The Business and Practice of Coaching - Book Report/Review Example

The Business and Practice of Coaching The concept of coaching is based on the idea that one individual provides consistent and effective feedback on the performance of another. Coaching can occur as much in a corporate situation as it does in an athletic situation. For many people, coaching is a business and since 1999 the coaching industry has grown to where there is over 30,000 coaches worldwide, most of which have emerged since that year. In the coaching has emerged as a thriving business, 70% of all coaches report that while they are working hard to build the business they are not quite yet making a living wage Grodzki and Allen (2005) have written a book based on the idea that coaches need to learn how to “succeed in the business of coaching” in order to reflect the kind of success that they're trying to encourage in their clients. Their book, The Business and Practice of Coaching: Finding your Niche, Making Money, and Attracting Ideal Clients, is a guide to creating the business side of the coaching profession and creating a workable system through which both intrinsic and extrinsic value can be found is a coaching professional. The following review takes a look at this guide and reflects on the information that it provides. One of the assumptions that the book makes is that many coaches are having financial trouble. The evidence that they used to support this idea is because of the number of books and courses that target coaches so that they can increase their standard of living. How they differentiate their book from the other books is that while other authors have looked how business is created and offered only information, this book intends to look at who the individual is who is doing the coaching and what the intention of the coaching is in terms of their practice. Grodzki and Allen (2005) write that “we have seen that even the most reluctant entrepreneurs can accomplish significant business goals when offered a coaching approach” (p. 2). Rather than creating an informational guide, the authors intend to create a coaching experience for those who are in the business of coaching. One of the first things that they do is offer for reasons why the coaching business is vulnerable to collapse. These reasons are as follows: “Coaching is an unfamiliar service for much of the public... Since you're selling improvement and achievement services, you will be held to a higher standard of self-care and self-actualization and if you're selling something more material or mundane…you have to become highly articulate…you need to be skilled in your craft” (Grodzki & Allen, 2004, p. 4). In offerings these four reasons for the potential for collapse of the business in coaching, they are challenging the reader to meet the standards that they have set as a framework for becoming a coach. The topic that the authors address frequently is whether or not coaching is a trend or fad. One thing that somewhat contradicts denying the trend and fad question is that 70% of all coaches in the market have been in the profession for less than five years. This suggests that most coaches are brand-new and that everyone is in the midst of a startup. The authors suggest things like collaboration and creating credibility are ways to lessen the impact of the short time period and which most coaches are in business. This means making sure that educational background and certifications are done early in a career. Certifications through ICF, which is the international Coach Federation, is worthy of the attention of any quality coach. While the coach does not have to be certified in any way whatsoever, having certification may make the difference between achieving success and languishing in a career that is not providing the income expected. Once the authors establish when it is to be a good coach and how to differentiate in the market they move on to discussing entrepreneurship which is an essential part of building a business. Rather than approach it from gaining information on how to build the business, they discuss the reasons that coaches successful and how to create the proper mindset in order to become a coach. One of the subheadings includes a discussion on emotional intelligence which provides a framework for dealing with the negativity that comes with owning a business. Self-sabotaging behaviors are addressed as well as the reasons to maintain a legal and monetarily solid business which often deteriorate when negativity is allowed to come into the setting. Part four deals with creating profiles of different types of coaching in order to help an individual who is entering into the coaching profession or has been struggling with their established business to identify the type of coach that they are and how this understanding of their own identity can benefit them in their practice. There many of types of coaches which include executive leadership, business, skills, career, and life coaching. All of these are intended to increase the client's ability to be successful in their own life. One thing that they emphasize during this particular section is that in order to be a coach one has to have found ways to achieve the success that they are coaching others in achieving. One thing that does not work well in the business of coaching is the idea of trying to teach others what one cannot perform. The business of coaching is one in which one individual helps another person find perspective on how they are performing in their life. The angle from which this coaching takes place can be from a number of different perspectives, but the one thing that must be achieved by any coach is the ability to live the lessons that they are teaching. As an example, someone who cannot monitor their own eating or lose weight is not going to be a very good food coach. Finding one's own strengths and using those as a method to teach others to become better and achieve more in their own work and experiences is the best way to practice coaching. Grodski and Allen (2005) use their own experiences in order to create a guide book for others who are entering into the coaching industry so that they can find a high level of success under their own business. References Grodzki, L., & Allen, W. (2005). The business and practice of coaching: Finding your niche, making money, and attracting ideal clients. New York: W.W. Norton. Read More