Personal Life Coaching Can Clarify Where You Are & Where You’re Going

Career Coaching and personal coachesAll of us want to succeed in life, whether it be personal or professional.   For your personal desires, it may be difficult to determine which ambitions you want and in what order you should pursue those goals.  Friends and family can offer you encouragement, but maybe not the requisite skills to help you define your life’s vision and how to get there.  We can help you examine and become accomplished in these areas of personal growth:

  • We can help you define that personal vision. Together, we will identify where you currently ‘stand’ in your life’s journey.  This identification process can include the environment you live in, the current career you are pursing, the types of social interaction you may have, memberships or affiliations you have besides family, release stories of the past that keep you in the same place, relationships you are engaged in; and, your state of satisfaction with any or all of these.  We will help you describe your ideal life and how to get there.
  • We will assist you to dream of those prospects you have only speculated at achieving. Through our coaching process, you will delineate an outline of personal desires, define resources you will need to achieve them; and, clarify the time you may need for ultimate success.

“Never be defined by your past.  It was just a lesson, not a life sentence.”   Toby Mac

Career Coaching for All Stages of Your Professional Life

Regardless of who you are or your business associations, you career needs planning and nurturing. In the economic market today, it’s unlikely to think you’ll have a one job for your entire life. Employers can transfer you to other locations, assign you to another boss that you don’t know, or even, dissolve your job in a downturn of their industry.

Career coaching can assist you in all aspects of your professional vocation. Your career coach can help you to express your deepest passions, eliminate self-imposed limits, restructure your priorities, align your core values with career potential, augment business communications for optimum clarity; or, plan for a complete career change. Examine the following sections to focus your work with us.

Interviewing Skills

Whether you are new to the job market or looking to make a company change, your interviewing skills can make the difference between receiving a job offer or a company reject letter. Let us help you create your professional identity, enabling you to answer interview questions with sincerity and confidence.

Improving Your Current Work Performance

All of us want to be recognized and rewarded for our performance on the job. You can always ‘better’ your best, especially if you’re feeling burned out. Here are areas where we can help you increase or renew work performance:

  • Identify the skills you may want to acquire for promotion or a leadership role
  • Determine and leverage your strengths
  • Classify how you will measure or assess the progress you’re making to avoid derailment
  • It’s becoming a smaller world. Gain knowledge on diversity and inclusion in the workplace
  • Realize your work style and how that style can collaborate with others
  • Boost business language skills for a clear understanding with peers
  • Learn how to avoid and/or resolve work conflicts
  • Create your company ‘champions’ network, there when you need higher authority
  • Develop an understanding of the competition for your job, internal and external
  • Create an exit strategy. Don’t wait until the company is downsizing and you’re panicked

“Don’t lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality.”  – Ralph Marston

Returning to the Marketplace After a Career Absence

If you’ve been away in a caregiving role, raising a family, or finishing your academic education, a career absence may seem an overwhelming challenge for your return to the workplace.  We can help you to:

  • Find an updated career profession, especially if you only tolerated your last company position
  • Distinguish the personal standards you want to bring to the workplace now
  • Identify and avoid trendy programs that don’t add valuable skills to your return
  • Pinpoint events for networking to expand your business contacts and further associate with market leaders

We don’t know how long we will live, but the capacity to totally live your potential is a central endowment.  As we age, new opportunities open for us and new challenges may confront us.  Aside from aging in each year, the potential of your life’s contribution should not end with career retirement or the achievement of a specific age.  Remember your past is not your potential.  Live fully in your personal and professional life.

divorce

Divorce Coaching

divorce coachingDo you recognize your situation in any of these scenarios?

Adversarial Divorce – an imbalance of power between spouses with attorneys negotiating the largest settlement they can for either party.  Often, both parties will state that they felt cheated and unheard from the experience.

Collaborative Divorce – each spouse retains an attorney to guide them through the legal process, often leading to high fees.  This model will have all parties sign a ‘no court’ agreement and attempts to find a sustainable way of splitting assets and parenting responsibilities.

Mediated Divorce – couples pay a flat fee to negotiate together with the guidance of an attorney-mediator, also known as a ‘Wevorce Lead Architect’.  Couples who may already be living apart can take advantage of technology and complete many of the legal processes on line.  Couples are expected to come to the virtual negotiation table with their part of the ‘homework’ finished, eliminating the time delay of awaiting court appearances.

The benefits of coaching during a divorce process:

  • Assistance for you to make informed decisions about your parenting needs, lifestyle changes, family, and social interactions.
  • Help you through your divorce paperwork and assist you to develop goals to keep you moving forward to that better day.
  • Furnishes you a safe environment to explore feelings of anger, guilt, fear, sadness and frustration, whether by phone or in person.
  • Support you to construct emotional boundaries when engaging with your ex-spouse.
  • Help you to define co-parenting plans and custody arrangements, where needed.
  • Guidance and direction to find the appropriate resources you need, financial agencies, household support services or even, other communities of interest you may desire.

Can my Divorce Coach Be My Lawyer?

No.  A divorce coach is not a divorce attorney. Divorce coaching is not legal advice and not therapy. Divorce coaching helps you with the mental and emotional issues that accompany divorce litigation and survive the legal procedures sanely.

If you are beginning the process of divorce or feel that you are settling for terms you will not be able to live with, contact Stephan Marais, CDC.  Stephan can be reached by cell, 605-799-7832 or by email, sfm@walksbesidecoaching.com.

Why Hire an ICF Coach?

Certification from the International Coach Federation (ICF) is extremely important when considering hiring a coach. Credentialing from the ICF is rigorous and stipulates that the coach:

  • Has received professional training from a program specifically designed to teach coaching skills in alignment with the ICF Competencies
  • Has demonstrated a proficient understanding and use of the coaching competencies as outlined by the ICF
  • Is accountable to the ethics and standards set forth by the ICF

The ICF is a consortium of professional coaches and organizations that have joined under its auspices to shape and govern the profession of coaching. Many who call themselves coaches have not been formally trained in specific coaching skills that distinguish it from other professions and are transferring non coaching skill sets from other professions into their coaching. Often this results in an inadequate or ineffective coaching experience for clients.

In addition to the ‘practice hours’, certification includes written and oral exams and the agreement to adhere to the Code of Ethics established by the ICF.

Don’t be deceived to think any coach is a competent coach because they have other professional credentials or have established high fees.

For more information, contact Stephan Marais, CDC. Stephan can be reached by cell, 605-799-7832 or by email, sfm@walksbesidecoaching.com.