1. Coaching is a new profession

For sure it is not… it has been around as long as the human race with great coaches like Socrates, Olympic coaches, religious icons worldwide and other philosophers.

There is nothing new about people assisting people to greatness and the word coach has been around since the early civilization.

2. Most coaches have a full-time practice.

Most coaches do their work part-time or integrated into other work such as consulting, training, teaching, workshops, writing, speaking, etc. Coaching clients is part of what they do.

3. Mental health care practitioners don’t make good coaches.

Oh yes they do! They are incredible listeners and already have many of the basic coaching tools of powerful questioning, sharing observations, speaking the truth, co-creating relationships and come from a place of caring and empathy with their clients. They are way ahead of the game.

Continued in her article The Myths About Coaching.

Excerpted from article Avoiding the platitudes and simple solutions, By Andrew Neitlich, Center for Executive Coaching:

Wonderful! The Wall Street Journal featured an article called, “Not communicating with Your boss? Count your blessings.”

The wisdom in this article offers a fantastic criticism of much advice that some executive coaches spew.

For instance:

- Asking “How can I help?” can be a good thing to do, but can also offend certain people by implying they need help.

- Paraphrasing what people say to show you are listening can make you sound like an idiot and offend others (who may not appreciate being paraphrased).

- Some problems between people can’t be solved by 5-step formulas or action plans. [Continued]

The Forbes magazine article Surprising Six-Figure Jobs, by Tom Van Riper, encourages looking into a number of jobs that can pay $100,000 or more - including business and life coaching, as the author explains:

“About 20% of the 10,000 registered coaches earn six figure incomes, according to estimates from industry veterans. No special degree or training is required.

“And while some provide specific expertise, such as those hired by large companies to train a sales staff, others rake in money from those looking for little more than a cheerleader as they open a business or try their hand at writing a book. And along with the growth of coaching come derivative businesses that cater to them.

“Coaching is exploding,” says Dan Janel, president of Great Teleseminar, a business that caters to tech-savvy coaches by handling the production work needed to perform remote seminars via the TV screen. Janel said his business was earning six figures itself within 13 months, thanks to the plethora of coaches popping up.”

“Another business spawned by coaching, naturally, is coaching the coaches. Christian Mickelsen [photo], who started as a small business coach in San Diego seven years ago, now helps wannabe coaches get their businesses started through his Web site, CoachingBusinessRocketLauncher.

“He says the key to six-figure success in coaching is finding a specialty and sticking with it. ‘Be a business or life coach but not both. You need to realize why people hire coaches; it’s not about having some super-awesome life, but because they have a specific problem they want to solve.’”

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Also see Christian Mickelsen articles.

Are you getting the results you want from your groups?

Getting humans to work together effectively continues to be one of our greatest challenges.

“Meetings begin with the same risk of injury as a motor vehicle containing a steering wheel at each passenger seat.” –George Kieffer–

By their very nature, groups are tough to lead and facilitate. Groups are entirely different entities than the sum of the individuals involved. Getting the results you want takes far more than simply bringing a bunch of smart people together. Thinking otherwise contributes to harsh judgments upon ourselves and others, leading to apathy, inaction, and the continual self-fulfilling prophecy of groups that just don’t work.

But there are ways to deal with each and every situation you encounter. Once you understand group dynamics and leadership, you’ll transform your problems with groups into opportunities and enjoy the satisfaction of achieving greater results that comes with being part of a high functioning team.

Hi, I’m Steve Davis, Founder of FacilitatorU

FacilitatorU.com is the virtual university for professional facilitators, trainers, and group leaders, and publisher of the weekly Master Facilitator Journal with thousands of members worldwide.

We work with group facilitators, trainers, project managers, business and life coaches, board members, clergy, sports coaches, and group leaders who know there have got to be better ways to help their groups work together more productively. They are experiencing the positive results that come from learning, practicing, and applying group facilitation skills

Would you like to be able to…
* Effectively resolve conflicts and find creative solutions.
* Make a shift from “more” communication to “quality” communication.
* Understand and appreciate different personality types and learning styles.
* Learn effective meeting management skills.
* Learn ways to facilitate a common commitment…
* Learn to work through ongoing conflicts…
* Learn and to relax and have a lot more fun with your groups.

For more details on multiple programs, ebooks and additional resources for coaches and other facilitators, see FacilitatorU
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Janet Switzer/Success Resources International

How Experts Build Empires

In every industry, there’s a powerbroker in the background - an advisor who is known to just a handful of people, but who helps build empires for the top “stars” who are household names.

Janet Switzer is such an advisor. For the last 16 years she’s been quietly creating empire-building campaigns, products, promotions, deals and distribution for many of the biggest celebrity experts you’ve heard of.

Jay Abraham… Mark Victor Hansen… David Bach… Les Brown… Yanik Silver… Laurie Beth Jones… Chicken Soup for the Soul… Jack Canfield… All these stars have been her high profile clients.

Learn from her about creating selling detailed information and training specific to your niche market. Many experts are getting thousands upon thousands of dollars for these super-focused info-products.

How Experts Build Empires includes material on how to write a book, create an audio CD training program, produce a video training product, offer a CD-of-the-month service and more.
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