How does IMA Coaching work?

Each client and organisation is unique, so we design and tailor coaching for your particular needs and goals. Success in coaching depends on having a high level of trust in the relationship, so before your first coaching session you have a free introductory session to talk about your goals, how coaching works and to make sure your coach is a good match for your particular needs. We follow the International Coach Federation Code of Ethics so your coaching relationship will be confidential and professional at all times.

How will I benefit?

Having a professional coach to help you focus on achieving your goals is very empowering. Typical ways in which coaching helps include:

• Accelerate your personal development to reach your full potential
• Boost your existing skills and learn new ones to become more effective
• Use communications skills more effectively to win the hearts and minds of your staff
• Get a fresh, independent perspective on organisational issues
• Get focused, confidential support on your personal challenges
• Regain your work-life balance
• Manage your career choices

How will my organisation benefit?

As individual performance and motivation increase, productivity improves across the organisation:

• More innovative and sustainable strategies •Better use of time leading to improved efficiency
• More capable of overcoming challenges •Healthier, happier and more committed teams
• Quicker and better decision making
• Increased effectiveness of training when coaching is used as a follow-up to consolidate learning

How does Coaching compare to Training?

With coaching, you have a professional expert focused entirely on your specific needs, so you can make rapid progress on the areas which are most important to you. The high quality, objective and immediate feedback you receive as you discuss your ideas will help you make a dramatic change in your personal insight and perspective.

In fact, coaching and training go very well together. Training provides great opportunities to learn new skills and meet with others. People who receive coaching after a training course find they have a much greater success rate in applying their new skills in the workplace.

Our coaching options mean that you can adapt your spending to your budget. You can take an Individual Session to address a specific topic, or you can have a Personal Programme or Organisational Programme to give you a series of coaching sessions at budget prices.

Does phone coaching really work?

Coaching by phone provides three key advantages over face-to-face coaching:

• It allows full access to professional coaches at a time that is mutually convenient to both you and the coach. This is especially helpful when you have heavy programme or travel commitments.
• It provides a degree of anonymity, which enables the client to reflect in a calm environment on the coaching input. Our coaches are fully experienced in working over the phone to establish rapport quickly and understand the coaching goals you have.
• It enables us to keep the cost of coaching down, since we do not need to take into account the time and cost of travelling to a specific venue.

If you’d prefer a face-to-face discussion, we can arrange this. Please call us to discuss options.

Why are the sessions usually 50 minutes long?

Experience tells us that 50 minutes on the phone is the optimum time for you to get the most benefit from the conversation you have with your coach. Many people find it is difficult to focus for longer than 50 minutes. We allow up to 10 minutes for the phone connection to be made so the 50 minutes is focused entirely on you and your goals.

We understand that you may have complex demands on your time and so we can offer sessions of different lengths; if you’d prefer to have a longer period please let us know. For face-to-face sessions, it is common to have a longer period, and this is reflected in our price structure.

What is laser coaching?

If you’re a busy professional, you may put off coaching because you’re worried about committing the time for regular appointments, or because you may be working in the field. This means you miss out on the benefits of feedback from a professional coach on life and work issues.

Laser coaching removes this concern. With laser coaching, you focus intensively on a specific bite-sized issue with your coach and come out with a practical plan of action. Further sessions on different topics can always be added without ongoing commitment.

Laser coaching works best when:

• You can clearly define the problem you’re facing and exactly what outcome you’re aiming for. The clearer the objective, the more focused the coaching session can be.
• The problem involves interpersonal relationships, such as a problem boss or a difficult colleague. Laser coaching can help you develop skills for dealing with difficult people. It deals with the here-and-now, not untangling long-standing patterns.
• The problem is part of a larger issue that can be broken into smaller related pieces. By breaking a big topic into smaller pieces, it is possible to make progress without a long-term coaching commitment.

Can I set up a coaching programme in my organisation?

Yes. Many organisations are training their managers to be in-house coaches. When managers learn coaching skills, it helps them to transform their people management style, unlocking the potential of their reports and so leading to increased productivity and morale.
Our coaches have experience in designing and implementing in-house coaching programmes and have a proven coaching toolkit to make it easy to train your managers in how to become coaches.

What are the first steps?

• Visit the coaching page of our website.
• Fill in an application form. This lets us know what you’d like to talk to the coach about, so we can choose a coach for you and put you in touch with them.
• We will send you a copy of our Coaching Code of Ethics and a Pre-Session Questionnaire to fill in.
• The coach will contact you to arrange your free introductory session. In this session, the coach will clarify your goals and explain how coaching works, so you can both be sure the coaching relationship will work well. This is your opportunity to ask any questions about coaching.
• We’ll send you (or your sponsor) the coaching contract and our invoice. Once we receive payment, you’re ready to start the coaching.

I’m still not sure!

If you have not used coaching before, and still have some questions, why not phone us and have a chat. Just call +44 (0)1273 833030 and ask for Alexander. We are always delighted to talk with past or potential clients, and we can talk with you about your specific interests and questions.