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XHolly Worton E-mail: holly.worton@gmail.com Web Site: http://hollyworton.com/ Info: Posts by the author (7)

Don’t Be Afraid to Think Beyond Life Coaching Friday April 13, 2012

When people think of coaching, they likely think of either life coaching or executive coaching. But the skills we learn at The Smart School can be applied to a number of different areas. Just look at Nick Hardy and Nami Haghighi working with small businesses, Claire Habel with marketing, and Sonia Gill with head teachers. They’ve all been through The Smart School because they wanted to train as a coach, and then they applied their coaching skills to a very specific niche, which was more business-related, rather than personal development.

I decided to train as a coach primarily because I wanted to help people. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to work with women to help them find their life purpose, and I wanted to run weekend and week-long retreats. I was very much focused on training as a life coach, and very determined to become a life coach. Yet as the time went on, and I finished my diploma, and continued to struggle with my business, Nick and some of my colleagues helped me realise that my true niche lay not within life coaching, but within business-related coaching…specifically, in the area of social media. Read more

XRobert Stephenson E-mail: robert_stephenson@me.com Web Site: http://web.me.com/robert_stephenson Info: Robert is Head of Dynamic Youth Coaching at the Smart School and Director of Unclassified Arts. Robert loves working with young people and the educational sector using coaching, NLP and creativity to engage, motivate and inspire young people.Posts by the author (2)

Group Coaching with Young People Tuesday April 10, 2012

One of the challenges when coaching groups, is managing all the needs and wants in the room. When working with young people this can become heightened, as the young people may not want to share the issues that they are facing.

A way to overcome this is to create a “character”.

A “character” can be created by getting one of the young people to lay on a large sheet of paper then draw around them, this outline can then be used as the focus for the group. And the group can then help the coach create the background for the “character”. This has to be managed as you want to create something that is far away enough not to be recognized as one of the young people, and yet similar enough for them to relate to it.

Read more

XNick Bolton E-mail: nick.bolton@thesmartschool.co.uk Web Site: http://www.thesmartschool.co.uk Info: Founder of the Smart School of CoachingPosts by the author (26)

Small Business Coaching: A Tragedy & Triumph in 5 Acts Tuesday March 20, 2012

This is the story of Pam, Tom and Lesley,  three small-business coaches who start off with similar ambitions but different destinies.  They’ve been qualified for a few months and are meeting to catch up.  Let’s eavesdrop…

Act 1:

Enter our three protagonists to sit at a Starbucks table under the spring sunshine.  Pam is smiling and buys coffee and sandwiches for all three.  Tom and Lesley look a little downbeat.

Pam:        Here you go guys.  Really great to see you again.  How’s it going?

Tom:       Ah, you know how it is.  Tough times.  Coaching isn’t quite what I was expecting!   Businesses have got zilcho money!

Pam:        Really, sorry to hear that Tom.  I’m sure it’ll get better.  How about you Lesley?

Lesley:    Not bad, Pam.  Got a couple of clients although it’s mainly free work.  One of them swaps services with me and massages me once a month. (she smiles ruefully) At least I can’t get stressed!

Tom:       What about you Pam?

Pam:        So far, really great. (she beams)  In the last three months I’ve picked up four pretty big clients already…and I love it.

Tom:       What! Really?  How come? Read more

XPeggy Guglielmino E-mail: peggy0027@googlemail.com Web Site: http://www.lifetherapycentre.com Info: Posts by the author (7)

case study #4 How the practitioner’s belief can influence the client’s results Monday March 19, 2012

This case study is quite an important one for our person centred NLP approach, especially regarding the fourth of the six Sufficient and Necessary Conditions for change inspired by Carl Rogers: That the practitioner believes unconditionally that their client can change from within. It also illustrates very well the NLP presupposition that says “you can’t not communicate”.

I’ve got a client who is 81 year old and wants to lose weight. She’s an absolutely incredible woman and has got an amazing energy and joie-de-vivre. In her quest for happiness, she’s decided to fight her binging pattern and to get fit. I must say that she’s not binging much and generally eats healthy food, but she feels she’s not in control of herself in those situations and that saddens her. After having checked that the changes she wanted were ecological, we started to work using different NLP and hypnosis processes. Read more

XNick Bolton E-mail: nick.bolton@thesmartschool.co.uk Web Site: http://www.thesmartschool.co.uk Info: Founder of the Smart School of CoachingPosts by the author (26)

How business coaching differs from traditional coaching Wednesday March 14, 2012

Coaches never give advice, right?

Well that has long be the mantra of the coaching world.

But in fact, like most things, it’s never quite that simple.

And in coaching, nowhere is this more true than in small business coaching.

Coaching is fundamentally a person-centred approach to change – in other words, it seeks the answers in the client themselves rather than through advice from the coach.  But that’s coaching in its purest form.  And it’s perfect for self-discovery and uncovering the hidden depths which once revealed will lead to change, motivation and action.

But like sports coaching, business coaching is a blend of this uncovering process with a healthy dose of clear-sighted expert advice based on the knowledge and experience of the coach.

Business coaches will bring to bear their knowledge of marketing, sales, social media, systems, financial nous and more to offer their clients rapid results and long term sustainable growth.

The traditional approach will play a crucial role in the first instance of business coaching as the coach seeks to help the client understand what they really want to get from their business.  And it may play a role again if the client gets stuck emotionally through fear, loss of motivation or lack of clarity.

But predominantly, the bulk of small business coaching will be focused on very specific pieces of work around understanding and improving the business model, the marketing, the services and products, the sales process and the way the business handles money.

All in all, the world of small business coaching is a big leap from the transformational place of person-centred coaching and requires a whole new set of skills.

If you’re interested in becoming a small business coach, discover more at: Rapid Results Business Coaching.