How To Proceed With Coaching?

IntoFocus will work primarily by phone with you, thus enabling coaching to take place regardless of your location.

Getting started for individual phone coaching is a three-step process:

The first step:

Contact IntoFocus to discuss your coaching requirements. In this discussion Carolyn will want to hear about your current business and personal challenges and where you want to go from here.

You will have time to understand how IntoFocus coaching might be able to help you get there.

Everything you talk about is confidential in all coaching sessions.

• Email - info@intofocus.com.au
• Phone - +61 2 9410 1507
• Fax - +61 2 9412 2508
• Skype Name - intofocus

The second step:

At the end of this discussion you will give you information about how to go further and start individual practice coaching.

If you have a sense of your readiness to go forward, you and IntoFocus coaching can talk logistics — and decide on the times for your first call.

The third step:

Make arrangements for credit card billing prior to your first session.

Prior to each coaching session, email your Prep Form (IntoFocus coaching will give you this form by email) to help focus and structure each call.

That’s it!! You are on your way to building your ideal private practice, with the help of individual business coaching.

IntoFocus’ Coaching Contract With You

Purpose

IntoFocus provides individual coaching to develop and implement strategies to help our clients reach personally identified goals of enhanced business performance and/or personal satisfaction.

Business coaching is proven to work when there are two factors present:

• You are willing to make changes in your professional or personal life, and
• There is a gap between where you are now and where you want to be.

That is all that is necessary for the coach and client to solve professional or personal challenges, turn a business around, and/or design and implement a plan of action. Through an interactive and developmental process, we will help you pursue strategies and solutions designed to move you towards the rapid and satisfying attainment of your professional and personal goals. Our coaches respect, acknowledge, and protect the vulnerability and confidentiality of each client, while constructively holding clients to high standards of self-responsibility and self-accountability.

Feedback

If, at any time, you feel that your needs are not being met or you are not getting what you want out of the individual coaching, please tell your coach, so we can discuss your needs and adjust your coaching program, as needed.

Sessions

Coaching is scheduled at the mutual convenience of the coach and the client. The day and time for the next call will be confirmed at the close of each coaching session. Coaching by phone is paid in advance of each series of coaching calls. Services requested by the client, in addition to coaching calls, will be billed at a prorated hourly rate agreed in advance.

The client will call the coach at the pre-arranged time and telephone number as scheduled, and pays the telephone charges for the call. Please remember that you must give 24 hours prior notice if you need to cancel or change the time of an appointment, otherwise you will be charged for the session in full. The coach will make reasonable efforts to reschedule sessions, which are cancelled in a timely manner. Either party may end the coaching relationship at any time, by giving written, email, or verbal communication of their desire to end the coaching sessions.

Confidentiality

As licensed therapists who are also coaches, we adhere to the letter of our licensure in regard to confidentiality with our coaching clients. We will only release information about our work to others with your written permission, or if we are required to do so by a court order.

There are some situations in which we are legally obligated to breach your confidentiality in order to protect others from harm, including (1) if we have information that indicates that a child or elderly or disabled person is being abused, we must report that to the appropriate state agency and (2) if a client is an imminent risk to him/herself or makes threats of imminent violence against another person, we are required to take protective actions. These situations rarely occur in coaching practices, but if such a situation does occur, we will make every effort to discuss it with you before taking any action.

Although, during the course of our coaching, we may discuss your future plans, business affairs, customer lists, financial information, job information, goals, personal information, and other private information, the coach will not voluntarily communicate the client’s information to a third party.

Coaching versus Therapy

There are some similarities between coaching and therapy, but we do not conduct therapy with our coaching clients. Although both coaching and therapy use knowledge of human behaviour, motivation, behavioural change, and interactive counselling techniques, there are major differences in the goals, focus, and level of professional responsibility. Because of these differences, the roles of coach and therapist are often in potential conflict, so we believe that it is ethically inappropriate, under most circumstances, for us to play both roles with a client. In some situations, we may recommend that you enter therapy as a condition of continuing coaching.

Professional Boundaries

Coaching is a professional relationship and we will make sure to maintain our professional boundaries during and after our work together. Considerable experience shows that when boundaries blur, the hard-won benefits gained from the coaching relationship are endangered.

Intellectual Property

In order to honour and protect the coach’s intellectual property, the client agrees not to disclose or communicate information about the coach’s materials, written articles, or methods to any third parties without express permission.

How IntoFocus Coaches Clients

Every coach has his or her own coaching style. Here is a brief description of the IntoFocus approach.

• We commiserate with and agree with my clients. We make my clients feel good, show them that I care, and help them to believe in themselves (because I do!).
• We share what I’m sensing from my clients. We intuit, point stuff out, and tell the truth if it needs to belooked at.
• We ask the obvious questions. We want facts, feelings, and preferences, and I want my clients to know these as well.
• We step back, look for the whole picture, and discover how their situation or problem is perfect. In other words, they’ve gotten themselves where they are for some reason. We want to know that reason, because it provides the context I need to have a clear perspective.
• We talk about the state my clients want, the most perfect place for them to be, or the most ideal result they want. Most clients have never had someone do this with them to this extent.
• I tell my clients what I think is going on. We provide words for what we see going on. We help them to label these things, so they can see the events, situation, or problem objectively.
• We ask our clients what they need or want from us right then. We want them to use us as they want to. We need to know their needs and our role.
• We present, and we discuss, several strategies or solutions—often unconventional. We like to offer simple advice that fits perfectly and is tailored to their personality, priorities, and resources. Sometimes our advice is counterintuitive, but it usually works.
• We sense and share the next evolutionary step for our clients. We listen for missing distinctions and for shifts that the client is ready to make. We look for the next step of an Evolutionary Progression.
• We ask our clients to do more than they would do on their own. We like to stretch them when the timing is right.

Coaching Strong Start Survey

Want to get started with coaching?

Here is a list of questions. Please take time to answer them as truthfully as possible. Mail, fax or e-mail these to your coach ahead of time, so that they can be part of your initial free session.

• Where do you get your energy from?
• Where are you most personally limited?
• What do you love about your work — being a consultant, health professional, coach, or other skilled professional? What are your unique strengths and talents?
• What is your current situation regarding your work?
• What is going well? What are you proudest of? What are you passionate about?
• What challenges and problems regarding your small business are you currently facing? What challenges and problems in your personal life are you currently facing that add to your stress?
• Of these challenges, which need attention immediately? Which are low priority that can be corrected over time?
• What are the 5 business opportunities that you are currently not making the most or anything of?
• What are the 10 goals you want to accomplish in the next ninety days?
• What should I know about you in order to best understand the challenges you face now? How can I best coach you (strong feedback, gentle encouragement, listening, direct suggestions, information, advice, accountability?)