Career Coaching

By Caroline Veldhuis

When most of us hear the word “coach”, we think push-ups. But in the last decade almost 250,000 people around the world have had a little push towards personal success thanks to coaches helping them with everything from navigating their careers to planning their retirement. There are nearly 10,000 professional coaches practicing outside the athletic arena, and the profession is growing fast. For people working or training to work as career development practitioners, career coaching is a lucrative and rewarding niche one might want to consider as an area of professional practice.

So what do career coaches do, anyway?

Karin Bauer, founder and director of Career Track Coaching in Kelowna, BC, says that coaching is quite similar to career counselling. Coaches, Karin explains, work together with their clients to explore ideal careers, and then help clients map out a course for positive change in their careers or businesses. Career counsellors generally help people clarify their career direction, but coaches move beyond that, working with clients to help them define appropriate goals within the context of the lifestyles they want to lead.

Goal-setting is the cornerstone of coaching. Career coaches say that one thing that impedes career progression is the fact that people often set the wrong goals for themselves. Coaches are trained to listen, lend support, challenge and motivate their clients to develop personally appropriate goals, and they help clients eliminate blocks that crop up along their chosen paths. Diana Bradford, a career coach in Mississauga, ON, and owner of Career Bound says ” I offer my clients motivation and support. I do not do the work for them. I help them stay focused on what they are trying to achieve. The answers are in them — they just need help in uncovering them.” Clients say that coaches help them reach their goals faster and help them make better decisions than they would have made on their own.

Coaching is popular is because this process works. Many people need an objective voice outside of their circle of family, friends, and co-workers who can work alongside them as a sounding board and partner in dealing with various life and career issues. Coaches help clients, in part, by spurring them to action, because much of the coaching process involves setting and completing to-do lists and “action items” which otherwise might not get done. Coaches offer clients support, and hold clients accountable as they progress through the necessary steps to achieve their goals.

The International Coach Federation stresses that the coaching relationship is indeed a partnership, not a paternalistic sort of relationship. Coaching, they say, is also distinct from counselling because the coaching focuses on the present and future, rather than the past. Coaches serve as strategists, confidantes, cheerleaders and supporters. “We evaluate together what’s working in their journey and celebrate each success together. It’s important to build success habits as these are connected not just with career growth, but also finances, relationships, communication, living & working environment and many other important areas. Together we build a road map to travel on that will get the clients to their goals”, says Karin.

Karin shares the experiences of some of her clients ” I have worked with struggling artists who are now making their career soar with success. I have worked with entrepreneurs who never had time for themselves and are now enjoying more balance with career and life. I’ve worked with career professionals by fine-tuning their skills, and they have landed positions that were more challenging and rewarding”

As career coaching has taken hold as a recognized profession, Wendy Enelow, President of the Career Masters Institute in Virginia, and a certified job and career transition coach, says that career coaching is diverging into two distinct areas of practice — Career Management and Career Marketing. The Career Management coach, she says, “focuses on broad issues related to your entire career – the past, present and future”, offering broad support from defining career direction to evaluating satisfaction in a current job. The Career Marketing Coach works on an immediate job search, defining what positions a client is aiming for and developing a plan to meet a client’s objectives. Enelow says this type of coaching is frequently employed for individuals who “know who they are” professionally. In Canada, we also have “job coaches” who work largely in government or social service agencies – helping individuals define and gain appropriate employment. They assist clients in a thorough skills assessment and then help them target jobs and develop résumés, cover letters and interviewing skills. Of course, the upside of being a self-employed career coach is the freedom to design your own service package and target the populations you want to work with.

Career coaching is usually provided in 30 minutes sessions, about four times a month, for an average charge of $250. During these sessions any number of tools can be used in the coaching process, depending on the services the coach provides. Much of the work is done by telephone, though many coaches offer fax, e-mail, and in-person contact as well. Diana Bradford says to get started, she spends a lot of time interviewing and talking with clients. She uses various tools “to help clients generate ideas and focus in on what they are looking for”, like card sorts — occupational, motivational, values and skills. Much of the coaching process involves simply talking (but in a very focused, goal-oriented way!)

So how does one become a coach anyway?

Karin Bauer says she got started with Career Coaching after working as a counsellor for many years. She enjoys the aspect of coaching more “as I get to coach the clients to definitely take action and continue to encourage them to set new growth goals. I work with highly functioning, successful people who need a listening ear as well as people who are facing bigger challenges with their career, life or business” She has taken coach training courses at Coach University. Diana started out managing a Canada Employment Centre for Students. She enjoyed the job so much she went on to complete the Career Development Practitioner Program at Conestoga College, and started Career Bound a year and a half ago.

While the term “coach” is not currently regulated, consumers of professional services will be looking for appropriate training when they choose a coach. Many people have moved into coaching with a background in social work, psychology, adult education, training/development and human resources with little extra training. Each year, more and more programs appear to offer skills training for coaches, so it’s a good idea to compare what’s available before investing in an academic program. To date there is no universally recognized designation or certification as the profession is unregulated; however, individual schools may have different levels of certification and the international coach federation has an extensive program of credentialling.

The most focused program here in Canada is the Career Coach Certificate at Conestoga College, the only course of studies devoted specifically to career coaching. Most of the program can be completed via the Internet, with 24 hours of on-site training required. The 240 hour, 5 course program can be completed part-time, beginning in September, January or May. See the web page for details on admission and to learn more about the program.

To obtain general coaching skills (and perhaps branch out into other areas of coaching) a Professional Coaching Certificate Program has been developed at the Adler School of Professional Coaching, associated with the Adler School of Professional Psychology. The program comprises six core modules, four days of workshops and a practicum. The school accepts applications in the fall, and they also offer summer school — an intensive week of coach training based on the first three modules of the certificate program and some follow-up work.

In the coaching profession, Coach University www.coachu.com) is probably the best known and certainly the largest and most comprehensive academic program, developed in 1992 by the “founder” of the profession, Thomas Leonard. This program can be done remotely and usually takes two years to complete, through a combination of weekly conference calls, a mentorship and online resources, The tuition is currently $4295 USD. One of the benefits of studying at Coach University is the wealth of support and information around establishing and building a coaching practice. Coach University also owns the trademark “Certified Coach”, a title bestowed upon graduates of their training program who have completed 1000 hours of coaching, and who have passed various oral and written exams.

Coaches Training Institute www.thecoaches.com
Coaches Training Institute courses offered in Toronto and Vancouver, usually about 3 full days long, 3 stage process to complete program, total cost about US$4300. The final stage involves trying for certification as a “Certified Professional Personal Coach”.

Peer Resource Network (Cdn) www.mentors.ca/coach.html
Peer Resource Network offers several weekend workshops at a cost of CDN $799 in Toronto and Victoria to introduce people to the coaching profession.

To further investigate training options, link to the ICF’s comprehensive list of programs at www.coachfederation.org.

Beyond the statistics, it is evident that coaching provides benefits not only for the clients, but it can be a very rewarding profession for the coaches themselves. “I think there is a great future in Career Coaching”, says Diana. “It will become more common for people to seek the services of a Career Coach, not only those who are unemployed but those who are generally dissatisfied with their current careers and want to make a change. The mentality that you have to stick with your chosen career is fading and people’s happiness is more important.”

For Further Information:

International Coach Federation www.coachfederation.org
The largest professional association worldwide of business and personal coaches founded in 1992. Mandate is to build support, preserve integrity of coaching profession.

To learn more about coaching in general and how to get started, the Learning Annex in Toronto regularly offers a 2 hour seminar by Bev Knox about getting into the coaching profession (www.learningannex.com)

Interested in finding a coach in your area? Coach University hosts a searchable directory of their coaches called the Coach Referral Service (CRS). Call 800-48-COACH or visit the website at www.coachreferral.com.

Books

Take Yourself to the Top: The Secrets of America’s #1 Career Coach
Laura Berman Fortgang, Warner Books, 1998

Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life
Laura Whitworth , Phil Sandahl, Henry House, National Book Network, 1998

Take Time for Your Life: A Personal Coach’s 7-Step Program for Creating the Life You Want
Cheryl Richardson, Broadway Books, 1998

The Handbook of Coaching: A Resource Guide to Effective Coaching with Individuals and Organizations
Frederic M. Hudson, Jossey Bass, 1999

Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others
James Flaherty, Butterworth-Heniemann, 1998

Karin Bauer is happy to speak to anyone interested in pursuing Coaching either as a profession (she trains new coaches) or wants to try out working with a coach. She offers a free 30 minute session to people interested in exploring coaching and welcomes your enquiries.
email Karin@CareerTrackCoach.com
website:www.CareerTrackCoach.com
Phone: 250-764-0879 or toll free 1-800-526-4456

Diana Bradford
career_bound@hotmail.com
Web: www.careerbound.org
(905)567-6300