Need a career coach?
By Kristie Kellahan | smh.com.au | 26 January
Mention the word "coach" and many people picture an athletic man with a whistle, high blood pressure and a tendency to shout. For generations of Australians, coaching was a sports profession, but times - and coaches - have changed.
Today the word can apply to an increasing range of professionals ready to guide and support people through every aspect of their lives including career, health, romance and wealth creation. Coaches give constant feedback, act as mentors and cheerleaders, and suggest new ways of tackling old problems. They assist clients from all walks of life - the executive of a multinational corporation who wants to steer her firm towards greater efficiency, the small business operator who needs to get organised and the suddenly single person who wants to find love again.
Take Carolin Dahlman. In the search for her perfect match, the Swedish writer says she dated the unavailable, the mixed-up and the just plain weird. "I had my fair share of dating disasters before I met 'the one'," she confesses.
Believing her variety of experiences could help others going through the same struggles, she penned a successful guide to finding love before branching out into the nascent field of love coaching. Today based at Bondi, she coaches people on strategies for finding a partner in the often demanding singles scene and runs seminars for dating agencies.
Coaching is a rapidly growing industry. Sandra Poletto, chief executive officer of the Life Coaching Institute, says life coaching has been the second fastest growth industry in the world for the past three years. A 2006 research report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers says coaching contributes about $US1.5 billion ($1.74 billion) annually to the global economy.
Poletto cites the 2003 Leadership, Employment and Direction Survey by Leadership Management Australia, which found 45 per cent of employees had a mentor or coach in their current role: all evidence points to a steady increase in this figure during the past four years. Executive coaching, in particular, has gained wider recognition and prevalence. "The Australian life coaching industry has progressed in leaps and bounds and it's not giving any indication that it will slow down," she says.
Part of the appeal of coaching as a career is the flexibility. Qualified coaches can work from home or an office, they can work full-time or part-time and theoretically the sky is the limit to what they can earn. Sandy Thomas, a life coach with wide professional experience in the health and natural therapies field as well as banking and recruitment, says coaching is the highest paid role she has ever had. "I work from home, I have the flexibility to determine when I work and I can set my own price," she says.
Thomas says the greatest reward of coaching is the satisfaction of helping people realise their dreams. "I've had clients go from $50,000-a-year jobs to $120,000 and be a lot happier and less stressed," she says. Glenda Sladen, a professional organisation coach, agrees there is a lot of satisfaction in helping others achieve a good result. "I guess there is a strong social worker trait in me and I really enjoy helping people to get organised as it can change their whole life." She provides one-on-one organisation coaching at clients' homes and also over-the-phone "distance assistance".
This desire to help others is a key character trait in all good coaches. Linda Jordaan, chief executive of the Life Coaching Academy, says good coaches have high degrees of empathy and concern for others. They are also highly practical people who have often overcome problems in their own lives through implementing practical steps.
"Coaching is a very practical methodology," she says. "Whereas counsellors deal with issues in the past, coaching says it doesn't matter what happened in the past - let's move into the future and create the one you want."
Jordaan says many professionals are drawn to coaching as a career change: HR managers, psychologists, teachers and welfare workers have all retrained successfully. Previous skills and expertise can be utilised as coaching specialties. An MBA-qualified executive with 20 years' experience in the corporate world would be a sought-after professional coach and many personal trainers are working as expert fitness coaches.
With nearly 20 years' experience as a professional educator, coach and author, Noel Posus predicts the next phase of the industry will be about making life coaching affordable and accessible. As co-director of Incredible Awareness, an international coaching organisation that provides inexpensive and accessible life coaching at www.askacoach.com, he is championing email coaching. "Coaches can be pretty expensive," he says. "By coaching via email the cost is brought right down."
Coaches in training
Many coaches hang out a shingle with no formal training or educational qualifications. They'll tell clients that the "school of life" has been their greatest teacher. Others enter the profession through non-direct routes, with training, professional experience and degrees in such areas as psychology, sociology and business.
Specific vocational training is provided in Australia by organisations including the Life Coaching Institute and the Life Coaching Academy. Many corporate clients prefer to train with accredited coaches.
When considering the course that's right for you, it's important to find out whether the course is accredited and if so, by whom.
Look at the qualifications of the trainers and how the training will be delivered. For instance, courses can have residential, tele-class, self-study and one-on-one mentoring components. It's also important to compare the cost, as this can vary widely between training institutions.
Some coaching qualifications are internationally recognised. Coaches just starting out on their career will find it useful to train with an institution that provides advice and practical support in building a client base.
First published by Smh.com.au on January 26 2008
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