Should coaches be working at all?

Category: Editorial

Richard Winfield - editor In the last issue I discussed whether coaches are earning enough and concluded that the rates are acceptable but in general coaches are not charging for enough hours. Below we have some additional information from the ICF survey.

However, my challenge is whether coaches should be 'working' at all! I have been building a team for a new business and said to them "I want to build a business without working." Some understood and others did not. Clearly, I am not lazy or greedy. The essence of my message is that if you really enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy, then it is not work - it is play.

So, should coaches be working at all? Those of us who work with others to help release their potential, helping them to set and achieve better goals, to unblock what has been stopping them achieving the success that they are capable of, are truly privileged. nbsp;If it is an expression of our destiny, then it should not be work.

Here is some further information from Claire Palmer, who is President of the UK ICF and Co-chair of the ICF Global Regulatory Committee:

My instincts and my personal experience would agree with your comment
'Coaches need coaches to help them raise their aspirations and put practical processes into place'.

Does the data show us that? Possibly at a general worldwide level and yet I do think it's different in each country. Have you seen the UK specific data? The data is all on the International ICF site, under in the Spotlight and you can page down for all the results. I have asked to add the number of responses for each country/region to give an indication of coaching market in each country or region.

Here in UK the average income from coaching is actually higher than both the global figures and North America. (avg income from coaching FT/PT in UK is $65K vs $50K global & North America, avg income for F/T coaches in UK $111K vs $82K vs $80K). That's interesting in itself. Using Andrea's calculations then the average rate in UK is obviously higher. I am not a stats expert but it would be useful to see the range or median as I think there's a huge discrepancy between the top earners in the coaching market and those who are starting out or have those aspirations.

Coaches can have excellent accredited training and experience and yet if they don't find the clients then they just don't move forward. Thanks for your enewsletter - it always has something valuable.

I have joined up with an entrepreneur from Asia Pacific. His name is
Roger Hamilton and he has made a great leap forward in studying people's wealth profile. I have completed many psychometric tests and studied many business models - but his is one of the best. I add it to the Balanced Business Scorecard and Robert Dilts' Neurological Levels in my personal list of greats.

Roger has developed the common Jungian profile in conjunction with the I Ching to create a series of profiles for entrepreneurs. He identifies eight roles, which also relate to the stages of a business development. As with all team work, the ideal is to build a compatible mix of members with complementary skills.

His roles are: -

Creator

Star

Supporter

Deal Maker

Trader

Accumulator

Lord

Mechanic

In general, people have one major and two adjacent supporting strengths. In my case I am a Mechanic with strengths as a Creator and a Lord. To a lesser extent I have strengths as a Star and an Accumulator. Significantly, I have no strengths in this model as a Supporter, Deal Maker or Trader. This is why I am working with a new team capable of providing the personal support for Brefi Network that will complement my Internet systems.

My profile exactly explains how I have come to be where I am with Brefi Network. The Creator designs the web sites, the Mechanic designs the systems, and Lord is a role like Google in which the entrepreneur builds a delivery chain such as e-commerce through which others can trade. All these are back room roles - look out for my absence!

The power of Roger Hamilton (a Creator) is that he has linked his profiling system with a training and networking package that enables entrepreneurs to find and match complementary skills. Having contributed to the wealth generation of entrepreneurs, he then adds a charitable outlet for contributing to society.

You may have noticed that I have been studying manifestation, and I have been watching the film "The Secret". A key part of success is gratitude. I have unintentionally changed the way in which my screen saver works. Now it provides a slide show using all the photographs I took during 2006. They fade in and out at random. It is an interesting challenge to identify some of them out of context - and a very rewarding experience to be reminded of the variety of things I did and places I visited.

When I was in Sophia last year I met a young British artist and we were discussing what he could do to make his name. He had already moved to a foreign country, so I suggested that he should die. It is difficult to be a prophet in your own country and it is much easier to become a famous artist after you have died!

Recently I attended a celebration of the life of Richard Heard. Richard had been the managing director of Birmingham International Airport; I had had dinner with him before Christmas when he and his chairman were briefing a small group of Birmingham business leaders about plans for the airport's expansion. Unfortunately, on the day when Britain was attacked by gales a tree fell on his car and he was killed.

Birmingham's Symphony Hall was filled with representatives and friends to hear tributes to their late colleague. He was certainly a special person, combining work and family with an active charity role. My response was "Why do we have to die?" Why is it that these tributes are paid to the dead? What can we do to pay our respects to the living? It is important to show gratitude. In this
case, those of us who were there were inspired by such an example. But if he had lived to a ripe old age, there might not even have been many colleagues still living to attend.

So the challenge is: how do we celebrate the lives of the living - and use them to inspire the next generation?

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.

He coaches directors and boards in transition:

new and potential directors, effective boards,

mergers and acquisitions, corporate retreats,

change programmes.