Library - Coaching Generally
Can I end a Coaching Agreement?
Can I end a Coaching Agreement?
Yes, you can. All you have to do is to give one month’s written notice. So the most you’re liable for is one month’s fee. Otherwise, there’s no lock-in or minimum period (though I do suggest that you try out coaching for three months before giving up).
You might ask this: why is it so easy to end a coaching agreement? Particularly given that when you sign up with many suppliers (e.g. your gym / phone / TV / broadband) they all want you to commit for at least 12 months and you don’t get your money back if you end the agreement earlier (and sometimes they charge you a penalty for ending).
The reason is that coaching works best when you want to commit to a coaching agreement and you want to be engaged with a coaching program.
Coaching doesn’t work well when someone else thinks you should be coached. Or when your employer thinks you should be coached.
It’s all about your commitment. Because if there’s any reluctance to commit or get involved with coaching – which is for your benefit – then the coaching doesn’t work and coaching sessions can just degenerate into a series of chats with no goals or outcomes. And everyone involved wastes their time (and you waste your money).
Now that’s not to say that coaching can’t feel a bit weird at the beginning. Because you’d be speaking with me as a relative stranger. And you might be thinking about things and speaking about things that you may not have discussed with your nearest and dearest or with your colleagues or your employer. You might not have taken the time even to think about stuff in your own mind – because coaching often releases thoughts and ideas that you already have tucked away in the back of your mind, but haven’t given them the light of day. So it can be a bit weird.
But even if it is weird, it’s worth giving it a go for a couple of months (say four sessions over that period – because it takes that long for a coaching habit to be established) before you decide to throw in the towel and stop.
And then if it still doesn’t work after a couple of months – either because it still feels weird, or because sometimes Life Gets In The Way – then we just call it a day. Or call it a day for the time being.
Otherwise, you’d be wasting your time and money; I’d be wasting my time when I could be working with someone else; and everyone would then lose out by just going through the motions.
So don’t worry about ending a coaching agreement. It’s fine. It’s not a problem. But just think about what could happen if you persevere with a coaching. You might fly…
Can I end a Coaching Agreement
Coaching v. Mentoring v. Therapy
Coaching v. Mentoring v. Therapy
One of the main features of coaching is that people aren’t sure what coaching means. Although “coaching” is a term that’s heard quite commonly these days, it’s still shrouded in mystery. So let me tell you first of all what coaching is not.
Mentoring is not coaching (although there are similarities). Mentoring would be me offering you the benefit of my experience and knowledge, which you can then adapt and modify for your own purposes. It’s a bit like “Been There, Done That, Got The T-shirt, Why Don’t You Do The Same?”. It’s useful in the right context. But it would still be my knowledge and experience, taken on by you, but which may not sit comfortably with you as an individual. This can have the effect of you not buying into it 100% because you don’t own whatever I may have suggested. I find mentoring best in a line management situation where suggestions can be made, but where there’s also a directive element too. So go for mentoring if you’re comfortable about listening to or learning from someone you respect, then adapting their ideas.
Therapy is also not coaching (although coaches are alert to where therapy may be needed). The reason is that therapy is about looking back to see how someone who may need help has got to where they are and how they can be made better. The point about therapy is that you never know if you’re going to open a Pandora’s Box. Because (mixing metaphors) if you take an onion apart, you’ll never get it back to the same shape it was in the first place if you try to piece it back together. So therapy is something people shouldn’t dabble with unless they’re trained therapists or psychotherapists. Go for therapy if you’re not well, or if you need help to heal.
Coaching is different. It’s more like a conversation between equals where I listen and ask questions and make suggestions about what you want to do in the future. But where the ideas and next steps come from you, not from me. Because you already have those ideas – in your mind or in your heart – based on your own experience. But perhaps:
- you haven’t asked yourself the right questions, or
- you haven’t had someone else ask useful questions or
- nobody has volunteered observations or facts that you may not want to acknowledge (because a coach isn’t there to be your friend).
Also, coaching involves someone – like me – who will nudge you or push you to do something. And hold you to account if you don’t do something, or at least promise to try something. Which in turn makes it much more likely that you’ll implement your ideas – because they’re your ideas and you own them and you’ve thought about them – than would be the case if they were my, or someone else’s ideas. In essence it’s a powerful way of me helping you unlock the ideas you already have, in order to improve your work, your life or your business. So go for coaching if you want to be in control of your career or future, but need someone like me as a sounding box, or as dissector of your ideas to refine them and make them better before action.
So the answer to the question: “What’s The Difference Between Coaching, Mentoring and Therapy” is this: Therapy involves looking back to see how to make you better. Mentoring involves one person making suggestions to another person. But Coaching involves one person – me – getting you to think about, develop and take control of your own life and business so that you (not someone else) are in control. And coaching involves more effort, time and money than you think, but the value you get out of it can be priceless.
Coaching v. Mentoring v. Therapy
Curious about Coaching?
Curious about Coaching?
If you’re thinking about personal or business growth coaching, you’ll want to mitigate your risks.
After all, you may never have experienced any coaching and you have no idea what it involves, right?
Or you may have dipped your toe in the coaching waters, but not had any sense of achievement, right?
And you’ll want to make sure that what’s being offered to you, or to your business, is worth it, right?
You’ll be thinking:
- I have no idea what this involves
- will this really work for me?
- is coaching worth the money?
- what if I fail to get results?
- I don’t have time for coaching
And I’ll be thinking:
- if I don’t explain how coaching works, we’ll not progress things
- if I don’t help you overcome your objections, you’ll not take things further
- if you keep thinking that the risk is too high for you to say yes, you’ll sit on the fence
- if you sit on the fence and don’t take things further, you won’t progress
- if you don’t progress, you won’t get the benefits that coaching brings to people and businesses.
It’s a bit of a Catch-22 situation.
The good news is that:
- if you’re a solicitor, I can help you. I know where you’re coming from. I’m a solicitor myself and, since 1985, I’ve been through (almost) everything a legal career can throw at you
- if you’re a business person, I can help you too. I know where you’re coming from – I have 3 businesses myself and I know the difference between owning a business and a business owning me
- and if you have a business – whether it’s a law firm or in another sector, I absolutely know what it’s like to be actively involved in running an SME, but wondering if I owned an expensive hobby
With this sort of background (and because I have formal qualifications and 5 years’ practical experience of personal coaching and business growth coaching):
- I can transfer my confidence about coaching to you
- we can talk through whatever aspects of coaching seem uncertain to you
- we can discuss cost and the relationship between cost (which you pay out) and the almost always greater value of your investment (which you always get back)
Whatever it is, if you have any sort of limiting belief in coaching, or in me, or in you, you won’t know whether those beliefs are justified, or whether they’re only masking you being timid.
Coaching is all about trying something new. It’s about risk reversal. And, most importantly, it’s about coming to the edge, looking over the edge, but flying (not falling) and getting some velocity in your life.
There’s nothing to lose (but a lot to gain).
Do I have to sign a Coaching Agreement?
Do I have to sign a Coaching Agreement?
Yes. You do have to sign a Coaching Agreement. There are several general reasons why you have to sign up. And there’s one very important main reason why you have to sign up.
The general reasons for signing a Coaching Agreement are that it contains the contractual elements that everyone who signs up for any sort of commitment should think about before parting with any money: a Coaching Agreement sets out who’s coaching, who’s being coached, when coaching happens, how much coaching costs, and how a coaching program can be brought to an end.
The main reason for signing a Coaching Agreement is that it makes clear who is responsible for what and, by doing so, gets rid of a lot of uncertainty. You get clarity about:
What the coach is responsible for, or agrees to do:
- Ask the right questions
- Understand the business
- Understand the numbers
- Identify the gap between now and your goals
- Come up with a strategy to close that gap
- Map out a plan to close the gap using the agreed strategy
- Provide guidance on specific issues (if asked)
- Track results (based on numbers submitted by you)
- Monitor and adjust the strategy
- Keep you accountable
What you (as the person or organisation being coached) are responsible for, or agree to do:
- Be transparent and not hide anything
- Keep an open mind
- Capture your numbers accurately and share them
- Be willing to try
- Work on your business each day
- Find time to implement the agreed strategy
- Actually implement the agreed strategy
- Agree priorities and stick with them
- Not miss any coaching sessions and generally be “on it”
Just by this simple allocation of responsibilities you get to know what’s going to happen and who’s doing what. It takes away the uncertainty. And that, in turn, let’s you focus on the coaching itself.
By the way – don’t worry about the length of my Coaching Agreement. Yes, it’s 6 pages long, but it covers all that’s needed and it’s better than having to remember things later on.
Do I have to sign a Coaching Agreement?
Does your coaching focus only on particular individuals and niche business sectors?
Does your coaching focus only on particular individuals and niche business sectors?
Yes (and no)…
Although I’ve been around the block enough times, and have lived long enough, to let me coach most people on most aspects of career development and life in general, and to coach many small businesses on business development and business structure, I do have two particular niche areas:
Career Development and Career Management for Solicitors and Senior Executives:
This is for solicitors and other executives who want to focus on “what next” to see if this involves more of the same, or something else, and whether this means full- or part-time employment, self-employment, retirement or something else and how to achieve this. I have programs designed specifically for Solicitors and Executives who are at different stages in their careers:
- the Uncertain Solicitor / Executive: you’re on a career conveyor belt, you may have got on the belt by accident and now don’t know whether to stay on the belt and speed it up, or slow down the belt and get off. You want to explore whether what you do is what you really want and, if so, what it means in the long term. You may want a change. Or you may just want to sense check you’re on the right track.
- the Rising Star Solicitor / Executive: you like what you do and are working towards the next (and next-but-one) stages in your career. You’re en route to Associate, Manager, Director, Member, Partner or Business Owner. You thrive in the job and are focused on getting to the top and love doing so. You’re happy with your career. But you need guidance on leadership and development. Your progress is encouraged, sponsored and supported by your organisation.
- the v2.0 Solicitor / Executive: you’re established, but are now asking “What next?” and want to explore whether what you’ve been doing is what you still want to do. You’re thinking of not doing what you have been doing, but still working. You’re interested in using your expertise as a springboard to something else, to give something back to society, to make a longer-term impact or leave a legacy, or to learn something new. You want (or must) plan for a different future.
- The Evolver: you’re interested in career and life planning that lets you do something other than retire. Well in advance of traditional retirement, from your 30s, 40s and 50s, you experiment and accumulate contacts, experiences and skills so that, when the time comes, you can control and decide yourself on your later-life choices and can have a so-called designed retirement (e.g. a mix of leisure / work / study / travelling / other activities) on your terms, rather than not working at all.
Business Growth for Boutique Law Firms, other SMEs and Entrepreneurs:
This is for people who own and manage a business, but who, despite having that status, actually own a job that controls them, rather than owning a free-standing business that generates profit to let the business owner work on (not in) the business and decide how to spend its profits and how to spend time independently, not as a quasi-employee. By setting up a rhythmic pattern of simple business-related activities, you create a system that generates more and/or new business.
Niche people and sectors
How much does coaching cost?
How much does coaching cost?
There’s a lot of secrecy about what people charge for coaching. Hardly anyone publishes prices. But the absence of a price list means that people who are checking out coaching are more likely to move on to a coach who is transparent about prices. After all, most people, wouldn’t go into a restaurant that had no prices on the menu outside (unless someone else was paying); nor would you instruct a solicitor to sell your home and buy a new home without knowing what it would cost.
There is, however, a spectrum of costs. At one end of the spectrum, some people coach for free or next to nothing. At the other end there are coaches who want £30k+ as up-front fees. But most people aren’t in that market. In practice they are more reasonable and simpler. Here are mine:
For individuals there are two phases to any coaching program:
- The introduction phase: this is free. It tends to be one 45- to 60-minute conversation during when we get to know each other to see if we could or should work together. During this session I usually like to do some coaching anyway, so that you get a flavour of what’s involved. After all, if you’ve seen what it’s like, you’re more likely to take things further. And the reason it’s free is that this when we get to know each other to see if we could or should work together.
- The actual coaching phase: this costs £399 per month. You get one 60-minute session every 2 weeks (though many people prefer one 90-minute session every 3 weeks). So if you coach for 6 months, you’ll have had around twelve 60-minute sessions or nine 90-minute sessions. In practice, the cost will be reduced by the fact that you can also have a free 15-minute check-in session each week if you’re “stuck” on anything. Some individuals want a premium service of coaching every week and 24/7 availability. This costs £1,499 per month.
For businesses there are three phases to any business growth program:
- The introduction phase: this is free and is exactly the same as for individuals.
- The set-up phase: this costs £750. It involves one 60- to 90-minute set-up meeting (and sometimes there are two meetings – but the price stays the same). Their purpose is for me to understand you and your plans, your business, and your issues. It is an important investment of time – like dating before you decide to go steady. It also includes two workbooks and a binder (there are four workbooks if a coaching program lasts longer – and most last for a year anyway).
- The actual coaching phase: this costs £499 per month. You get one 30- to 45-minute session every two weeks. So if you coach for 6 months, you’ll have had around 12 sessions of 30 minutes each. In practice, the cost will be reduced by the fact that you can have a free 15-minute check-in session each week if you’re “stuck” on anything. A 30- to 45-minutes meeting sounds short, but we cover a lot. There is no premium service for business growth coaching.
Currently, no VAT is chargeable on any fees. All fees are due in advance. But you can end a coaching program on 1 month’s notice, so your maximum exposure to fees is always capped at one month’s money. The cost of coaching may change, so for the current prices charged for coaching, click on the Prices tile on the WynLewisCoaching home page at www.wxl.coach
How much does coaching cost?
What does coaching involve in practice?
What does coaching involve?
The answer depends on whether you’re doing individual coaching or business growth coaching.
Individual coaching focuses on you personally doing things to change or improve your career, life, performance, presentation skills or your own whatever-it-is-you-want-to-focus on. If you want to get an idea of how broad are the types of issues that people want to address, then take a look in the Library at my answer to the question: “What Does Coaching Cover?” You might be surprised.
Business growth coaching, instead, focuses on how you, as a business owner – either on your own (as a sole trader) or with your co-owners – can introduce regular and rhythmic activities and practices into your business that generate regular new business and new clients. The result is that:
- what you call your “business” really is a business (it generates income when you’re asleep)
- you don’t have what you call a “business” but is actually no more than a job that requires you to work all hours of the day and night which, after you’ve generated your revenue and paid off your suppliers and other business costs, leaves just enough – if you’re lucky – for you to get by with.
What you really want is a business system that generates enough cash to let you live (not just exist). And that’s the aim of business growth coaching.
What do individual and business growth coaching have in common? It’s a method like this:
- Before you start, there’s always what people call an introductory / chemistry / discovery / get-to-know you call. The reason is that it’s essential to see if there’s a “fit” between you and me. This is essential is that a lot of what’s covered in coaching is often private, or sensitive and needs you to be confident about me being trustworthy and confidential and someone you can talk to. It also requires me to be comfortable about being able to work with you (because some people who want coaching actually need therapy or mentoring). If there was no mutuality, it would be a bit like a shotgun wedding – which is a form of union that doesn’t really have a good press.
- Then, if we both decide to go forward with coaching, we deal with the formalities. There’s always a written Coaching Agreement document – so you know what’s expected of you and what you can expect from me, and I know that you know what’s expected of you and of what I’ve promised to bring to the party (for more about this see my separate video called “Do I Have To Sign A Coaching Agreement?”. It’s mutuality of obligation and mutual understanding. And the Coaching Agreement document also covers confidentiality, privacy, time commitments, duration and the price of coaching (the price of coaching is dealt with in a separate video called “How Much Does Coaching Cost?” that you can also find in the website Library).
- At the start of a coaching relationship there is also at least one set-up meeting – usually between 60- to 90 minutes – for me to understand you and your plans (if you’re doing individual coaching), or you and your business (if we’re doing business growth coaching). This is a really important up-front investment of time – it’s a bit like dating before you decide to go steady.
- Then the actual coaching starts – and it’s here where there can be a difference between individual and business growth coaching.
- In my experience individual coaching is best done in 60- to 90- minute chunks every two weeks or so (although some people prefer to engage more frequently). The reason is that the 3-week interval is a useful time for you to think about what we’ve discussed, then prepare to do things, then do those things, then get ready for the next coaching session. And it’s also because Life Often Gets In The Way when you’re doing individual coaching and you have family, friends and your job to juggle.
- In contrast, I find that business growth coaching is best done in 30- to 45-minute chunks every 2 weeks – without fail (barring illness or holiday). The reason is that building up, developing, exploring, growing and refining your business systems and your customer or client basis, can only be done if you’re on it all the time. What I suggest is that you’re on it for 90 minutes every day, which then means that our coaching sessions every 2 weeks are basically catch-ups and check-ins. The reason this works is that, when you do business growth coaching, you also get a detailed workbook – two at the start, then another two as a coaching program progresses – to support you and guide you – so you’re not alone.
There are also two other common features of all coaching:
The first is that I do expect you to put our meetings in your diary for 6 months in advance – whether it’s a 2- or 3-week series – because it means you have something to focus on and it also tests your commitment. Remember though that, after an initial period of 3 months (because it takes that long for a coaching habit to develop) you can cancel a Coaching Agreement at any time on 1 month’s notice – you’re not tied in. And you can always get in touch between the 2-week or 3-week sessions if you’re “stuck” and need a chat – you can just book a call through my automatic calendar.
The second is that, regardless of whether we’re doing individual or business growth coaching, there’ll be a mixture of conversations, some practical exercises, some face-to-face in-person work, other work on Zoom, some written work, some actual activities involving other people and other organisations (even if that only extends to Facebook or LinkedIn) and, later on, understanding your numbers (in other words reading and understanding your P&L and management and other accounts). Because then you know how much you have to spend to make money; what is your break-even point; and knowing the point when, if the numbers stack up, you are profitable.
What does coaching involve in practice?
What does it take to become and be a coach?
What does it take to become a coach?
The bar to becoming a coach is low. Why? Because the coaching profession is unregulated; there are no compulsory exams; there’s no regulator to impose sanctions if a coach is ineffective or does something wrong; there’s no obligation to have professional indemnity or other insurance; and there are grey areas between coaching, mentoring, therapy and other personal development methodologies that some coaches mix up. In fact, you can set yourself up as a coach in just a few hours. That’s why the bar to becoming a coach is low.
But the bar to becoming a good coach is high. Being a good coach is an ongoing process which, for me, so far, has taken about 4 years overall, including about 300 hours of training, 200 hours of actual coaching, at least £25,000 of personal investment, as well as verification by my trainers and accreditation by the International Coach Federation – and all of this is on top of being a practising employment lawyer. It’s that sort of commitment and investment that makes for a good coach. So, if you have any concerns about my credentials, I hope that dispels them.
But what is involved? It’s a mixture of theory, practice, courage, confidence and being trusted.
The theory part covers how people interact, how the brain functions, basic principles of neuroscience, psychotherapy, NLP and transactional analysis as well as more day-to-day theory about how to listen, how to observe body language, how to ask the right questions and how to engage with someone so as to build up trust and confidence within an important relationship.
The practical part covers how to put the theory into practice by using exercises, listening actively and having detailed conversations to develop a plan that identifies where you want to be – the future; identifies where you are now – the present; identifies how we close the gap between now and then; and gets and keeps you enthusiastic and regularly checking-in so you don’t feel on your own and can sense check things when you feel stuck or unclear about things.
When it comes to business growth coaching, there are additional methods for (i) getting the foundation blocks of your business in order – your current marketing, leads, pricing and getting reviews; (ii) then fixing your marketing and your messaging to make you an obvious choice in your chosen field; (iii) then a lot of work about “knowing your numbers” – basically what’s your revenue, what does it cost you to get that revenue, what’s the average income per customer or client generally and over their customer-life, and (iv) generally getting into the habit of doing things rhythmically so that you regularly work on your business, which in turn creates new business, which in turn ends up with you being the owner of a business, not of a job.
Putting together and the mixing up the theory and the practice, as well as relying on personal experience and expertise, is what requires courage and confidence, but which in turn generates trust and confidence in me by the person or the business owner being coached – bearing in mind that I’m not here to be your friend, nor to make you happy (though that may happen) but to make you think and grow personally, commercially and financially so you are more in charge.