How Coaching Works

Coaching has an end date. People Architects’ coaching is typically designed to create results in one year.

Why not a shorter time frame?
Evidence shows that using a shorter time frame does not support sustained growth and change.

Why not more than one year?
Results have shown that continuing coaching longer than 12 months can result in a diffusion or loss of focus.

Coaching is not a conversation with a friend. It is a disciplined conversation facilitated by a trained professional who uses an evidence-based approach to help a client grow and achieve their goals.

People Architects’ coaching approach has been proven and refined with hundreds of clients. It works time-after-time. It creates strong and lasting impact. It helps clients achieve important, measurable results in their lives.

Here are the four areas we focus on:

1. Coaching for Vision and Alliance

2. Coaching for Resilience

3. Coaching for Growth and Well Being

4. Coaching for Sustained Success.

Coaching for Vision and Alliance

Coaching is about eliciting the best in people. It is NOT about changing people. Changing people does not work.

The ability to build on what is best in people is what makes for a great coach. It’s not enough that a client likes their coach. Many likeable people are not able to help people grow in measurable ways. A coach needs to provide something that other people or helping professionals do not.

Effective coaching is appreciative in nature. We don’t start with what is wrong or not working. Rather, we help clients identify and build on their strengths and talents. This surprises many clients.

The evidence supports our approach. Helping a client figure out what has been working and how to build on that is much more effective than focusing on what does not work. The coaching partnership is designed to sidetrack resistance and build internal motivation. The client is always at the center of making their coaching work. Change is driven from within, not by creating external pressure. Clients pick the path. Change occurs when people feel safe, their experience is validated, and their coach provides a level of empathy that douses any flames of feeling flawed or not good enough.

We start by helping clarify a client’s vision: Who are they when they are at their best?

Specific aspects of Phase One: Coaching for Vision and Alliance include:

• Create a Foundation of Appreciation, Empathy and Trust

• Establish Clarity About the Power of Absolute Confidentiality

• Overcome Ambivalence and Cynicism

• Utilize Assessments to Clarify Strengths, Talents and Values

• Align How a Client Self-Perception with Other-Perception

• Positively Engage Client’s Network of Support

• Set Specific Goals, Measures of Progress, and Measures of Success

Coaching for Resilience

When coaching is initially focused on resolving a crisis, time is taken to build resiliency skills. Growing is not a straight line to the top. It involves setbacks and failures.

Resiliency is the ability to pick one’s self up when things get tough or go wrong and to try again. Resiliency skills benefit everyone. There is a great deal of research on specific, practical skills that have been proven to help clients improve resiliency.

Coaching for Growth and Well Being

The majority of the coaching focus is directed towards helping clients achieve their goals and dreams. Specific tools and approaches are tailored for each individual’s personality and specific goals.

A professional coach has a well-stocked toolbox in order to provide the right resources for a client’s unique goals. The one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t work. Having a client read a self-help book or take an assessment won’t result in true change. The adage that “When one has a hammer, all the world is a nail.” needs to be considered. A coach needs to adapt to the client, and not the other way around.

We drill down into the details of each goal in the context of the client. How does this work for this person in their environment. We experiment to figure out what will work best for this individual to create the intentional change they are striving for.

Coaching for Sustained Success

There is a saying that if you give a person a fish, they will eat for a day. But if you teach them to fish, they will eat for a lifetime.

The goal with People Architects’ coaching is to help people learn how to adapt better to meet a lifetime of challenges. The one-year coaching approach is designed to avoid developing a client’s dependency on a coach. We purposefully design our coaching process so that clients are building skills to continue to grow on their own without the need for the coach.

In certain situations, such as leadership coaching, it can make sense to continue coaching beyond a year. This requires a purposeful “pause” to consider what has helped the most, what could be improved, and what goals to focus on next. The 360-interview report conducted at the end of the year often provides solid information to help with setting the agenda for continued coaching.