Category Archives: Coaching

Coaching, News

The Rise of The Con-trepreneur

Life coaching is the second-fastest growing industry in the world, with yearly growth increasing by 6% on average, and from 2016 – 2020 the number of coaches within the industry increased by one third. 

Coaching in all forms has surged in mainstream popularity in recent years, with celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Serena Williams openly talking about the benefits. Coaches can often help people to understand their focus and gain clarity on what it is that brings them passion, creates purpose and delivers personal growth.

But what exactly does a coach do? Well, the job description is pretty broad and loose; people may look to a coach for advice on their careers (including many freelancers and entrepreneurs who work without a boss helping them to keep track of their progress and development), their personal relationships, their health and wellbeing, and sometimes just to discuss their values, beliefs and bigger purpose.

However, in the UK, the coaching industry isn’t regulated. Therefore individuals do not need any qualifications or experience to start advising people on potentially life-changing decisions, which may explain why so many people seem to be doing it. 

Whilst there are many coaches out there that have taken the steps to ensure that they have the qualifications and/ or experience to successfully and authentically take their clients through various tools, techniques and methods, there has been a serious rise in the coach ‘con-trepreneurs’ who are inexperienced, unqualified and ill equipped to help others to a high standard. 

As Lucy Wheeler, lawyer and the founder of Lucy Legal explains, there are numerous bodies who purport to offer legitimate coaching courses, but that in itself can be a little bit of a minefield.

“There are courses and providers who offer training ‘qualifications’ after a weekend of study and with very minimal coaching experience,” she shares. “The very best courses tend to be the ones which require at least six months’ worth of studying and a significant number of hours spent coaching, for example, 100 to 500 hours.”

You can train with accredited coaching associations such as the Association for Coaching (AC) or the European Mentoring and Coaching Council UK (EMCC UK) but this is more of a ‘nice to have’ rather than a requirement to practise and coach clients. And at present, there is no protection for the public or any other mechanism to hold unregistered practitioners to account.

On Instagram alone, under #lifecoach there are 10.9 million posts. Say for example only 50% of those posts are from qualified, experienced life coaches, that means that there are potentially hundreds of thousands of individuals that are asking you to put trust and money into their business where they have all the secrets and answers to your problems. 

Despite the lack of rules and regulations around the industry, there are many people that would say they owe some of their biggest achievements and most valuable personal growth to their coach. However, there are some that have unfortunately fallen victim to the ‘con-trepreneur’. 

 

Here, we share tips to spot red flags, what the big no no’s are, and what you should be looking for in a coach. 

  • Like any partnership you enter into where you are expected to share trust and integrity, the relationship between a coach and a client should be professional and one of equals. It’s about working with someone who understands the environment that you’re working in, who helps you to find the answers within yourself, rather than telling you what you should be doing. Coaches or other service providers that use language to make you feel inferior to them is a red flag for a con-trepreneur.

  • Whatever the setting, a coach should be there to tailor the experience to you. Even if coaching is undertaken in a group setting, your experience should still feel unique. Coaches that seem to regurgitate a one-size fits all approach, often referred to as ‘cookie-cutter’ in the online space, should be avoided at all costs. Not every human is the same, so why should your coaching experience be a rinse and repeat of the person before you?

  • It is also important to look for someone that can offer you support outside of your sessions. This isn’t just about having someone to ask questions to, but it’s about feeling support from them too. Do they advertise in their programmes that they will continue to help you move forward and progress throughout your time together, hold you accountable for your actions and help you to find the answers to your questions? Good, because these are all signs of a valuable coach.

 

Amy Crumpton, founder of Social Cactus and business and mindset coach, agrees, adding that the main purpose of coaching is to help someone work towards achieving a specific goal. 

“Normally, your coach will work with you to uncover any mindset blocks or self-limiting beliefs that may be holding you back, help you to create a strategy that feels aligned to you, and hold you accountable as you take action,” she highlights.

Something that is seen all too often on social media is the use of pressuring, persuasive language, particularly on those who are most vulnerable or who have low self esteem. When someone is continually trying to make you take action NOW, because it’s the LAST CHANCE and PRICES WILL GO UP!, it’s because they are trying to appeal to a scarcity mindset – getting you to fear the lack of something. This is a scaremongering tactic, designed to induce panic buying – and is often a good indication that they may not be the coach for you.

Stephanie White, owner of copywriting company By The Way Creative, believes that ethics in copywriting comes down to one very simple rule: Do not intentionally deceive the reader.

“When I hear people talk about ‘I made £10k on my last launch’… it’s important to specify if that was turnover or profit. If you invested £5k in ads to make that £10k, then really you only made £5k profit. The other myth I’ve seen floating around in the coaching world is suggesting that you run a 6-figure business because you had an £8,333 month… i.e £8,333 x 12 = £100k. If your business has not turned over £100k, you are not a 6-figure business owner. 

“When it comes to marketing tactics, bullying mindset tricks and financial guilt-tripping, such as suggesting that if someone doesn’t invest in your programme then they don’t want to grow, are nothing short of manipulative. We don’t like it when politicians or religious leaders use coercive language… So why do we stand for it in business?”

Another huge red flag – the promise that you will make your investment back before the programme is complete. If they say this, do they delve into it – do they mean in new sales? Do they mean in cash? Will they refund you if you don’t make the investment back? Investigate these big claims before handing over your trust and your money. 

Never look at taking on a coach who claims that they have the secret answer to whisk all your troubles away and create a six figure business in the process, oh and by the way you can do all of this by working 4 hours a week. It’s simply not realistic or guaranteed.

Coaches are there to guide you, not to dictate how you should live your life or operate your business. For genuine, authentic coaches, their clients are with them because they feel confident that they can help them, and most likely they will have common ground or have had similar experiences with different clients. Coaching should be about empowerment, and you should leave a coaching session with strategies or actions that you can build on and integrate into your life to continue sustained improvement.

Trusting those that paint a picture perfect life, with no transparency around challenges or behind the scenes insight are most likely the ones that you have to be dubious of and are another red flag to beware of. 

Rhiannon Bates, Founder of Garnet PR and business mentor, says: “Social media is often a show reel, carefully curated to paint a desirable and aspirational picture and is not an accurate reflection of the reality so take it with a pinch of salt. Many ‘con-trepreneurs’ say what they think people want to hear, or show what they think people want to see, but the proof is in the pudding. A true professional will have testimonials, case studies and former clients they would be happy to put you in touch with should you wish, they aren’t all smoke and mirrors but have true substance, not just a slick looking social presence.” 

Arguably one of the real struggles in the coaching industry is not just the fake gurus and practitioners, it is the clients who believe (because of false information) that simply handing over money and talking to someone for an hour a week will change their lives and transform their results simply because they have paid and started. 

Amy continues: “The key thing about coaching is that it isn’t a done-for-you, one-size-fits-all service; rather it is guidance on a path the person already wants to be on, encouragement and support along the way and empowering people to achieve results.”

Rhiannon concludes: “The fact of the matter is that nothing will change in your life unless you take action and start implementing steps and boundaries to do so. That is where a genuine coach can help. But it’s important to recognise that it’s a partnership – a coach can guide, support and share expertise and knowledge, but the client has to do the work to get the results – coaching is not a magic wand. It’s vital coaches make this clear, transparency of what is expected on both sides is absolutely key.’

Despite the number of people operating unethically, there are plenty of coaches, qualified and not, that do what they do because they genuinely believe, care and understand what the power of coaching can do to help others. Good coaches can help to change mindsets, remove limiting beliefs and help to propel individuals and businesses to their definition of success with clarity and confidence.

Coaching, News

Considering Self-Employment: How Coaching Could Be The Ideal Solution

Considering self-employment is an exciting venture, and you could have various reasons for considering this career move. You might want to become self-employed so that you can spend more time with your family, so that you can focus on a project or hobby that you’re passionate about, or you might want to work for an employer during the day and run your own business on the side. Becoming self-employed is a lot to take on, but you can make your new career choice work for you and your family by taking things step-by-step and getting advice and support when you need it. In recent times coaching has become an attractive career opportunity for individuals considering self-employment, as due to the versatility of the role, you can coach from their homes or yours, an alternate location, or while travelling. Continue reading, and we’ll discuss the many different variations of coaching and how it could be the ideal solution for you if you’re considering self-employment.

 

Life Coaching

Perhaps one of the most well-known forms of coaching, life coaches gear sessions around personal development, which is not necessarily tied to professional aspirations, although growth might impact them. Often confused with therapy, life coaching does not seek to delve into the individual’s past for the purpose of healing. Past incidents might come up in conversation with the coach if relevant, but primarily the focus is geared towards the future. Sessions could work in many ways; for instance, the person being coached could identify a life goal or situation that they are seeking to work towards, and their coach will work alongside them to create a plan to achieve the desired outcome. Suppose a past issue surfaces and is seen to be holding the person back in a significant way. In that case, it is not unusual that the coaching is suspended so the person can meet with a therapist or counsellor, then return later to the coach to continue with life coaching.

 

Business Coaching

A business coach aims to assist and guide business owners or employees in successfully running a business. Coaches can help by clarifying the vision of their business and how it fits in with their personal goals. Business coaching can also help take a business from where it is now to where the business owner wants it to be. Business coaches can help provide business owners with an unbiased, outside perspective and help address not only business issues but issues of a more personal nature, like finding career fulfilment and figuring out what’s most important. A BCF Group business coach would be able to advise you further if you’d like more advice on becoming a self-employed business coach.

 

Parent Coaching

A parent coach involves working alongside a family to identify the strengths and weaknesses; they will then help the family develop a plan to address any obstacles. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be a new parent to need parent coaching, and everyone, regardless of age or gender, is entitled to seek help and get the correct information. Parent coaching aims to provide parents with the tools to raise and educate children to the best of their ability. It rests on the basis that the potential to be a great parent is already inside of someone and that the coach will work alongside them to help this ability become recognised and ignite confidence in themselves.

 

Career Coaching

Much like the name suggests, a career coach can help individuals identify strengths and weaknesses when it comes to their career goals. A career coach can help with various occupational-based issues, such as identifying professional goals and objectives, interview preparation for new jobs or internal promotion, providing unbiased feedback, and assisting in cultivating skills necessary for career elevation. Individuals don’t need to be in a full-time role to benefit from career coaching. People who seek out career coaching differ; a potential client could be someone who has just left school or college and is looking for guidance after being in the education system. They could also be a post-grad student; that may have graduated in a particular subject but has now realised it’s a career they no longer want to pursue. Career coaches may be discarded once the individual has settled in their new role or retained for further progression.

 

Performance Coaching

A performance coach can be used in various scenarios; this could be business performance, professional performance like athletes, etc., or even regular performance. This way of coaching uses a series of techniques aiming to bring about continuous improvement in an individual. Sessions usually start with finding out the individuals (or companies) visions or goals moving forward. The coach will then work with the individual (or individuals) on producing a plan to explore how people can start working towards achieving those visions and the steps they need to take to do so. A feedback basis is then formed between the coach and student, in which learning and development are produced through the quality of feedback given. Performance coaching may also involve working with other people, such as managers, supervisors, and other colleagues, to make the workplace a high-performance organisation and ultimately helping everyone to perform at their best. Overall performance coaching for business reasons has proven to be very successful. In recent studies, 23% of companies reported that performance coaching had helped them with employee productivity and helped them reduce their operational costs quite significantly.

 

In Conclusion

In conclusion, if you’re looking to become self-employed and are struggling to decide on a career path, considering a career in coaching might be your ideal solution. As we’ve outlined above, there are so many different routes to explore with a career in coaching, and you don’t necessarily have to commit yourself to just one type either. Also, due to the nature of the role, it’s incredibly easy to work remotely or anywhere in the world, as you could offer sessions over the phone or through platforms such as Skype and Zoom.

 

Coaching, Sport

Why Online Golf Coaching is growing in popularity – and why it works better than you think!

Online golf coaching has grown massively in popularity since lockdown, with golfers keen to return to the course with an improved golf swing – but can your performance in what is clearly a physical sport really be improved and taught online?

It turns out it can – and fans of Google clearly know this, with 720 people a month searching for ‘Golf Coaching’ on Google, and 100 searching ‘improve your golf swing’.  Golf is a competitive sport and the tiniest tips from the pros can make a massive difference.  From videos to masterclasses and one on one coaching, learning golf online is not only effective, but online golf expertise is highly sought after.

We spoke to AA class Level 3 PGA Professional and international golfing coach, Natalie Adams, who owns popular online golf coaching site Smash Factor.  Natalie explains:

“I have played and coached golf for more than 20 years.  Playing golf well is about technique – and getting your swing right is really important.  Being TPI certified, I look at how the body moves and functions before recommending improvements, and I can assess this online as well as in person.

“By taking time to screen each client’s individual body movements and relate this to how it impacts their golf swing, I can identify and talk them through the movements and postural changes they need to make to improve.  We can’t all be the next John Rahm, but we can all use biomechanical knowledge to improve our play and get better results.”

Natalie sees clients in person as well as delivering online golf lessons, with clients coming from North-West of England, the Midlands and North Wales – and sometimes even overseas.

However, Smash Factor also offers an entire suite of online golf videos and top tips for golfers keen to improve, which can be accessed anywhere in the world and are currently enjoyed by hundreds of golfers every month.  Natalie says:

“I’m fortunate to coach players from all over the world – I’ve even had clients catching a flight to the UK purely to have one on one coaching with me – however, in the pandemic, when they haven’t been able to travel, players have been surprised at how effective online golf coaching is.  The beauty of this is that geography is no longer a barrier to golf coaching – to improve your technique, you now only need internet access and a good golf coach.  Smash Factor allows anyone, anywhere to improve their swing and play better golf.”

While the online coaching works well, in-person coaching brings in another dynamic, thanks to the latest technology within the practice.  Natalie is uses advanced data based coaching technology, which gives detailed analysis on performance, movement and delivery, enabling Natalie to use an extensive amount of data to refine performance and take coaching to the next level.  While Natalie is delighted to be seeing so much success with the online coaching programme, she welcomes the fact that her sought-after 1:1 golf coaching can resume for many of her clients -although she expects the online success to continue.

 Natalie says:

“There is a real thirst for the golf videos and for our online golf coaching programme, and for me it’s enabling me to help more people play a sport I love.

“At Smash Factor, our goal is simply to help people play better golf and whether people visit us in person, take an online golf coaching programme or even just watch our videos, we’ve shown time and again that we are able to deliver real, measurable progress for both hobby players and sports professionals, helping them to be the best golfers they can be.

“The new trend for online coaching means I can follow my personal passion – to help more people achieve that.”

To learn more about Smash Factor, visit https://www.smashfactor.co.uk/

AI, Coaching, HR News

Two awards and lots of praise for AI Coaching Tool VIC at this years’ Learning Excellence Awards

VIC – your Virtual Interactive Coach has been named the winner of two prestigious Learning Excellence Awards 2021.

The company’s AI coaching tool, which runs alongside it’s free support and development programme for HR Directors, blew judges away in the IT and Technology Learning Excellence Award, with awards judges saying:

“VIC is so technologically advanced that even tech companies find it cool. It’s the best combination of learning technologies ever seen and is rated 10/10 for ease of use and 10/10 for business impact.

“Psych-Tech” A.I. and “1-Clickology” underpin the ground-breaking Emulated Coaching and integrated Agile Talent Development offering. VIC has transformed E-Learning into a practical and proven productivity tool that delivers 5-8% performance improvement and a strong ROI. VIC is revolutionizing learning, coaching and the role of L&D.”

VIC was the first AI coaching tool to market and is continuing to invest in in AI technology – and unlike other AI coaching providers, VIC has multi-award-winning CEO coach Peter Ryding at the helm.  A former blue -chip CEO who later progressed to supporting other businesses with his business turnaround and coaching skills, Peter’s expertise across all sizes of business has left him with a good understanding of the skills businesses need to thrive – and importantly, how AI technology can work hand in hand with people.  VIC is, essentially, like having Peter’s leadership experience and knowledge in your pocket and his voice in your ear.

Peter explains:

“Boardrooms don’t make businesses thrive, people and skills do.  My successful turnaround CEO career was based on developing and upskilling people – leaving the business able to thrive without me.  I know first-hand the soft skills that people need to do this.  Working with some of the best AI developers has enabled VIC to develop and nurture these skills in others in a way that feels natural and easy to put into practice. 

“My goal was to create the technology to cultivate soft skills through coaching, making board-level coaching more affordable and accessible to an entire organisation rather than exclusively for the boardroom.  VIC is the result of over 10 years of collaboration with HR, technology and L&D experts.”

Later in the evening, VIC learned they had also won the hotly contested Mobile Learning Award.  Judges said:

“VIC has taken the concept of mobile learning to the next level by giving all employees (and their families) an automated A.I. coach in their pocket 24/7, that is also a subject matter expert on over 250 topics! What’s more. it can integrate with the organizational culture, best practice, recruitment, induction, performance reviews and succession planning.

“VIC solves problems instantly and turns feedback into 1-Clickology links straight to content, so closing skills gaps in just moments not months. This gives better solutions faster, before they grow, and gets more done in less time – so boosting performance in brand new ways and changing lives at a human level.”

Peter said:

“I am delighted and proud to accept the Mobile Learning Award on behalf of the VIC team.  We’ve focused on delivering a multi-platform mobile learning experience, with users able to access support and learning via PC, Tablet and Mobile, but also via WhatsApp, Email and even over the telephone.

“We couldn’t do this without our team and it’s great to see them recognised with such a prestigious award.  Thank you.”

To learn more about VIC, visit https://vicyourcoach.com/

As well as corporate deployments, the company are offering individuals a personal version of VIC’s award-winning soft skills coaching resources, you can access it here.

Coaching, COVID-19, Wellbeing

Locked Down but not Out – Five Steps to Re-framing Anxiety During Lockdown 3.0

Turn lockdown anxiety on its head with advice from leading alternative psychologist and author Kirsty Lucinda Allan

Leading alternative psychologist and author, Kirsty Lucinda Allan, is urging people in the UK to approach lockdown 3.0 with a fresh outlook using her radical approach to reframing anxiety.

The author of ‘Ironic Fundamentalism – a journey from anxiety to enlightenment’ shares her ‘What If’ guide to a more positive outlook on the months ahead:

 

Lockdown is not the same as locked in or out.

“If you find that you are feeling as though you are a prisoner in your own home or contrastingly, that your usual places and spaces are now an alien territory, be reassured that you have an amazing opportunity here. When we are fixating on our homes and places, we are fixating on the material world around us. Of course, you know that we are much more than the atomic nuts and bolts of buildings, carparks and even our own bodies, right? If you are frustrated with your material space, recognise that this frustration is telling you that you are a creature of greater depths… if you cannot go outward, go inward. This is a time for spirituality – tapping into your inner-self, your intuition, your conscious being. Get to know a greater source within. Find your inner guiding light. This is also a singular chance to realise just how much time and energy you used to spend as a human doing – and instead, recognise the purity of the human being. Use this time to understand more about how you tick, to take up mindfulness, to ponder what you want more of in life, your values and desires – so that when the time comes, you go for exactly that.

 

Restriction actually boosts creative success

“It may seem paradoxical, but when we have all the options in front of us, we don’t tend to choose. In part because we assume they will always be there but also because people become bamboozled by too many options of what to pick up, what to do with it and crucially… where to start. In the end, they simply choose the status quo – which of course, is nothing new. Think of when you are shopping in the supermarket and you go to choose a shampoo or brand of cereal. Unless you have a specific go to choice that means you don’t even consider the others on the shelves, you often find yourself just staring at the wall of colourful bottles and boxes. There is a sense of overwhelm that comes with be presented with more than a ‘this or that’ decision. Albert Einstein called this ‘option paralysis’.

 

Refresh the cast!

“In theatre, we often talk about ‘refreshing the cast’. This means that the appeal of the old has worn out and that new ideas, content and acts will be invited to play. Take a leaf out of the big book of theatrical success and recognise it’s time to refresh the cast of your home and life in general. De-clutter your life. Get rid of all the crap that annoys, frustrates or depresses you. The stuff that hangs around your spaces that you feel disinclined to tidy, organise or engage with at all. Get rid of it because it is a reflection of your emotional and psychological state. It is the echo of that inner critic telling you how well or poorly you are managing your life. If it is commenting to you along the lines of ‘you haven’t tidied me / played me / worn me…’, seriously considering consigning it to last year’s repertoire. Instead, notice the things that inspire you and curate them. Having lots of things is fine, if you love them – you become a curator, a collector rather than a hoarder but there is a fine line. You can hear that very well spoken fine line if you listen carefully;  is in the mental script that is reciting as you go about your day and try to sleep at night. So notice how your ‘stuff’ and also the brands, media and people you engage with on social media area affecting your enjoyment of the big production that is your life.

 

Choice is a choice

“Recognising that you always have choice seems obvious, but it isn’t always so. This is because we regard choices as mental acts but they are actually highly emotional. For example,  if your job is at stake then it also entails a large portion of your identity, your future projections, your self-esteem and your self-image. As such, making a decision about whether to continue or to try something else is entangled with the impact on these other areas too. So, when we are faced with a situation that spikes anxiety in us it is a very big clue that we have a choice to make that entails these other things. The solution here is to recognise our emotional responses to mental ideas about our choices.  It is important to recognise that any situation and the choices themselves are actually emotionally neutral so they can’t give us any clues as to what to pick. Instead we have to turn inward again and uncover what the values are that are being challenged or upheld and what the intuitive predictions are, often which we are leaning toward (or also the ones we are trying to ignore). This is a time for deep personal reflection and radical honesty with the self. Choose to make choices, to decide on your way forward…or don’t. It’s your choice.

 

Grow your avant-garden

“If you can grow a literal garden or plants in your home then that is a tried and tested activity to boost wellbeing all round. Absolutely do this if you can. However, I’m taking about something more. Growing your relationships with others can yield a blooming effect of opportunity. This is because everyone is in the same situation and looking for support, warmth, nutrition and light. Reach out to those you know nourish you (not the ones you know deplete you! Remember you are refreshing the cast…) because when you talk and share and listen and care, a beautiful thing happens – everybody grows together. New ideas, new pathways, old ideas with new angles, old pathways with new feet upon them… When minds and hearts come together, there is new space created for everyone. Be prepared to rest, walk and play in the avant-garden where new fruit grows in abundance.”

Ironic Fundamentalism is available to purchase from Amazon, or www.kirstylucindaallan.com

RRP Paperback £24.99 / Kindle £3.99 (Seasonal special offer paperback £14.99 on www.kirstylucindaallan.com )

 

About the author

Born in Scotland in 1982, Kirsty was always fascinated by the ‘big questions’, the unconventional and the outré.

Eighteen years ago she founded the ‘Ministry of Burlesque’ as a project to help her and others overcome anxiety surrounding body image and gender norms. In doing so became an ‘accidental’ arts movement leader and is considered one of the pioneers on the modern burlesque renaissance. She has produced, directed and written, appeared and managed 1,000+ shows to sell-out 5 star success.

High profile careers in alternative fashion, parapsychology and paranormal investigation also add to her remarkable portfolio.

For the past 10 years she has worked as a unique creative personal development coach guiding her clients to ‘find their light’ and be seen in the world, using an intuitive method of self-inquiry and aligned action in a cycle of positive risk-taking, honest reflection and conscious self-expression.

Her professional qualifications include a BSc (Hons) Psychology, PG Cert. Advanced Practice for Mental Health Interventions and PG Dip. Social Science Research (Parapsychology). She is also a Sekhem Reiki master and has trained in many mind-body disciplines. She continues to study consciousness research with specialisms in intuition and psychic experience.