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The success of any coach will for the most part depend on the strategy implemented to attract and retain clients.

If you are still having trouble getting your resolutions to stick, check out the full transcript of the conversation our Director of Training, Lin Tan had when she went on air with CNA938 just before the New Year! We’ve highlighted all of Lin’s tips and advice and we hope you enjoy the fun interview below!

Lin Tan:

Yeah. It’s all in the planning or the dreaming phase before that. So when you set a goal, you have to bear in mind two things are going to happen, disruptions and distractions. And when you set your goal up with that in mind, you’re almost sort of preparing yourself that this is what’s going to happen, but is this important enough for me to stick to? So it would be a trap or people fall into the trap of ‘I want to set up a goal’, but then they disregard all these external circumstance circumstances that are bound to come in.

John has been in the corporate world for over three decades; two-thirds of which he spent at one of the largest technology companies in the world – Microsoft. However, in 2017, he decided to step onto the path of entrepreneurship and strike out on his own as an independent coach and consultant. Describing himself as an “aggressive learner”, John is always on a continuous journey of deep, personal development.

I would describe my experience as a complete three-dimensional shift in who I am as a person entirely – as a coach, a family man & a businessman. I feel like I am not only changing my life, but also the lives of those I come in contact with. I am now more present, objective and unassuming.

You know, I was especially moved when the people I hold dearest acknowledged my growth.

My partner said: “You are such a great coach. Can you always be a coach? It’s so good for me, for the children.”

My son said, “You are so different now. You are really listening so much more.”

That went straight to my heart. I am grateful.

I think I really understood why it is so important for a coach to both coach and get coached. Practising what you learn during any program is so very powerful and important, especially if a program builds that element into the entire experience.

I feel like I am still figuring out what ‘type’ of coach I want to be. Also, it does get a little lonely at times as I am trying to build up my business. However, I find that I am able to coach myself and apply what I have learned on myself. Self-coaching, if you would call it.

Be very clear why you are doing it. Learn and practise, learn and practise, learn and practise. I cannot stress that enough. There’s really no excuse, because the content is only as good as your follow-up. If you don’t do it, it gets lost.

I really love being an executive coach because we get a chance to enable people to clearly see themselves and tap into their hidden potentials and strengths. This impacts not only their professional lives, but it’s the transformation is in its totality – mind and body. I started Pepperminted three years ago – it is a concierge spa service and what’s interesting is our pool of clients include enterprises who are consciously encouraging self-care in their corporate philosophy.

People can also learn more about our executive coaching services www.thejohnnielsen.com and if you are keen to foster self-care and integrate wellness into your personal and corporate life, contact us at www.pepperminted.com.sg.

Mai had been a marketing maven in the corporate world for most of her working life. However, when she saw herself having to move, work, and live in different countries more frequently, a new idea began to take root in her mind. She decided to take the leap and embark on her journey of entrepreneurship by setting up her own coaching practice – MAI LIFE COACH.

I would say the biggest change was both a professional and personal one – becoming a business owner. Grabbing hold of that momentum during and after the course to fuel my building of my coaching practice has been a very exciting, insightful and fulfilling process.

It’s hard to say what was ‘biggest’ or ‘most important’. I think if I had to highlight something, it would have to be my personal level of self-awareness, which increased so much. I see how I have stopped second-guessing others and I am now more objective and calmer when I interact with people.

Right now, I would say it’s about increasing the marketing efforts of my coaching practice. I have signed up for a marketing program that should be able to support me as I roll out my different strategies.

I would say you should take stock and then take advantage of the resources you have to support you; especially if you are planning to start a business. For example, I made sure I used the drive naturally generated by being part of the PCD program back then to really push me to register and launch my business.

I will be focussing on my ‘expat coaching’ service to help expatriates and/or partners who might need support settling into a new country.

Prior to joining the Professional Coach Development (PCD) Program, Vanessa was a Gallery Administrator in a tertiary institute – a job that allowed her to be in a space which aligned with her love for the creative arts. She also majored in Psychology because of her keen interest and love of understanding and working with people. After receiving her Associated Credited Coach (ACC) credential from the International Coach Federation (ICF), she has combined both of her passions in a coaching business that fuses art therapy and coaching. We catch up with her in this interview.

I would say the most significant change is my leaving my job and starting my own business – The Peace Catcher. Prior to PCD, I was already interested in art therapy, but PCD provided a means for me to obtain practical skills that complemented my art therapy knowledge. I would say this business is the manifestation of both my artistic/creative side and my desire to help people through art and coaching.

I know a lot of people have said this, but I truly feel that one big lesson was about believing in myself. I actually learned that for a good part of my life, I was suffering from something called ‘selective mutism’, but I always brushed it off and chalked it up to my being introverted. Through coaching, I actually gained the self-awareness to recognise my situation and learned how to externalise my ‘inner voice’ in a way to help others. I saw the value of what I could bring to the table, especially when I see clients connect their ‘dots’ for themselves and create their own ‘ah ha’ moments.

Since starting the business, I realise that it’s challenging to get people to be open-minded about art. A lot of people actually limit themselves – I hear things like ‘I can’t draw’ or ‘I have no talent’ or ‘my drawing is so ugly’ all the time. What I have found is that coaching combines well with art therapy because it gives a structure that make the experience less intimidating. My knowledge of both art therapy and coaching actually helps bridge the self-limiting conversations people have around art.

I would say to trust your intuition. I knew I needed to change something in my life, but I was sitting on the fence for the longest time. Signing up for PCD actually opened up a lot of opportunities and possibilities for me. I would even go as far to say that I found my life purpose through coaching. If you are already thinking about it, your intuition is probably telling you something.

Haha, I am hard at work trying to build my dream of becoming a digital nomad. The Peace Catcher is just the first step. I am still creating art as well as conducting consultations for clients who are looking to art therapy as a way to help them unlock their hidden potential.

CCI Coaching Beliefs

Premise #1: Every individual is innately motivated to perceive, feel and act. Coaching with this understanding greatly empowers the coachee’s self-awareness and ownership/creativity in solution-generation

Premise #2: The dynamic make up of the situation greatly influences one’s decision-making and solution generation, hence understanding the factors at play that impact/affect your coachee allows you to empower them to own and tackle these factors to forward the situation using his/her current capabilities (or developing new ones)

Premise #3: Coaching is an approach that addresses and integrates a person’s intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual body, causing a shift on all levels to create a sustainable impact that can be translated into application and action

Premise #4: Coaching uncovers and unfolds inner wisdom and hidden lessons within a person to reveal solutions that are unique and useful to the client. Thus, as coaches we do not advise or tell the client what’s best for them, but instead empower them to seek their own answers

Premise #5: Coaching integrates a person’s psyche with all aspects of life. As coaches we empower clients to find the connection between who they are, who they are being, and how they behave that ripples through all domains in their life

The methodologies behind PCD

Premise: The last 13 years of training and mentoring over 150 coaches has shown us consistently the key milestones and skill sets that a newly practising coach goes through on their coaching journey. The 4 major areas of growth needs to occur in:

(i) Coaching skills: overcoming the struggle between advising and solving vs. real coaching

(ii) Coaching process: navigating a coaching session to forward a coachee

(iii) Coach-Self: being a coach who embodies change vs. being a coach in theory

(iv) Coaching confidence: comes from an integration of the above 3 and results in a level of comfort, flexibility and grace

The dynamics of the learning journey applies to everyone across the board, regardless of their life and career experience, their self-awareness or familiarity to what coaching is.

Understanding these dynamics and common stumbling blocks, a learning methodology and a training methodology has been built into the PCD program to facilitate your coaching journey, to achieve confidence and breakthroughs by the time you graduate.

(A) Our Learning methodology:

Premise Coaching is a skill set that is based in the relationship realm. The power of the interpersonal exchange is what causes change in the Coachee. This capability is not one that can be learnt through theory. It has to be integrated and realized within your intellectual, emotional and physical capability, so that you can wholly deliver an impact in your coaching.

To instill this, PCD incorporates the triple-loop learning that focuses on familiarizing you with the skill sets step-by-step whilst thoroughly supported with demonstrations:

You read and understand intellectually the principle and purpose of the topic and related skill set. There might be frameworks involved, and some examples or points to consider.
You bring this knowledge into a LIVE webinar where trainers will bring the topic to life through discussions and demonstrations. The key here is, we will SHOW you what it looks like – both positive and negative examples, so that you see the knowledge and skill set in action by experienced coaches
You try the framework or skill set out with peers. This safe space encourages you to try without fear, to make mistakes, to learn and to get feedback. Coaching mastery is solely based on experience and exposure, which this stage encourages you kick start.
You refine your skill sets in a LIVE, intimate Supervision session. A skilled, experienced, ACC coach will work with you to sharpen your application. This is done by giving feedback on what was done well, SHOW you how to do it better, and take questions you might have.

This loop repeats 6 (six!) times over the course of the 6 months. Many graduates have attributed their confidence and improvement in coaching to this method of learning.

The triple-loop learning approach is not the only way you get to experience how coaching is done.

Throughout the 6 – 9 months of the course, you will RECEIVE coaching by being coached by an experienced, certified Coach. This is to give you an experience of what it is like to be a coachee, and how it feels like to go through a change cycle. You will also get to observe real, skillful coaching take place, on you.

Our learning methodology ensures you have sufficient exposure to what coaching really looks like and feels like, which leads to increased familiarity and confidence in coaching.

(B) Our Training methodology

Mastering the Coaching process

Premise: Because coaching takes place within a ‘session’ – usually 20 to 45 minutes, the very first instinct that coaches need, is to know how to navigate in a session. Similar to when you are thrown into a pool or the sea, your instinct how how to stay afloat and where to swim to kicks in. Without this ability, a Coach will drown together with his/her coachee in the coachee’s issues, with no way to get both out.

It is on this basis that the first process you will be taught is the 5-step process to navigating a coaching session. It covers the 5 stages you need to progress through to forward a coachee into a better space, useful insight and action. This process is dynamic and not a fixed one, meaning that you will learn and sensitize to when the coachee is ready to move between the stages to get to their end point.

Mastering Coaching skills and presence

Premise: Every single coach practitioner goes through the struggle of removing themselves from the solution-forming process the client needs to go through. We are wired to advise, suggest, solve, help, impose ourselves on situations and other people as our learned way of ‘navigating and solving’ problems. It is a process that takes years to unlearn.

How much a Coach can remove their personal bias and assumptions of the coachee and his/her situation is directly correlated to how effective the coaching becomes.

The PCD program takes this journey into consideration by providing you opportunities to experience your tainted lenses and address them right from the start of the program. Through skillful demonstrations by experienced, certified Coaches, you will get to observe and experience what coaching without these lenses looks like, as a mastery level to aspire to. Knowing where you are, and where to get to charts out a path for you to work to achieving this coveted ‘coaching presence’. Through numerous peer and group coaching opportunities, as well as coaching and mentoring from your trainers, supervisors and mentors, you will find the way to operate out of your personal lenses and get more competent in stepping into a coaching state. It is in this state you will integrate the coaching skills and applications that have been taught to you, and over time you will find more ease and effectiveness in wielding coaching tools to impact your coachee with visible results.

When you are attuned to the coachee’s agenda and needs above and beyond your own, your coaching tools can now serve its purpose. The following tools taught in the PCD program are:

Setting up a powerful coach-client relationship
The CCI Change Dynamic Model
Pivoting
11 Core Competencies (ICF)

Meeting Ethical Guidelines and Professional Standards
Establishing the Coaching Agreement
Establishing Trust and Intimacy with the Client
Coaching Presence
Active Listening
Powerful Questioning
Direct Communication
Creating Awareness
Designing Actions
Planning and Goal Setting
Managing Progress and Accountability

Developing and integrating your ‘Coach-Self’

Premise: We all step into the coaching journey with values, strengths, weaknesses and personalities developed over many years from past experiences. Because coaching is a fluid art given that each coachee is a unique individual operating in their unique situation, an effective coach must be able to respond with relevant traits. In some cases, you ‘weakness’ might be a strength, and yet with another coachee, your strength could be your weakness.

It is therefore important for the coach to know when to deploy what trait, what personality, which style and approach that best suits the coachee. To be this sensitized to the coachee, the coach needs to suspend their ‘default’ self (and the associated perceptions, assumptions and judgements) to prevent contamination of the coaching space. A coachee steps into this suspended space in the coaching in hopes of discovering more of who they are. This cannot happen effectively if they are imposed upon. This ability to ‘suspend’… is a skill set of the ‘Coach-Self’.

The ‘Coach-Self’ is a part of you that you develop over time to be empathic, allowing, embracing, empowering, compassionate, tough and clear as a mirror all at once. It is the magic that empowers the success of the coaching relationship. This ‘Coach-Self’ is not formed from your past. It is trained up and practiced frequently.

The ‘Coach-Self’ is not removed from who you are. It is not meant to serve as a split-identity. Instead, it is a new set of clothes you learn to wear, and over time, when you integrate this ‘Coach-Self’ with your innate talent and values, it will give rise to your signature coaching style and presence.

Use informal coaching to react quickly to situations and issues. Coaching should be something that all managers do with their teams. It helps you understand how people think about their work, their careers, and their relationships with the organization. It can also help you to improve a person's performance, and deal with any issues before these become major problems. Many managers use formal coaching as a way of guiding people through change, briefing them on organizational developments, carrying out performance appraisals, and so on. However, sometimes you need to react quickly to situations and issues, and that's where you can adopt a more informal approach to coaching. But how can you recognize these situations? And, when is it best to "coach," rather than "manage," someone? Getting these decisions wrong and missing those vital coaching opportunities can make a huge difference to the effectiveness of your team. You may also hurt the good relationships you've developed with team members.

Coaching Through Change Helping People Embrace Change With coaching, your people can learn to welcome change. Change is ongoing. The world is changing fast, and no successful organization can stand still for long. New products, new services, and new ways of working mean that many of us are continually learning new skills, and adapting to changes in the workplace. One of the key measures of success in change management [Add to My Personal Learning Plan] is that you've managed to get support from all of the people affected by a change. With this support, you can implement changes smoothly, and with less disruption. But, despite the effort of managers and senior executives, getting support for change can be difficult. Many people will feel that change is happening to them, rather than feeling that they are a valuable part of the future of the organization. And people who benefit from the status quo – for example, expert users of legacy systems – will quite rightly recognize that they may lose out as a result of the change.

Coaching with Feedback Helping Your People to Improve Their Performance Be Honest when giving Feedback Most managers are aware that the way they coach their people can play a big role in ensuring their team’s success. Unfortunately, however, when it comes to giving feedback, many don’t know how to coach, and simply resort to telling others how to improve. This is NOT coaching! It’s unlikely to be effective or to be acted upon; and it won’t uncover any deeper problems or incorrect beliefs that may lie behind unhelpful behaviors. It’s often much more effective to adopt a question-led approach when you provide feedback. When you do this, you’ll better understand your colleagues’ outlook on their work and their career, and their feelings about the organization you both work for. This helps you to engage with your team members as partners and stakeholders in the organization, which helps you to improve each individual’s performance and anticipate performance issues before they arise.

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