Phone Coaching: Getting Best Results for Clients

Here is an excellent post from Career Chaos.

“Where is your office located?” is a question I am sometimes asked when a local person calls me about career coaching services. Although I’ve been in business 11 years and seldom ever meet a client in person, and my website clearly states that all client meetings are by phone with email support, people may still assume that career coaching is a face-to-face process with me. Most people are satisfied when I explain that I work with clients worldwide according to my phone-and-email business model. Some are a bit dubious, while others move on to find a coach who doesn’t work by phone.
Having been trained by two distinct coaching schools in the delivery of telephone coaching, and having helped hundreds of clients achieve results this way, I strongly believe that I show up as the best career coach possible when I work by phone. Of course, since I support the coaching tenet that coaching is “all about the client” and not about the coach, I fully understand when a person chooses not to hire me. However, I do appreciate the callers who let me explain how coaching by phone can produce outstanding results for them. Most end up liking the idea of doing this challenging work from the comfort of their home or place of their choosing.
While intently listening to and conversing with my clients, I get lost visually in this big, beautiful maple tree outside my office window. Whether green in the summer, golden in the fall, or leafless in the winter, this tree stands proud and tall. It represents to me the constant of evolving but ongoing life as its leaves change colors and grow anew each year. Like this tree, each client that I help has a history with a need at different times in their lives for change – change I that can help them achieve if related to their career.
As I listen to my clients, I hear not only what they say, but also what they don’t say – voice inflections, pregnant pauses, nervous laughter – all contributing to a client’s current state of being. If I were to be facing this person, added to the moment could be my distractions coming from what my client looked like, their hand motions, their wandering eyes. These and room distractions would take me off track from hearing – really hearing – what my client was saying.
Since I honor my clients as individuals and truly want to build the best possible rapport with them, I always ask every new client to take a quick assessment to determine their learning style. Consequently, I am able to communicate with them using their preferred “words” to facilitate their highest level of understanding. This exercise is usually enlightening for both the client and me. And it helps to grow trust between us.
Not all learning happens during coaching calls. In between calls, I encourage my clients to spend quiet time reflecting on discoveries and contemplating new ideas. Usually, they eagerly accept homework that I offer or they suggest their own. I want my clients to feel connected to me, their coach, throughout our entire program. So, I encourage them to email me as often as they wish and I promise a prompt response.
Yes, coaching – career or any other type – is a process. It can’t be turned on and off. It happens over time through various methods. Telephone and email let me deliver coaching frequently and wholly, without waiting for a client’s next visit to occur. No starting and stopping, but a flow of ongoing communication with my client’s needs first and foremost.
Wishing you career success in 2010!
Meg Montford

Source:

Montford, M.  (2010, June 5).   Phone Coaching: Getting Best Results for Clients. Retrieved from http://coachmeg.typepad.com/career_chaos/2010/06/phone-coaching-producing-best-results-for-the-client.html

Reprinted with permission.