By Allan J. Hirshey
Allan J.
Hirshey (LLB, MS) is a former U.S.Government financial analyst, and business lecturer
(adjunct faculty) at a Maryland community college. Training Medicare
reimbursement specialists was a major part of his career. After making aliyah, he earned a professional
counseling diploma, and studied English teaching/tutoring theory. He writes scholarly articles on the social
sciences. Additionally, he provides
voluntary English tutoring to yeshiva students, adults (through AACI) and also
to disadvantaged students at a local Jerusalem community center. “Express
Tutoring” is the name of his business, specializing in business English,
business math, resume preparation, job
interview coaching, personal financial problems, and life counseling using
Reality Therapy techniques.
Historically,
coaching has always been associated with the sports world. Today, however, coaching has taken on a new
meaning. No longer restricted to sports,
coaches are privately being hired for a variety of personal reasons. There are dating coaches, divorce coaches, writing
coaches, voice coaches, lawyer coaches, executive coaches, and the list goes
on.
How does private
coaching differ from athletic coaching? In private coaching, the client sets
the agenda & is considered “king.” Furthermore,
the client/coach relationship takes the form of an “alliance” or partnership to
meet the client’s needs. In this “alliance”,
the partners interact on a “level playing field” - an authoritative
relationship doesn’t exist. Ideally, the coach guides, supports, and empowers
the client to recognize and then solve his/her problem(s) - poor motivation,
low self-esteem, unsatisfactory job performance, etc. In other words, the coach doesn’t provide
answers or solve the client’s problem(s).
How does this work?
Basically,
the coach uses skillful powerful, creative, and opening questioning techniques,
to stimulate the client’s thought processes and to break away from his/her problem
“mindsets.” If these questioning
techniques are used effectively, the client recognizes the problem(s), and then
sets up appropriate personal goals, satisfactorily achieving them within
realistic set time frames.
There are also
other differences. Whereas athletic
coaching is done face-to-face, private coaching is also done over the phone,
including long distance and by email.
Athletic coaches are normally paid straight salaries. However, private
coaches often negotiate their own fees. In
that regard, top-class business and/or executive coaches often negotiate their own
remunerations, based on fixed percentages of their clients’ future profit
margins. Consequently, compared to other
private coaching areas, corporate coaching is the most lucrative, financially.
How does
private coaching differ from psychotherapy, mentoring, counseling, consulting,
& tutoring? Unlike professional
therapists, teachers, & counselors, private coaches are not government
regulated - they don’t require licenses to practice their profession. Moreover, private coaches don’t delve into clients’
past lives trying to uncover reasons for present problems. Some other notable differences, broken down by
related disciplines, are as follows:
Psychotherapy - therapists normally work with poorly motivated and
low self-esteem clients. In contrast, private
coaches, especially, at the corporate level, work with high driving, functioning
clients, who strive for more excellence.
Mentoring - mentors are normally older, wiser, with expertise in one
area. Basically, mentors bestow their
knowledge to their clients. Therefore,
the client is not solving his/her problem(s).
Counseling - similar to a therapist/client relationship, there is no “alliance.”
Instead, the counseling relationship is
more hierarchical. The counselor is
“boss”, and normally solves the client’s problem(s).
Consulting - consultants are hired for their fields of expertise to
solve their clients’ specific problems. So
in this relationship there is no “level playing field”, and the consultant, not
the client, solves the client’s problem(s).
Tutoring – again, there is no “level playing field” - the tutor is
“boss.” The client depends on the tutor
to solve his/her problem(s).
What are some of the key qualifications needed for successful
private coaching? A background in behavior
modification psychology (including NLP) is one important tool. To specialize in business and/or executive
coaching, an aspiring coach also needs to know the following: the fundamentals of business management; how corporate
organizations develop and function; and the principles of risk and crisis/conflict
management. Moreover, having an MBA
degree, supplemented by management experience in such areas as marketing, corporation
finance, human resources, and/or telecommunications, provide a further “competitive
edge.”
Assuming an aspiring private coach’s CV lists the above qualifications,
his/her glass is only half full. Just as
crucial is his/her mastery over certain key interpersonal skills. In that
regard, recent studies have identified five critical interpersonal skills
needed for successful private coaching. The first is the ability to develop client
rapport. Without client rapport, a
partnership or “alliance” can’t be crafted. Here, having a condescending nature is an
important asset. Second, a coach needs to have deep listening abilities at
multiple levels. Hearing what the client
is not saying is just as important as hearing what the client is saying.
Third, a coach needs powerful, creative,
and opening questioning skills to effectively guide the client to solve his/her
own problem(s). Coming into play here is
the coach’s ability to adroitly manage the conversation, and not the client. Fourth, a coach needs to know how to implement
open and objective feedback skills to maintain an effective coach/client “alliance.” Praising the client as much as possible strengthens
implementation of the feedback process. And
fifth, a keen sense of intuition is needed to ensure that the client is staying
on track and exerting the maximum effort required to achieve his/her goal(s). Here, a coach must be careful to trust his/her
intuition, but not to overly rely on it.
What’s today’s job market picture look like for private coaches? Unfortunately, it’s pretty bleak! Although the supply side is growing at an
exponential rate, the demand remains stagnant. Some of the major factors causing this supply/demand
imbalance are as follows: little, if any, governmental regulation (no coaching license
requirements); a proliferation of coaching
courses and seminars, mostly short-term in length and without realistic enrollment
requirements; high global unemployment rates; and the related scarcity of jobs for
recent college graduates.
In conclusion, an aspiring private coach needs three critical
tools to be effective: (a) expertise in a specific field/occupation; (b) a working
knowledge of the fundamentals of behavioral modification psychology; and (c) the
innate personal skills to empower people to recognize and then to solve their
own problems. If anyone of these skills is deficient or lacking, particularly,
(b) or (c), pursuing a private coaching career isn’t realistic. Perhaps a consulting, mentoring, or a counseling
career would make a better choice.
