Frequently Asked Questions
Some questions on our FAQ page were adapted with thanks from those on the International Coach Federation FAQ page.
NOTE: We abide by the Core Competencies and Ethical Guidelines as established by the ICF
More Resources:
Prospective clients arrange a complimentary phone consultation. During this phone session, you’ll share your situation and what you want to accomplish with coaching. This will allow your perspective coach to understand how he or she can best support you and will allow you to ask any questions you may have and experience coaching with them.
If you decide to move forward with the coaching work, you will arrange a second meeting with your perspective coach to design the exact coaching package to fit your needs.
Coaching costs differ, as we do not charge by the hour. Your coaching package will be designed for your specific requirements.
Here are a few examples of the kinds of things that might be included in your coaching package:
- Meetings, do we meet just with you, or do we also liaise with your Manager or HR rep?
- Will there be interviews with your reports or others?
- Will there be conflict mediation meetings between you and reports or others?
- Which assessments or coaching tools might we include?
- Will we be doing any surveys?
- If you are a leader, will we be doing any team-building workshops with your team?
- Do you come to our offices or do we come to you?
- Will we have defined coaching times or if you are a busy leader, are we on call?
- Travel time, flights, etc…
Once we have sat together and devised a program that works for your specific requirements, we will send you an offer which we can further tweak until you are happy.
Professional coaching is a distinct service which focuses on your life as it relates to goal setting, outcome creation and personal change management. In an effort to understand what a coach is, it can be helpful to distinguish coaching from other professions that provide personal or organizational support.
Therapy. Coaching can be distinguished from therapy in a number of ways. First, coaching is a profession that supports personal and professional growth and development based on individual-initiated change in pursuit of specific actionable outcomes. These outcomes are linked to personal or professional success. Coaching is forward moving and future focused. Therapy, on the other hand, deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict within an individual or a relationship between two or more individuals. Therapy outcomes often include improved emotional/feeling states. While positive feelings/emotions may be a natural outcome of coaching, the primary focus is on creating actionable strategies for achieving specific goals in one’s work or personal life. The emphasis in a coaching relationship is on action, accountability and follow-through.
Consulting. Consultants may be retained by individuals or organizations for the purpose of accessing specialized expertise. While consulting approaches vary widely, there is often an assumption that the consultant diagnoses problems and prescribes and sometimes implements solutions. In general, the assumption with coaching is that individuals or teams are capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach supplying supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks.
Mentoring. Mentoring, which can be thought of as guiding from one’s own experience or sharing of experience in a specific area of industry or career development, is sometimes confused with coaching. Although some coaches provide mentoring as part of their coaching, such as in mentor coaching new coaches, coaches are not typically mentors to those they coach.
Training. Training programs are based on the acquisition of certain learning objectives as set out by the trainer or instructor. Though objectives are clarified in the coaching process, they are set by the individual or team being coached with guidance provided by the coach. Training also assumes a linear learning path which coincides with an established curriculum. Coaching is less linear without a set curriculum plan.
Note: tall trees coaches also provide training in the form of workshops and team development programs.
Athletic Development. Though sports metaphors are often used, professional coaching is different from the traditional sports coach. The athletic coach is often seen as an expert who guides and directs the behavior of individuals or teams based on his or her greater experience and knowledge. Professional coaches possess these qualities, but it is the experience and knowledge of the individual or team that determines the direction. Additionally, professional coaching, unlike athletic development, does not focus on behaviors that are being executed poorly or incorrectly. Instead, the focus is on identifying opportunity for development based on individual strengths and capabilities.
Executive or Leadership Coaching is a professional relationship designed to assist you in achieving more fulfilling results both in your professional and personal life.
Through coaching, you focus on the skills and actions necessary to successfully clarify your goals, break actions down into doable chunks, and then work with accountability to achieve them.
Tall Trees Coaches are hired both by organizations and individuals who would like professional leadership development.
We are approached by HR or individual managers who are looking for coaching to support their high potentials in leadership development, or for team-building programs and workshops.
We are also hired by individuals who would like support in their career development, and to develop their leadership skill-set.
Coaching begins with an initial session to assess your current opportunities and challenges, to define the scope of the coaching relationship, to identify priorities for action, and to establish specific desired outcomes. Subsequent coaching sessions are scheduled once or twice each month. Between scheduled coaching sessions, you may be challenged to complete specific actions that support the achievement of your personally prioritized goals. The coach may provide additional resources in the form of relevant articles, checklists, assessments, or models, to support your thinking and actions.
This is defined between you and your coach in a place that is most inspiring for you.
Most often we meet with our clients in their offices, some prefer to meet away from their working environment, and these meetings can be as diverse as meeting in our offices, meeting for breakfast in a hotel to walking in the park, or even sitting on a stand-up paddleboard in the middle of a lake. You get to choose what makes you most comfortable and provides the most relaxing and productive environment for your coaching session.
We are also available for phone and Skype coaching when working with overseas clients, and for those of our busy clients who are often traveling, so that we do not miss sessions.
We also hold Team-Building and Communication Competence Workshops in Oberiberg and in conference rooms booked by our clients.
The most important thing to look for in selecting a coach is someone with whom you feel you can easily relate to and can create the most powerful partnership.
Additional considerations include the coach’s experience, specific coach training completed, attainment of ICF credentials, coaching success stories and coaching philosophies.
The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on your needs and preferences.
Focused coaching programs can range from 5 to 12 sessions. Generally engagements last between 1 – 6 months. Depending on the situation and goals, some clients may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer period, up to monthly sessions for a year.
On average, our coaches work with clients for 3 to 12 months. A three-month commitment is encouraged to experience the deeper impact of the process, but it is not a requirement.
Team coaching engagements range from one-off remediation workshops to 3-month, 6-month, and year-long team development programs, designed individually to meet your specific organizational needs. We don’t recommend one-off team building workshops as these are proven not to have a lasting impact on team development.
Get Social