FAQ

What is Coaching?
How does Coaching differ from consulting therapy, mentoring & training?
What is Personal Branding?
What are the benefits of Coaching?
What do coaches actually do?
How do people usually find a coach?
How will I be coached?
How long does a course of coaching usually last?
What if I achieve my goals before the end of the program?
Do you have to follow any set procedures or Code of Practice?
What types of clients have you worked with?
Why are there so many different coaching qualifications?
What should I do if there's a problem?
How much does Coaching usually cost?
Why do you charge those rates?
What is NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming?
Why do coaches charge different amounts?
How do I pay?
Do you have a Newsletter?
How do I subscribe to the Newsletter?
How do I unsubscribe from the newsletter?
Do you run workshops or seminars?
Where do you operate?
What's your Mission Statement?

What is coaching?

Because Coaching is a relatively recent phenomenon, there is no 'industry standard' definition. However, descriptions used by some of the major coaching bodies and authors on coaching are:

"Coaching is an interactive process that helps individuals and organisations to develop more rapidly and produce more satisfying results. Coaches work with clients in all areas including business, career, finances, health and relationships. As a result of coaching, clients set better goals, take more action, make better decisions, and more fully use their natural strengths."

International Coach Federation

"..unlocking a person's potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them."

Sir John Whitmore
Author of 'Coaching for Performance'

"Coaching is an interactive process where the coach guides and facilitates the client's progress towards defined goals. These may concern relationships, career, self-confidence, financial matters or, a more general uneasy feeling that life has 'drifted off course'. Coaching is a one-to-one relationship between a client and their coach. Regular sessions are held either face-to-face or over the telephone with action taken by the client between each session."

The Coaching Academy

How does Coaching differ from consulting, therapy, mentoring & training?

The Coaching industry is still in the early years of its development. For this reason there is still confusion about how coaching differs from other professional services such as Consulting, Therapy, Mentoring and Training. The International Coach Federation help coaches to clarify their role by making the following distinctions:

Coaching versus Consulting

Coaching emphasises the client's responsibility for the results he or she receives from coaching and focuses as much on who the client needs to be or become as what business practices need to be done differently.

A Consultant is employed to deliver an end result that meets a specific need or goal. The consultant takes responsibility for the project and is a specialist with expertise in a given situation or industry, providing content and expert knowledge. A consultant focuses on what needs to be accomplished to improve the business

Coaching versus Therapy

Therapy focuses on the life an individual is living as related to the past, often childhood issues. Therapy focuses on accompanying feelings and emotions, patterns of behaviour and any self deconstructive tendencies. A typical outcome of therapy is healing the individual, the creation of more useful and healthy coping skills and dealing with current issue and challenges.

Coaching focuses on what a person wants, beginning in the present and moving forward, developing the person to engage life with new behaviours and ultimately to achieve his or her definition of success.

A succinct way of identifying the line between coaching and therapy is that if a client's past is an issue he or she may benefit from therapy, but if the past is a fact, he or she is coachable.

Coaching versus Mentoring

A mentor is an expert with knowledge in a particular field or within a particular company who can guide others to move forward within the company or field by benefiting from his or her experience.

A coach is an expert on the development of people in general and helps people move forward on their own unique path that may be very different from that of the coach.

Coaching versus Training

Training is usually delivered to an individual or group of people over a short period of time. The focus in on sharing information and knowledge that helps the individual or group to perform an activity more effectively. In order for most training courses to be cost effective they are usually delivered in a "one size fits all" basis. Limited account is given to the specific learning needs of the individual. After the training as been delivered the trainer typically has limited contact with the people that he or she has trained. Its the down to each individual to decide how they use the knowledge that they gained during the training.

Coaching focuses on helping an individual to become more aware of HOW they learn. This insight can then help the individual to build a clearer set of performance improvement strategies. Coaching can also be used as a natural follow on from training courses where the learning taken from the course can be re-inforced through 1-2-1 coaching sessions with each participant. Specifically, coaching can help the individual to identify how, when and where they can most effectively use the knowledge taken from the training course.

What is Personal Branding?

Personal branding is a revolution in the way we manage our careers or businesses. It's a way of clarifying and communicating what makes you different and special and using those qualities to separate from yourself from your peers so that you can greatly expand your success. Personal branding is the strategy behind the world's most successful people. People like Oprah, Madonna, Richard Branson and Bill Gates. It is the difference between an ordinary career or business and an exceptional one.

It is only a matter of time before your peers or competitors jump on the 'brandwagon.' So uncovering, building and nurturing your brand now will ensure that you get out in front of the pack and experience professional success beyond your dreams.

What are the benefits of Coaching?

A recent study by the International Coach Federation found a wide range of benefits reported by individuals who part take in coaching. These included:

Increased self-awareness 68%
Better goal setting 62%
Lower stress levels 57%
Increased confidence 52%
Enhanced communication skills 40%
Increased project completion 36%

There are a few different coaching models. Many coaches follow what is known as the GROW model. The GROW model is applied to all forms of coaching, whether it be in a business or 'life' context. You book a series of sessions in which you work through the GROW model and continually review your progress towards achieving your goals.

G - Goal
Your coach will ask you lots of questions to establish specifically what it is that you want to achieve.

R - Reality
You will work with your coach to identify where you are right now in terms of meeting your goals, the progress you've made so far and any obstacles that might be getting in the way.

O - Options
You will be challenged to look at all the options open to you. You will look at things that you could do, but not necessarily should do.

W - Will or Way Forward
This is where you turn your ideas into action points. You will agree with your coach what you will do and when you will do it by. This will be reviewed at your next session.

Throughout the discussions, the emphasis is on you. Coaching is designed to be non-directive, in other words, it is not the coach's responsibility to tell you what you should do. That said, the coach is there to ensure that you remain on track with meeting your objectives and will be tough on you if you need it!

With Corporate/Executive and Business Coaching you will be working on setting and achieving work-related targets to allow you to improve your performance at work.

Many professional coaches are self-employed and not all of them advertise or have a website, so it can be hard to find them.

The Internet is an obvious place to start, but you need to know exactly what you're looking for, otherwise you end up with hundreds of thousands of 'hits'. Most people find a coach or coaching organisation by accessing their network of contacts.

Coach training organisations and associations will be able to provide lists of people who have trained with them or are members.

Coaching sessions are held once per week. Holding coaching sessions on a weekly basis offer a number of advantages. Most notably, it helps to keep the client focused on completing actions agreed at the end of each coaching sessions. Through experience, I’ve found that holding the coaching sessions less frequently (e.g. every 2 weeks) increases the chances that the client will get distracted with other challenges that come into his/her life on a daily basis.

Which ever coaching program you choose, you can be reassured that at the end of each session we will allocate enough time to make sure that you are happy with the service that you are receiving. Furthermore, at the conclusion of the program you will have the opportunity to complete a 360 degree feedback questionnaire. This is your opportunity to provide a “warts and all” review of your coaching experience with Matrix.

If at the end of your coaching program you feel that you require additional coaching sessions that this can be discussed. You have the option of signing up for another full set of coaching sessions or simply paying for one-off sessions as you require them.

Whilst people come to coaching with a particular goal in mind, many find that once they have built a good relationship with me, they are able to tackle many different issues, so you may wish to continue with the program.

I specialise in working with clients aged 25-40 who have a background in consulting, sales, marketing IT or coaching.

Currently, there is no central body in the UK regulating coaching. There are various organisations offering many types of training. These range from one-day courses to part-time courses which can take a couple of years to complete. There are also many books and home-study courses on coaching.

I'm a certified Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner & I'm also currently studying with one of the world's leading coach training organisations called CoachU. This 18 month course is accredited by the International Coaching Federation which ensures that once I'm fully qualified I will be able to coach to the highest possible standards.

What should I do if there is a problem or I'm unhappy with the service provided by Matrix Business Coaching?

If you have problems regarding payments or you need to re-schedule your coaching appointments, please contact me directly

In the unlikely event that you are unhappy with the way that you are being coached or your rate of progress, please raise the issue with me & give me the opportunity to address the way that you are working together.

Payments are made directly to Matrix Business Coaching. It is standard practice for you to pay in advance for your coaching sessions. This is usually on a monthly Standing Order or by Paypal. However, we also accept cheques paid in advance.

Fees charged by coaches vary according to their area of expertise and their level of experience. Factors influencing the prices are:

One of the questions you will be asked when you discuss your requirements with Matrix Business Coaching is "Do you have a budget in mind?". This is to ensure that we are better equipped to match you with a coach that is at an affordable price for you.

"This set of techniques works on almost a hypnotic level to change unconscious patterns of thought, behavior and language. NLP practitioners look for clues in a person's set speech and behavior patterns and then provide the mental tools that clients can use to alter that behavior."

"NLP is a technique used to determine the thought patterns of an individual by analyzing the individual's body language. NLP is employed to reprogram unconscious negative, harmful beliefs using visualization techniques. NLP has been used to treat addictive behavior, learning disabilities and phobias, as well as in the development of more desirable and constructive patterns of behavior."

Telephone coaching can be conducted from anywhere, so coaching can done internationally - of course it is useful if coaching sessions can be booked during UK working hours so that I don't have sessions at 3am to accommodate international clients!