A coach enters into a partnership with individual(s) in a thought-provoking, creative and confidential process, which enables and inspires the individual(s) to evolve, maximize and sustain their personal and professional potential.

The coaching relationship supports an individual in achieving their desired, goal oriented results by focusing on the enhancement of skills and actions required to support those goals. 

Put simply a coach will help you clarify where you want to get to and support you in getting there.

Coaches, like other professionals, have their specialties and focus. Some focus on coaching executives, others on career performance and development while others focus on the development of life skills. 

However, an effective coach focuses on you as a whole person by understanding that you have many aspects and influences impacting on your life.  An effective coach is someone you trust to assist you becoming more proactively accountable for developing your potential in whatever aspect(s) of your life you choose to focus on.
 
When looking for a coach what is more important than the ‘label’ they wear is that they have the right combination of pragmatic and emphatic skills to assist you in attaining your desired goals and aspirations.   

When you engage in a coaching relationship you are able to experience different perspectives on the challenges and opportunities arising in your personal and professional life. Coaching offers a focused and systematic process enabling you to enhance your decision-making skills, interpersonal effectiveness and confidence levels in a safe and confidential space.  

As the old saying goes ‘you get out what you put in’ so maximizing the benefits of coaching is in direct relationship to what the individual coachee is prepared to invest in their desired outcomes – both personal and professional.  

Simply, coaching helps individuals focus on what matters most to them in life: personally and professionally. Coaching assists you to be more in charge of what your life looks and feels like.

A good place to start in understanding if you could benefit from coaching is to look at what you want to achieve by entering into a coaching relationship. That is: If you can answer the question what will I have at the end of a coaching relationship I do not have now (desired outcomes and aspirations) then coaching is useful in assisting you to develop a strategy for how to achieve those outcomes and aspirations with greater focused ease. 

• An urgent, compelling and/or exciting challenge or opportunity has arisen in your personal and/or professional life.
• You want more out of personal and/or professional life.
• Interpersonal skill development.
• A desire to enhance your confidence, knowledge or skills (technical or behavioral).
• To enhance your skills of self-organization, self-direction and self-management.
• Identification and leverage of core strengths.
• You need a process to help clarify choices which need to be made.
• Work-life balance is out of whack and needs to be brought into healthier alignment.
  

The success of the coaching relationship is highly dependent on your motivation and willingness to engage in the process.  Attaining desired outcomes and aspirations are the product of your genuine desire to learn, develop, grow and evolve as well as a coach’s ability to facilitate, challenge and support that desire.

In most cases the first coaching session, which is usually face-to-face, looks at your current challenges and opportunities. During that first session the scope of the coaching relationship will be defined (what it is and isn’t), desired outcomes will be explored and established, as well as identifying priority actions. 

Subsequent sessions, which are generally 1 to 1¼ hours in length, are conducted either face-to-face or over the telephone. 

You will probably agree, with your coach, specific actions to be completed by yourself in between sessions.  These actions will be designed to actively support the achievement of your desired goals and aspirations. 

Additionally, the coach may support the attainment of your goals by supplying you with thought-provoking resources and materials that assist your ways of thinking and actions. 

The length of any coaching relationship varies depending on your unique needs and preferences.

Some variables impacting on the length of a coaching relationship are the:

• Nature of your desired goals and aspirations.
• Way you prefer to work.
• Frequency of the coaching sessions.
• Financial resources available to support the coaching process.

However, change takes time.  Therefore it is recommended that a coaching relationship be entered into (depending on the nature of the coaching focus) for, at least, a three to six month period.

Industry standards – level of investment:

• An individual may expect to invest somewhere in the range of $250 to $750 per month for coaching either face-to-face or via telephone (depending on duration, frequency and mode of interaction). 
• With Executive and Corporate coaching programs the investment ranges from $1,000 to $10,000 per month.

Ruth’s fee structure falls within the “industry standards” listed above. She will be happy to assist you in designing a program suitable to your specific needs.

Contact Ruth to set up an initial discussion, which will assist in clarifying and fully appreciating your individual or organizational needs.