Question 1

What is coaching?

Accepted Answer

The coaching journey is about positive change: disrupting the familiar, well-worn patterns of thinking and behaviour.

Change can feel risky and uncomfortable at first. Through coaching, we can make it more manageable and safer to try by breaking it down:
 • Bringing your compelling vision to life
 • Changing your habits (by fulfilling commitments)
 • Achieving your goals

The coaching relationship

The power of coaching comes from the relationship and the combination of energy both parties bring:
 • You bring the desire and motivation to learn, grow, and push your boundaries
 • I bring commitment, skills, and understanding of how humans succeed at change
Both of us need to work together to create power and value.

My coaching process

My coaching is designed to be spacious and open, creating a safe place to breath, wonder, experiment, and strategize without limitation.

We start with the current state: You are here, but where is here?

To understand your needs and hopes for the outcome of our coaching engagement, I use established tools and techniques:
 • I provide an in-depth coaching questionnaire, to map your unique situation
 • We have a “360-degree” discussion to help inform your coaching plan
 • I also review any previous assessments or experiences with coaching outcomes (good or bad)

Then, we move on to designing the future.  Together, we will understand and distill what you are pushed or driven towards.  We will examine the barriers to change, such as feeling you or your team is constrained by “being autopilot,” limited by convention, or pre-programmed by established culture or process.
 
When you’re ready, we will find ways to rethink and overcome these barriers with intention and critical thought, questioning assumptions and facing fears.  With mutual understanding and trust, we will plan and implement the change you need.

In our work together, we continually rebalance WHAT you are doing (our most common default focus) and WHO you are being (which often requires more intention). The latter is harder to get at, but that’s where the magic happens.

Ensuring a good client-coach match is foundational to this process.  Contact me for an introductory discussion, in a complimentary 30-minute consultation conversation by phone or video.

Question 2

Top 5 Benefits of Leadership Coaching

Accepted Answer

1. Leaders cast a long shadow. When a leader experiences growth through coaching, the benefits radiate to all those stakeholders with whom they work.

2. Coaching enhances self-awareness, a core and sometimes deficient leadership competence.

3. Coaching necessitates pause and reflection and integrates learning into practice.

4. The coaching relationship can be a confidential outlet, allowing the leader to work through new perspectives and decision-making with an objective third-party who has nothing vested in the outcome.

5. Coaching begets coaching. Organizations that invest in external coaching for leaders are more likely to foster a coaching culture within their organization, integrating coaching techniques into managerial competencies at all levels.

Question 3

Top 6 Benefits of Coaching for Early-stage Entrepreneurs

Accepted Answer

1. Clarifying the guiding purpose and intended impact of your venture so that they serve as a compass for all your decisions.

2. Staying focused and motivated when obstacles, fear or doubt threaten your resolve. Entrepreneurship can be isolating.

3. When feeling overwhelmed, a coach can be a safe and patient partner to help break the mess down into manageable incremental actions.

4. When feeling stuck or stagnant, a coach is an ally to challenge your perspectives and find your passion, inspiration, and creativity again.

5. Coaching has a built-in accountability mechanism to ensure follow-through on actions and plans.

6. A coach acts as a sounding board to aid in the refinement of communication, ideas, and pitches.

Question 4

How to use self-coaching to work through emotions

Accepted Answer

When you notice a difficult emotion, practice introspection by using this self-coaching approach:

In a quiet and solitary moment, when you have time to go deep (at least 30 mins) try a self-coaching technique: In writing, answer some of the following questions as truthfully and deeply as you can:

• What exactly do I feel? What sensations are/were in my body?
 • What specifically is upsetting to me about this?
 • What’s under the surface here?
 • What can I learn from this emotional response?
 • What am I resisting seeing or admitting?
 • What else is this bringing up in me?
 • What's underneath that?
 • What is becoming clear to me, or what am I realizing about my thoughts, beliefs or fear about this situation?

Come back to the reflection after some time and ask yourself:

• Any new insight or answers to those questions?
 • Do I want to ask others opinions or perspectives?
 • How might I make sense of this?
 • Is there a new frame or story I'd like to attach to this situation?
 • Is there anything that this reflection has illuminated for me, that I would like to say or do?  Explore this in detail and if so, craft a plan

Let the words flow out, test some ideas, and scratch them out if they don't quite reflect what you believe or feel.  No words are bad.  It's just an exploration within you, so try to gain insight, awareness, and understanding from your emotional response.

Question 5

Live more consciously with this weekly reflection practice

Accepted Answer

The following are helpful and productive elements of a reflective practice:
 • What are you proud of
 • Assessment of progress against goals
 • Insight, lessons, growth
 • Reasonable shift/ intention for future improvement
 • Gratitude
To go deeper on any prompts, consider adding the following questions:
 • What is good/difficult about this
 • What’s underneath that?
 • Why is this good/difficult
 • What am I avoiding?

Book-ending the week
Start of Week: Looking Ahead:

I am grateful for:

1.

2.

3.

Top goals for the week ahead:
 • Being

• Doing

• Results

What will make this week a win for me?

What do I want to remember and keep in mind this week:

End of Week: Looking Back

What am I proud of this week?
 • Being

• Doing

• Results

Reviewing my goals for this week, how would I assess my progress.  Did I spend your time on the right things?

Where was I stretched or challenged most this week?

How might you improve next week?  What intention action/commitment will I take to do so?

What were the biggest insights  (1-3) I had this week?

What am I grateful for
1.

2.

3.

Want to learn more about my
approach and point of view?
Explore some of my publications and resources below.

Publications

Resources

FAQ

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
― Viktor E. Frankl

Want to learn more about my approach and point of view? Explore some of my publications and resources below.

Publications

Resources

FAQ

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ― Viktor E. Frankl

Want to learn more about my
approach and point of view?
Explore some of my publications and resources below.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
― Viktor E. Frankl