Tag Archives: coach training classes
Down The Rabbit Hole Looking For A Life Coaching School
I never thought researching Life Coaching Schools would be like trying to get a straight answer from a CIA agent!!! It’s so confusing, so frustrating, and absolutely crazy making! Between modules this, and packages that, fast track, advanced, experiential learning, cycle-to-cycle and city-to-city, pods, face-to-face, teleclasses, telephone, webcasts, virtual classrooms, online, in-person, or any combination of the above, it’s more complicated than ordering a coffee drink at Starbucks!!!
I thought, “OK, maybe if I ask very specific questions, that will work.” I must admit, some schools actually answered my questions but then there was “Watch the video.” “Check the website.” “You must have a free coaching-consultation session.” A free coaching consultation? Are you kidding me? I can’t take it anymore!! Please, Coaching Schools, do yourselves a favor, make it simple and easy, or your prospective students will go elsewhere! I finally did find a school that was actually easy to understand, so I didn’t feel like I had to take a class to find a class. It turns out, it was the best deal of them all!
Contact Marianna Lead, MCC, ICF Assessor to receive The Comparison Grid of Coach Training Schools and schedule a complimentary consultation to bring clarity to coach training options and help you make the right decision>>http://lifeandcareercoachtraining.com/copy/contact/
Guest Blog by Denise McCanles, Goal Imagery Institute Graduate and Certified ICF Coach Helping Professionals Find Their Creative Outlet to Preserve Their Sanity!
Improving Coaching Skills
1. I usually learn the same way I suggest in my coach training classes – by listening back to recordings of my own coaching. And sometimes I stop the recording because I think OMG, this was a great coaching question, I must write it down. And then, the next day, when I look at the question I wrote down, it doesn’t look powerful at all. The reason being, the context was lost, the moment is gone, and it becomes meaningless. So even though most of the time you can’t pluck the question or a certain response out of the context and hope it’ll be just as brilliant at another time, with another client, during another session, etc.- you can still learn more from it if you write it down. You will deposit it in your memory bank and it will create another choice that you can possibly adjust for another client and their situation.
2. Another thing that I do – and that may feel a bit “risky” to you – I ask my colleagues (who are experienced coaches) to listen to the recordings of me coaching others and to provide their feedback. There may be some blind spots and improvements they can offer that I might not be able to catch and/or discover on my own. As my mother would say, one brain is good, but 2 or 3 is even better.:)
3. I also learn when I teach my coach training classes, and it’s always exciting.
4. And last but not least, I learn by observing and listening to other coaches coach and by reading new and old books about coaching and self-improvement in general.
What are your best learning methods for improving your coaching skills?
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Building a Coaching Vocabulary
I believe that coaching is a new language. In order to learn that language and build a coaching vocabulary, at the beginning of my coach training classes, I ask my students to memorize coaching questions and coaching responses. Along with that, we use role playing to simulate a variety of coaching situations. Once we build our vocabulary, the true power behind these questions and words may and will be revealed only when they are being personalized by the coach. However, to make that language “your own” takes time. And when the time comes for my students to coach real people, I ask them to forget everything they’ve learned and trust that their deep listening and deep caring will bring about the right response without them having to consciously search for it.The danger to watch out for is for coaches to hold on to these responses and questions as a child holds on to their safety blanket for too long. When a coach clings to these memorized questions, these type of questions will stick out like a sour thumb, feel out of place and may be foreign to the language their client can naturally relate to, which may result in lack of trust. When we train people to coach, we must be careful to set that expectation for their own “freedom” — letting them know that what they must learn at the beginning will and must become their second nature after they practice for some time; and their coaching language will become a language they speak fluently without having to look up words in a proverbial “coaching dictionary”. What are your best practices for building your coaching vocabulary?
Copyright 2013 © Marianna Lead. All Rights Reserved in All Media.