Below are some quotes from
just a few of the recent articles about coaching.
FAMILY THERAPY NEWS - April/May,
2000
"While it is an
expensive service it is no longer exclusively reserved for Fortune
500 climbers and seven figure athletes. Many people are hiring
coaches for all areas of their lives, including career, personal,
sports, business, skill enhancement, and life balance."
AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN
- April 14, 2000
"Individual coaching
has come in vogue across the country for everyone from lawyers
to accountants. But nowhere does it seem to make more sense than
in the invent-as-you-go world of technology." "...often
the coach is a sounding board for a lonely executive struggling
to find success or happiness in a profession that, more than
any other, can demand instant results and serve up crushing defeat.
It's rare to have think time, and coaching gives you the opportunity
one or two hours a week to hear yourself think."
"...companies are increasingly adding employee perks
such as legal services, free lunches, employee-assistance programs,
and now coaching."
FAST COMPANY - March, 2000
"Even world-class athletes can't reach peak performance
without a great coach."
FORTUNE MAGAZINE - February 21, 2000
"...in the past five years coaching has gone mass-market.
In the age of Every Man for Himself, every man can have a coach--and,
in an ever more commonly held view, needs one."
AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL
- February 14, 2000
"People from all
walks of life -- especially professionals -- are working with
life coaches to help them develop a game plan for their lives
and to show them how to stick with it to achieve greater professional
and personal satisfaction."
THE GOOD LIFE - February, 2000
"Many coaching clients have attained a certain level
of success in their careers and are generally well-adjusted but
find something lacking in their lives. They may want to go into
an entirely new field, figure out how to downshift in their current
jobs, or live more in conjunction with their true values."
PC WEEK - December 20, 1999
"For years there have been career coaches and executive
coaches. Now there's a new category, called "life
coach." The life coach combines personal, professional and
career coaching and, it seems, is filling a need that is not
quite being addressed by any other source." "There
are several reasons why a life coach ... makes sense. First,
a life coach can go into topics such as marriage, nutrition and
exercise that co-workers, bosses and even HR are loath to broach
unless there's a crisis. Second, men and women today are trying
to balance family obligations with a successful career path.
Third, employees may not open up to a manager, for fear that
the manager will see them as unable to deal with problems. Fourth,
a life coach can be objective about job opportunities both inside
and outside the company."
BUSINESS WEEK - October 11, 1999
"As for coaching, having someone listen to you and encourage
you, and break everything down into easy, concrete steps, is
rather nice." "It's not just helping them with hard-core
business issues but also helping them with their personal issues..."
BLACK ENTERPRISE - September, 1999
"'Mentors for hire' are a relatively new phenomenon,
but the demand is increasing. The number of trained coaches--people
who help executives achieve professional and personal goals--has
more than tripled since 1996..." "Unlike management
consultants, coaches use a personalized, philosophical approach
that focuses on career and life issues, and follow up to ensure
the executive's progress."
ORLANDO SENTINEL - July
18, 1999
"A good coach is
a listener and a guide, compassionate but firm, savvy in the
ways of the world but open to matters of the heart - a compatriot
who wants more than anything to see you succeed, a mom and pop
dedicated to your own dreams, as opposed to what they had in
mind for you. It's almost like having a functional family at
the other end of the line." "Coaching clearly suits
an age of pressurized ambition, when more and more people have
less and less time to make the most of lives and livelihood."
FAMILY THERAPY NETWORKER
- May/June, 1999
"Not a therapist,
not a consultant, not exactly a friend and definitely not a gym
rat, a personal coach is more like a midwife of happiness, encouraging
clients to name their goals and achieve them." "People
pay for coaching skills because they have a need. They've tried
[attaining their goals] themselves. They've tried to set up networks
with friends and they fell apart." "The top-level people,
professional athletes and executives, have had this for a long
time. Now the masses do, too." "...in this period of
rapid social and economic change, when career shifts, family
disintegration and sensory bombardment are the norm, a perceptive
coach can provide a steadying presence in dizzying moments of
change."
INFOWORLD - May 24, 1999
"Anybody who actively wants to move up in a company,
make their job easier, have more fun, have more personal time,
and still excel in their job needs a coach." "A coach
can [help] you get over the hump of a lot of issues you face
and keep that motivation going." "Clients also say
that coaches give them a fresh perspective."
THE MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL - April 12, 1999
"For a small business person, it helps to have an outside
person to share goals and objectives with and keep an eye on
the bigger picture." "Encouragement is often the greatest
service the coach provides."
FORTUNE MAGAZINE - September
28, 1998
"Today's managers,
professionals, and entrepreneurs are hiring coaches to help them
with time management, a change in career, or balancing their
work and personal lives."
EASTSIDE BUSINESS JOURNAL
- August 1998
"...Coaching delivers value to anyone seeking to move forward
inpersonal and business life. For a company, organization,
or small business, the return on investment is high, easily recognizable,
and apparent soon after coaching begins."
APPROACH - RENO AIR IN-FLIGHT MAGAZINE - March 1998
"Chances are if you are highly motivated, are already
successful and yearn to be more so, you have a coach."
"...it's no fad the profession is escalating in the
same way that business is changing." "Soon, rather
than asking, 'What is a coach?' people will be posing this question:
'Who is your coach?'"
CHICAGO TRIBUNE - February 2, 1998
"We need some undistracted steering and grooming, prodding
and propping up. We need someone to persuade us when we fall
to get back on the ice, the slope, the course. All of us could
benefit from someone who always is there to beam good wishes
from the sidelines."
MONEY MAGAZINE - December
1997
"...a coach
will help you identify your marketable skills, define your life
and career goals, and then create a game plan to help you reach
them. These job and life counselors will then check in with you
weekly--most often by phone--to keep tabs on your progress and
encourage you to stay on course."
FORTUNE MAGAZINE - July
7, 1997
"...coaching is clearly superior to training. It is far
more time efficient, and it is tailored to individual needs."
THE HARTFORD COURANT BUSINESS WEEKLY - December 30, 1996 "By
the year 2000, business coaches will be as common as personal
fitness trainers..." "Many in the growing profession
[of coaching] see themselves as hybrids, combining the roles
of business consultants, therapists, spiritual advisors and personal
trainers."
FAST COMPANY - October,
1996
"World-class athletes
know it. So do operal divas. Winners in nearly every profession
know that without the right coach, they won't perform at their
peak. And now a select number of business people know it, too..."
LOS ANGELES TIMES - May 20, 1996
"People at all stages of their professional development
are hiring coaches..."
"It helps people get more of what they want out of life
... Coaches are sounding boards, support systems, cheerleaders
and teammates all rolled into one. Bottom line; their task is
helping the client realize his full potential....Coaching is
for anybody who wants more in life and is willing to take action
to accomplish their goal."
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS - March 13, 1996
"If you're wondering whether you need a coach, first
ask yourself honestly: Do I waste time because I don't prioritize
tasks effectively? Do my workers hate me? Do I have trouble communicating
effectively? Do I spend too much time at work and not enough
time with my family?"
THE MIAMI HERALD - March 6,
1996
"A life coach can
offer a higher, helicopter view of what to do next in your life."
SAN DIEGO BUSINESS JOURNAL
- February 26, 1996
"The kind of people
who are attracted to coaching are people who want to excel in
their lives...those who feel they are not achieving everything
in their lives they feel they're capable of."
SAN ANTONIO BUSINESS JOURNAL
- February 23, 1996
"Coaches are more
than consultants...they're advisors and mentors who help their
clients achieve more in their professional and personal lives.
They help their clients, who can be entrepreneurs, CEO's or just
ordinary people, define and move toward their goals."
NEWSWEEK - February 5,
1996
"Part consultant,
part motivational speaker, part therapist and part rent-a-friend,
coaches work with managers, entrepreneurs and just plain folks,
helping them define and achieve their goals--career, personal
or, most often, both."
FORTUNE MAGAZINE - December 27, 1993
"Some human resources directors have come to think that
all executives should be assigned coaches..."
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