralysis are the enemies of success!

Get clarity, confidence and the information you need, without all the hype and distractions.

I designed the "How to Become a Coach" mini-course for people who are considering becoming professional business or life coaches and need clarity in order to make the best decision. If that's you, then I invite you to join us. (Don't worry, School of Coaching Mastery isn't a fit for every coach, so I won't twist your arm to become a member.)

This 4-hour "How to Become a Coach" course is free and meets in two 2-hour virtual classes. You'll attend our unique eClass system, which combines the best of teleconference classes with the best of webinar training. You can do everything in our virtual classes that you can do in a live class (except get stuck in traffic on the way).

Get answers to questions like these:

  • How can I start attracting clients quickly?
  • What do I really need to get started as a coach?
  • What can I charge?
  • How soon can I make a living?
  • How do I know what niche or specialty to offer?
  • Do I really need coach training?
  • How long will it take me to become a masterful coach?
  • How do I know which coaching websites are legitimate?
  • Do I need coach certification? Which one?
  • Should I have my own coach?
  • What are my next steps?

You'll leave with clarity, a plan of action, a path and your next steps.

Find out when the next course is and register for How to Become a Coach.

Topics: coach training, become a life coach, become a coach, become a business coach, webinar, becoming a certified coach, coach training schools, coaching schools, how to become a coach

6 Reasons to Run Screaming From a Coach Training School

Posted by Julia Stewart

Red Flag Coaching schools are businesses and sometimes over-state what you, the coaching student will experience, if you join them.

And although most coaching schools are honorable, there is probably no school that can give you everything you want exactly how and when you want it.

Coaching is all about personal responsibility, so if you look at getting what you want as your responsibility (Or at least your shared responsibility), you can always find ways to work with a good coaching school that will leave you saying, I'm so glad I started my coaching career by attending XYZ Coaching School. 

That said, there are some big red flags to watch for when choosing the school where you get your coach training and it's your responsibility to check them out. Here are a few:



 
Red FlagDon’t think for a minute that you can learn everything you need to succeed as a coach in one weekend or in a few hours or days, or even two weeks, no matter how intensive the program. Shy away from promises like these. Short training programs rely on 'systems', 'formulas' or 'templates' that only work in very limited circumstances and are useless in the real world of coaching. Most comprehensive coach training programs take about 2 years to complete. However, you can start attracting paying clients even before you graduate or get certified.

Red Flag

      Think twice about a coaching school that paints a too-good-to-be-true picture of what your coaching business will be like in the first few months. If you want to work part time, make hundreds of dollars per hour, take several weeks of vacation per year, only work when you want to and still make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, this is indeed possible, but you must work up to it and it doesn’t happen for every coach. Expect to develop your ideal coaching business over time and commit yourself to actively creating it. The best school for you will assist you in succeeding with comprehensive tools that meet your needs.

                                                                                                                                                                 Red FlagMoney-back guarantees sound great, but they can be a bad deal for the coach/student, because they give a false impression that you have nothing to lose. The wrong school for you will get in the way of your success and can cost you far more than the price of tuition. Most reputable schools will expect a strong commitment from you to your own success, which you demonstrate with your willingness to invest in yourself. Because nobody really wants their money back from their coaching school. What they want is a successful coaching business, as quickly as possible. Look for a school that will give you a “value back” promise, which simply states that they will do everything they can to assist your success, as long as you are committed and trying your best.

     Red Flag Coaching SchoolRun away fast from any coaching school that promises you'll make a six figure income in a year or less. What you earn as a coach is ultimately up to you, so any school that offers a dollar amount it pulling that number out of thin air.

                                                                                                                                                           Red Flag            

Watch out for the coaching school that feels overly “slick” or commercial. Some of them are. Look for a commitment to quality and a willingness to give you what you need, not a prefab learning structure that forces you into a model or mold that may not fit for you.

Black Hat

Run like crazy from "Black Hat" coaching schools. These "fly by night" companies may have internet addresses that look and sound like reputable coach training schools or professional coach certifying organizations. In some cases, they may use "black hat" practices, such as buying links or email lists (SPAM) to promote their companies quickly. Google often identifies and shuts down black hatters on the internet in a matter of months, so a "red flag" that you're dealing with a "black hat" is that their URL (online address) is less than a year old and/or it's set to expire in a year or less.

The internet empowers those who use it.

 

Look up the URL of your school at a domain registrar, like GoDaddy.com and check the "Who Is" info for it, to find out how long the domain is registered. You can investigate further by Googling the name of the contact person in the registration. Look for evidence that they have been in the coaching business at least for several years. Note whether they are mentioned in lawsuits on the internet.

Use the "search" functions at Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and look for the profiles of the school, the owner, or the contact person associated with the domain registration. Also look for current and former students on social networking sites, such as these, and find out if they are happy with their schools. Even a few minutes' investigation can be very enlightening.

Last but not least, check the school's own site for evidence that the owners and instructors are qualified to teach professional coaching skills. Just because they have experience teaching something else, doesn't mean they know how to teach you to be a successful professional business or life coach. 

There are plenty of good coach-training schools, so you can avoid the both the red flags and the black hats. If you'd like more informations, plus a table that compares several of the better schools...

Become a Coach eBook  Download the free Become a Coach! eBook. 

Red Flag photo by archeoastronomia. Black Hat graphic by Joe Shlabotnik. Both from Flickr Creative Commons.

 

 

Want free information on coaching every week? Subscribe by email to the Coaching Blog in the upper right corner. Or click the orange RSS button.

Topics: coaching business, coach training, Coach Training Programs, coach training schools, coaching schools, coach training school, money-back guarantee, black hat

How to Get Coaching from the Universe in Three Steps

Posted by Julia Stewart

LabyrinthEach year, on Good Friday, The Center for Spiritual Living in St. Louis, spreads a huge canvas with a labyrinth printed on it (See photo at right, by Aperte at Flickr Commons) on the floor of their hall.

Last year, I walked it for the first time, and followed The Center's directions by setting an intention before I began. I didn't know I needed an intention before hand, so I hastily scribbled a quick intention on a slip of paper.

My intention was that my then, one-year old coaching school, would introduce coaching skills to at least 100 people within the year. That might not sound like a big goal, but we are not one of those giant coaching schools. In fact, I was still our only coaching instructor, at that time (now we have two more).

Walking the labyrinth has three distinct steps:

  1. Enter the sacred space with a question in mind.
  2. Open your mind to the infinite to receive instructions.
  3. Feel gratitude for the divine gift downloaded to you.

My question in that sacred space way, 'How could I introduce coaching to 100 more people this year?' The answer came immediately: Offer our new coach training course for free. No problem; I was ready to do it.

Then a more nuanced instruction came: "Why not ask each participant to make a contribution to a good charity?" I could immediately see the added value. "Free" is ubiquitous on the internet, but as attractive as free stuff is, the added fulfillment of giving was both unique and a huge upgrade. 

As a result of that inspiration, I've offered our signature coaching skills course, Coaching Groundwork three times, each for the different charity including,  The Campaign for Tibet, The Hunger Site, and Habitat for Humanity. I've also tithed back to the Center for Spiritual Living.

This year, I set a much larger and more detailed intention: 250 new students, 100 Certified Mastery Coaches, more instructors and a rather large amount of money earned by the school. 

As I drove away from the Center today, it occurred to me that I more than reached last year's goal, despite the economy. It didn't always show up the way I thought it should or when I thought it should, but it absolutely manifested. I'm equally certain that my intentions for this year are already coming true. 

The Universe is a wonderful coach. To find a labyrinth in your community, do an online search for New Thought Churches, such as Science of Mind and Unity.

 

Topics: Coaching, coaching school, coach training, Coaching Groundwork, coach, coaching schools

Did the Perfect Moment to Become a Coach Just Arrive?

Posted by Julia Stewart

Jump for joyIt's often said that investing in your business and/or your education is one of the smartest ways to invest your money, because both will pay for themselves many times over. It's especially smart to invest when prices are low.


That's good to remember in today's economy.

It's also said that people who wait for the ideal moment, before they begin a lifelong dream, never get started, because their lives are never ideal.

Well, what if the ideal moment were to arrive and you could invest in BOTH your education AND your business while prices were low? Would you be ready to dive into your lifelong dream of becoming a great coach?

I'm asking because until School of Coaching Mastery reaches its current enrollment goals, you have an opportunity to join, for less than you'll ever have to pay again, the School of Coaching Mastery, the only school, worldwide, that trains coaches from the ground up for the Gold Standard in masterful coaching, the IAC Certified Coach designation.

Not only that, but the already low introductory fees for the School of Coaching Mastery will rise substantially later this year.

Do you believe in coaching enough to invest in yourself, your business and your education? Put another way, do you believe in you enought to invest in yourself, your business and your education?

If so, go here to check out coach training programs.

Or call 1-877-224-2780 for more information, to register by phone, or to set up a payment plan.

Whether it's advanced coaching skills, improved business and marketing skills, or greater personal development you're after, embarking on excellent coach training is an exciting and fulfilling adventure.

Is it time for you to get started now?

Topics: business coach, become a life coach, School of Coaching Mastery, become a coach, make a living as a life coach, Become a Certified Coach, what does it take to become a coach, coaching schools, coaching career, personal coaching

    Subscribe for FREE: Learn About Coaching

    Follow Us

    The Coaching Blog

    If you're a professional Business or Life Coach or you're interested in becoming one, the SCM Coaching Blog covers topics you may want to know about: How to Become a Business or Life Coach, Grow a Successful Coaching Business, Get Coach Training and/or Business and Life Coach Certification, Become a Coaching Master and Evolve Your Life and Business. 

    Subscribe above and/or explore by tag, month or article popularity, below.

    Latest Posts

    Most Popular Posts

    Browse by Tag

    Top Career-Jobs Sites Living-Well blog