Personal Coaches Near Me

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

FAQs:

What is a Personal Coach?

A Personal Coach may use inquiry, reflection, requests, and discussion to help clients identify personal and/or business and/or relationship goals, and develop strategies, relationships, and action plans intended to achieve those goals. A coach provides a place for clients to be held accountable to themselves by monitoring the client's progress toward implementing their action plans. Together they evolve and modify the plan to best suit the client's needs and environmental relationships. A personal coach acts as a human mirror for clients by sharing an outside and unbiased perspective on what they are observing about their clients. A personal coach may teach specific insights and skills to empower clients toward their goals. Finally, a personal coach encourages the client to celebrate the achievement of milestones and goals.

What Does a Personal Coach Do?

Coaches work with clients in almost any area. These areas include personal development and growth, relationships, business development, career goals, finances, and even your health. An effective coach carefully listens to their clients, observes their behavior, and then customizes a personal roadmap to elicit solutions and strategies from the client. Regardless of industry, a coach's goal is to help their clients develop, grow, thrive, become more efficient and effective upon life's challenges, and experience more satisfaction in life.

What is the Purpose of a Personal Coach?

The purpose of working with a personal coach is to maximize your potential. Is there some area of your life, be it personal or professional, that you’re looking to change? A personal coach can help you meet and often exceed your goals.

A personal coach will work with you 1:1 to identify your specific goals, strengths, and areas of opportunity. As you develop a relationship with your coach, they will gain a deeper understanding of what course of action best suits your goals, personality, and strengths. As a result, your personal coach can provide you with proven strategies and customized plans to help you get the results you’re after. If you wanted to be the best soccer player in the world, you’d never try without a great coach, and real life is far more demanding than soccer! That’s why a personal coach is so essential to transform your dreams into reality.

Many of the most successful athletes, celebrities, CEOs, executives, entrepreneurs, and even politicians use personal coaching to better themselves and further their careers. These ambitious people already know that success is never static; no matter how much success you have already achieved, you always have the potential to achieve so much more. Whether you’ve hit a plateau or are simply unsure of how to move forward, a personal coach can help you take your life to the next level.

Who Works with Personal Coaches?

Why have so many already successful people turned to work with a personal coach? Because anyone who has reached a major pinnacle of success, be it in business, athletics, or politics, knows that no one, no matter how talented and powerful they may seem, finds true success alone. They know that mentors, coaches, and supporters are essential to achieving the best results, which is what a personal coach does.

Successful people work with personal coaches because they want more – be it from their career, personal relationships, or life in general – they know they have the power to get it and they want to use every tool they have at their disposal to achieve it. They want help setting and achieving goals, planning strategically, removing mental blocks, taking control of financial matters, communicating effectively, and maintaining a work-life balance.

Once you start to work with your coach, you will learn to take effective action and focus your efforts on what matters. You will stop getting stuck on roadblocks and shed your hang-ups about the past. And you will enjoy more energy and a more freeing schedule, even as you achieve more than you ever had before.

Don’t buy into the outdated idea that if you simply work hard enough and long enough you should be able to succeed in going through it alone. It’s just not true! Use the talents and skills of an objective, empowering, focused “friend” who shares your goals to help you take your life to the next level: this is exactly what a personal coach does.

What’s the Difference Between a Life Coach, a Personal Coach, and an Executive Coach?

Executive Coaching:

Focuses on helping the person achieve more at work.  It may deal with peer relationships or communication. It might help the worker advance in his or her career or understand how to add value to the company.

Executive coaching helps turn managers into leaders, increases job satisfaction, and reduces job stress.  This coaching focuses on the relationship between the client and his or her work situation.

Executive coaching is about personal discovery, goal setting, planning, and achieving. This benefits both the individual and the organization.

Life Coaching:

Views the person as a whole.  It includes work and may cover stress and overworking, but it also covers family and personal goals.

The goals set for a person working with a life coach may be internal- feeling better, having better relationships, or dealing with bad habits.

Personal Coaching:

Is much the same as life coaching.  While the goals of an executive coach are specific, measurable, and focused on improvement and success in the work environment, personal coaching is based on empathy.

It is more reflective, allowing for introspection and for the person to grow in self-understanding.  Personal coaches can be used as a sounding board and a cheering section.

However, some personal coaches also work with clients on their business, financial, or spiritual concerns.

Does Coaching Work for Everyone?

Coaches can help develop great strategies and paths to success, but they can't do the work for you. If you're not driven to make changes and not willing to put in the hard work to implement the action plans, you might not get much out of coaching. You need to want the outcomes enough to do the hard work. If not, you might be wasting your money.

Is Hiring a Coach Worth the Money?

While you can certainly work toward your goals on your own, there are several reasons why paying for a coach is worth the money.

Working with a qualified coach can:

- Help you discover what’s holding you back and find the motivation to move forward.

- Challenge your assumptions; help you find truth and meaning.

- Identify ways to capitalize on your strengths and manage your weaknesses.

- Increase your awareness and clarity to help you make better decisions.

- Clarify your priorities.

- Aid you in creating processes and structure.

- Keep you focused.

- Answer your questions quickly.

- Provide you with honest and personalized feedback.

- Challenge you to think differently and explore new options.

- Help you move out of your comfort zone to make changes and grow.

- Make you more accountable.

- Support you and boost your confidence.

- Improve your work-life balance and relationships.

- Help you achieve your goals sooner and set new goals.

- Save you time and money!

While we may think we know ourselves well enough to put together our plan, don't overlook the knowledge, skills, and experience an experienced coach brings to the table.

Because a coach can assess your abilities and limitations – real or perceived – from the outside, they can provide suggestions for how to increase, address, or remove them.

Skilled coaches help you laser focus on your specific issues and goals to significantly improve your time to successful change or completion.

What is Personal Coaching?

Personal Coaching is a term generally used in the fields of business, executive, life, dating, and career coaching to differentiate the coaching process from the more popular connotation of sports coaching. However, sports and personal coaching have the same origin. Personal Coaching is a relationship that is designed and defined in a relationship agreement between a client and a coach. It is based on the client's expressed interests, goals, and objectives. Personal Coaching is not counseling, therapy, or consulting. These different skill sets and approaches to change may be adjunct skills and professions. The Personal Coach recognizes his/her limitations and refers the client for other services as ethically required.

How Does a Coaching Session Work?

Initially, you will often find that coaches will provide you with a questionnaire to fill out before your first meeting. These questions are usually designed to help you think about what it is you want to change in your life and what you feel is currently holding you back.  It’s okay if you don’t have all the answers, as your new personal coach can help you figure them out.

Most personal coaching sessions will last from 45 minutes up to an hour. The length of your coaching session will vary depending on your coach.  During your session, you and your coach will speak about what has happened since your last meeting and any goals you would like to set yourself for the upcoming period of time until you talk again.

As you speak, your personal coach will be able to give offer ideas and provide you with a number of resources you can use to help you achieve the next step of your plan. Your coach will use approaches and techniques that will be most effective in helping you get what you want.

5 Important Reasons to Hire a Personal Coach

Personal coaching has become a huge industry in the past decade. More people than ever before are feeling overwhelmed, lost, or conflicted about their futures. Hiring a personal coach is a proactive way to help yourself set goals, consider a healthy path, and work towards overall fulfillment. 

While it’s important to have a strong support system in your life, you may benefit from the expertise in personal growth from firms like I Am Becoming. Let’s take a closer look at some of the reasons to hire a personal coach.

1. Full Attention

Personal development should be a priority for those that want to move forward successfully in all areas of their lives. Signing up for seminars and reading self-improvement books is a great start, but they won’t give you the same personal attention as a coach. Your personal coach is dedicated to you, giving you 100% of their attention and being there when you need them. 

2. Authenticity

Self-help groups or seminars can be insightful and healing but aren’t always the place where you feel comfortable being authentic. When you hire a personal coach, you will develop a one-on-one bond that allows you to be more open and authentically who you are. Your coach can help you to find the person that you are and the person that you were meant to be. Peeling back the layers of your persona and ego can be easier when you have a dedicated advocate like a personal coach.

3. Customized Goals

Personal coaching is not a one size fits all service. Each person will have individual goals they want to achieve and issues they want to resolve. Your personal coach will help you to customize your own goals based on your history and personality. You will work with your coach to learn more about your needs, your passions, and your goals.

4. Accountability

When you read a self-improvement book, you can do the work or not; no one is standing over your shoulder, ensuring that you are being proactive. You can learn valuable exercises at a seminar, but there is no one to encourage your process beyond the meeting room. When you hire a personal coach, they will give you the aspect of accountability that you can’t get anywhere else. If you don’t do the work, you will be held accountable and work towards your goals together.

5. Active Growth

Your personal coach will help you to see your goals clearly and put together a plan to reach successive levels of achievement. This active growth can help you build your confidence, leave negative behaviors behind, and look forward to your future. 

If you are struggling in your personal, professional, or spiritual life, and have not had any success becoming focused on your own, consider these benefits of hiring a personal coach to help you get inspired about your future.

The Benefits of Having a Personal Life Coach

Having a personal life coach can bring numerous benefits and can be a game changer in your life. A coach is a trained professional who can help you set and achieve your personal and professional goals, facilitate personal growth, and improve your overall well-being. Here are some of the most significant benefits of working with a personal life coach.

1. Clarity: One of the biggest benefits of having a personal life coach is clarity. A coach can help you clarify your values, goals, and priorities and develop a roadmap to achieve them. When you have a clear understanding of what you want in life, you are better able to make decisions that align with your values and move you closer to your goals. Clarity can also help reduce stress and anxiety by providing a sense of direction and purpose.

2. Accountability: Another benefit of having a coach is accountability. Your coach will hold you accountable for your actions and ensure that you are making progress toward your goals. This can be particularly beneficial if you are prone to procrastination or find it difficult to stay focused and motivated. Having a coach can help you stay on track and make consistent progress toward your goals.

3. Personal Growth: Personal growth is another important benefit of having a personal life coach. A coach can help you identify and overcome limiting beliefs, behaviors, and habits that may be holding you back. They can help you develop new skills and strategies for personal growth and change, and support you as you work through challenges and obstacles.

4. Confidence: Confidence is a critical component of personal growth, and working with a coach can help you build your confidence. A coach can help you develop a positive mindset and attitude toward life, and provide you with the tools and strategies you need to tackle challenges with confidence and resilience. Confidence can help you achieve your goals, build stronger relationships, and live a more fulfilling life.

5. Improved Relationships: Improved relationships are another key benefit of working with a personal life coach. A coach can help you improve your communication and conflict-resolution skills, which can lead to stronger, more fulfilling relationships. Whether you are dealing with personal or professional relationships, having a coach can help you navigate difficult situations and find common ground with others.

6. Life Balance: A personal life coach can also help you create balance in your life. They can help you manage stress and prioritize self-care, so you have the energy and resources you need to tackle your goals and live a fulfilling life. A coach can help you develop a plan for achieving work-life balance and provide you with the tools and strategies you need to make it a reality.

7. Increased Happiness: Finally, working with a personal life coach can lead to increased happiness. When you are clear on your values, goals, and priorities, and are making progress toward them, you are more likely to feel a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in life. A coach can help you identify what truly matters to you, and provide you with the support you need to create a life that aligns with your values and brings you joy and happiness.

7 Ways to Get the Most Out of a Coaching Session

When you’re selected to attend any kind of professional/leadership development event, it’s important to realize what an opportunity it is. Not only does this mean that your organization values you enough to invest in you, but it means they expect you to stay with the organization long enough for these improved skills to provide a return on their investment. When your organization believes in you and invests in your future, you must get the most out of that experience by being prepared. Here are seven ways you can maximize a coaching session:

1. Come prepared. Before you attend the coaching session, make a list of your personal goals. What do you hope to learn? What are your major concerns? Think about the topic for the session and reflect on times in the past when you’ve experienced challenges related to that topic. For example, if the session will cover communicating difficult information, remember a time when you had to discuss a below-average performance review. How did you prepare for that experience? What happened? What did you learn from it? How would you handle things differently in the future? Be prepared to share previous experiences with your coach so you can hear their thoughts on ways you could improve in the future.

2. Be vocal about your goals. Many coaches will open their session by asking participants to share their goals for the event. This is a great ice breaker, but it also really helps a nimble coach adjust the content to the needs, experiences, and expectations of attendees. If you have a particular development area you want to address, express it openly early on in the process so the coach can devote adequate time to the topic. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help. As the session progresses, if you need more time or advice on a particular topic, don’t hesitate to ask the coach for help! They’re there to ensure your success.

3. Sit with people you don’t know. If you are attending a group leadership development session, make a point of sitting with people you don’t know (or don’t work with regularly). Not only is this important for networking purposes, but working through scenarios with diverse individuals could bring new ideas and solutions to light. Find people who think differently and experience different challenges than you experience daily.

4. Connect offline. After the session is over, stay connected with the other attendees. As you go back to your respective offices, you’ll all be looking for ways to apply what you’ve learned and keep the learning fresh. Support one another by sharing your wins and challenges along the way. At Executive Forum, we established a private LinkedIn Group for all Leadership Lab Alumni to stay connected. As they progress through their careers, they always have a place to go online to share their experiences and ask for advice from peers.

5. Connect with the coach. When you finish the development program, you may still have questions for the coach or want to share a success story. Be sure to exchange contact information with your coach so you can connect with them in the future. If you had a positive experience in your development session, you’ll likely want to have your new employees go through the same coaching experience in the future.

6. Disconnect from the office. It can be so difficult to leave your laptop at the office and power down your iPhone, but it is necessary during a professional development experience. You can’t give your undivided attention to building new leadership skills when your attention is literally divided between the coach and everything happening back at the office. A great coaching session is held off-site for a reason. You need to mentally separate yourself from the day-to-day activities of the office and invest yourself completely in self-improvement. Power the electronics down. Everything can wait until 5 pm.

7. Be open to new ideas. Inevitably, your coach will make some suggestions that are either counter to your usual process or outside of your comfort zone. Before you shoot those ideas down and build a case for why they won’t work in your situation, give them a try. You may be surprised by the results. Established Leadership Coaches deliver content and techniques that have been perfected over the years and are known to achieve positive results. Not every technique/suggestion will work for you, but you won’t know until you try.

What to Expect from a Personal Coach

The sessions are confidential and consist of a one to one meeting with a coach, where you bring the issues you want to explore. The first one is usually for 90 minutes, and follow up sessions are for an hour. Over the period the coach works with you, they will:

- Spend time clarifying exactly what you want to get from coaching

- Listen very carefully and respectfully

- Help you to make sense of your experience and situation

- Create a space in which you can think in a new way

- Ask challenging questions to help you move on

- Encourage you to bring your whole life, not just work

- Establish with you what you need to do between appointments

- Explore what you want, whether it’s staying in the university or leaving

- Help you to find the answers to the questions you have

- Help you to understand yourself better as a way of answering your questions

How to Choose a Coach

In a world with more and more people jumping on the Coaching bandwagon, we need to become more deliberate about how to choose a Coach and a professional who can serve us best. It’s not enough to find someone who simply “feels” right — though that’s certainly part of the equation. There are other important factors to consider if you’re serious about seeing substantive, sustainable change.

Track Record

Ask your Coach about their experience, the results they have delivered, and the successes they’ve had. What have they accomplished? Have they ever led a successful business of their own? Do they have significant leadership experience? Ask them about their scars, their failures, their struggles, and how they overcame them. You’ll learn so much about how they view the world, how they solve problems, and the depth of insight and direct experience they have to draw on. Also, ask them about their Coaching experience. How long have they been coaching? How many clients do they have? What kind of results have their clients experienced?

Training

It’s important to ask your Coach about the training they’re received. And not just if they’ve received training, but what was the nature of that training. How long did it last? Who led the training? Are they certified in the industry? Just because someone shares common experiences with you does not necessarily mean that they are capable of Coaching you effectively. Perhaps they’ve been a business leader or owner or executive. Perhaps they’ve undergone similar challenges as you have in their life. It doesn’t automatically mean they’ll be able to help. The training matters. You will also encounter many people who were trained once — often some time ago. They may have a foundation to build on, but it’s critical to find a Coach who is constantly training and growing to deepen their skills and ensure that their support will be relevant to you today.

Team

There are many talented individuals in the world, but none of them is an expert in everything. Each of us will reach the limits of how deeply we can support a client. That’s true whether we’re focused on Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Crisis Coaching, or Life or Personal Coaching. The concern then becomes whether the Coach has the resources or relationships to hand you to an individual who can help you in those other areas. Many Coaches do not want to hand their client to someone else. This is in part a reflection of a deep desire to serve and support you but also reflects a fear of losing the client. Coaches who operate in a team don’t present that risk. Because they can draw on the skills, insights, experiences, and Mastery of their teammates, you are better served and can be more confident that the support you’re receiving is of a higher quality.

Toolkit

It’s important to understand what tools and resources your Coach has available to support you. Coaching should help you DO better — get better, perform better — not just FEEL better. The resources that a Coach has available — methodologies, assessments, tools, programs, etc. — will either enable your growth or become the boundaries of your growth. By understanding what processes and systems they have in place to help you, you will develop a better sense of what is truly possible.

Trust

Trust is essential in a Coaching relationship. Without it, you never get to the heart of the most important issues. Trust is built over time but it begins when we connect with someone for the first time. All of us look for signs and indicators that suggest that we are entering a high-trust relationship.

Sources:

Self Growth

Tony Robbins

Garfinkle Executive Coaching

Forbes

Rhapsody Strategies

The Coaching Blog

INC

Executive Forum

Women Who Money

BBN Times

Take it Personelly

University of Bristol

 

The content herein is provided for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Medical information changes constantly, and therefore the content on this website should not be assumed to be current, complete or exhaustive. Always seek the advice of your doctor before starting or changing treatment. If you think you may have a medical emergency, please call your doctor or 9-1-1 (in the United States) immediately.