Personal Development Coaching
Definition of Personal Development Coaching
I use the following definition of personal development coaching:
- "A form of coaching whose primary purpose is not to address one specific area of a an individual's life but to assist them in achieving personal growth which will assist in several different life areas or in the broadening and development of their whole personality".
Personal development coaching therefore has a much broader remit and impact than specific forms of coaching such as career coaching, relationship coaching or stress management.
Why Try Personal Development Coaching?
If you feel that you falll short of where you want to be as a person in terms of your character or in so far as you feel that you are not fulfilling your potential in general then personal development coaching may assist you in:
- Creating a clear vision of how you want to be
- Mapping out a path as to how you will get there
- Monitoring your progress across several different life areas.
Personal development coaching will also help you to clarify if any of your aims may be too ambitious or may have consequences which you have not thought of.
The Psychology of Personal Development
If you feel that you are not reaching your potential, then one possible explanation is that there may be psychological factors holding you back, such as:
- your own inhibitions about trying out new things
- a fear of failure
- wanting to please other people too much or worrying about what other people will think.
If this is the case for you then when working as a personal development coach I will seek to support you to address these issues with problem solving techniques such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and motivational interviewing.
How Does Personal Development Coaching Work?
As a first step I will carry out an initial assessment with you of your current situation and your hopes for coaching in an initial coaching sessions. I will then provide you with a set of exercises to help you explore the kind of person that you want to be, compared with how you are now, which we can use as the starting point for future coaching sessions and for your personal development plan. These exercises will look at:
- The values that are most important to you
- What other people think of you now
- What you think of yourself at the moment
- What kind of person you want to become
- What achievements you would like to aim for in the medium term.
Following completion of this set of exercises we are then able to create a personal development plan (which we may identify as a Project Plan and give a name encapsulating your aims). The plan will help to clarify:
- the outcomes you intend to aim for with the support of
- the aspects of personal development that are most important to you
- specific actions for you to start to carry out to reach the outcomes you have decided to aim for.
In subsequent personal development coaching sessions we will monitor your progress, evaluate and build on the most successful actions and change any actions that don't seem helpful, so as to enable you to progress more effectively towards your personal development goals and to achieve powerful change. We also use psychological techniques such as CBT or other pragmatic coaching tools to enable you to address any personal stumbling blocks.
The coaching aims to provide you with a unique 1-1 personal development course.
How Many Personal Development Coaching Sessons Should I Have?
The number of coaching sessions that is appropriate will vary according to the individual. We can proceed with coaching sessions on a one by one basis or can discuss how many you think might be appropriate at the outset. There is also flexibility about the interval between coaching sessions, which can be weekly, fortnightly or every 4 weeks or more. Sessions are usually conducted on the telephone for increased effectiveness and efficiency.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - --
Information about Life Coaching
For information about the telephone life coaching service that I offer please click on the link below:
Life Coaching - Find Out More