What is coaching?
Coaching is a partnership between a coach and a client. It is designed to help the client develop greater self-awareness and clarity to enable changes in mindset, behavior, and performance. The partnership consists of regular one-on-one conversation sessions that focus on setting goals, removing blocks, motivating action, creating accountability, and checking in on recent action. For most AK C&C coaching packages, sessions are held bi-weekly for one hour, and include between-session contact and support as needed. Coaching sessions help you to see your perceptions and behaviors in new ways, gain sharper focus, and inspire optimal choices and patterns that move your toward your goals.
What is the new client experience like?
A client who feels they might be interested in working with me sets up a free Zoom or phone conversation with me. In that 20-30 minute call, we talk about their concerns and goals, and I do some coaching. From that conversation, we each decide whether we feel we’re a good fit for working together; we decide if the coaching partnership “chemistry” is right. If we agree to start the partnership, the client chooses a package, signs a contract, and makes a payment, and then we plot out our session days and times for the package time period. I start with some simple assessments to get a sense of how the client is showing up at work and in the world and we talk about the assessment results, using them as one jumping off point for our work together. Then we develop the client’s personally-tailored coaching plan and begin the work—prompted by the coach asking powerful questions—of identifying goals, discovering what might be getting in the way of realizing them, making the perceptual shifts that make the goals reachable, and creating an accountability system.
How long does a person work with a coach?
Coaching timelines vary according to client goals, interests, and willingness to do the internal work of courageous self-inventory and the external work of taking action steps between sessions. Typically, a coaching partnership lasts 3 to 6 months, with the opportunity to extend the partnership with another coaching package at a discounted rate.
What should I look for when selecting a Leadership Coach?
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Chemistry: Your coach should be someone with whom you have a workable chemistry. Their energy should match or complement yours and allow you to feel at ease when you talk with them. Consider whether you trust this person to treat you with respect and dignity, to protect your confidentiality, and to pursue your goals rather than their own.
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Communication: Your coach should be an adept communicator and should have a solid understanding of how human interaction works. This ensures that their communication with you is clear, effective, and helpful. It also ensures that they understand the central role of workplace communication, how to use it competently and powerfully, and how to leverage it for optimal professional and personal outcomes.
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Experience: Your coach should have a background in leadership so that they understand the challenges and dilemmas confronting today’s leaders.
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Credentials: Your coach should be certified through a reputable, accredited coach training program. In addition, they should be credentialed through the globally recognized International Coaching Federation. These ensure that the coach not only has met rigorous tests of knowledge and skill, but also has demonstrated commitment to client perspectives, confidentiality, and ethical practice.
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Testimonials: Your coach should be endorsed by previous clients in ways that communicate not only competence but also care, concern, and effectiveness.
How is the effectiveness of coaching measured?
​One way we will measure effectiveness is through your own assessments of how our coaching plan is helping you to make positive movement. We also will take a look at performance evaluations; peer, direct report, and supervisor feedback; energy shifts; and behavioral changes. Finally, the client can retake one or more of the assessments we started with to see what kinds of changes are evident there and where future growth areas might be.
What can I expect in a coaching partnership with Amber Kinser?
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Clarity and Trust: My communication with you always will be clear, thorough, skilled, and honest. From this, I will help you to gain clarity on who/where you are and who/where you want to be.
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Confidentiality: I am committed to protecting your confidentiality. The content of our interactions will be kept strictly confidential. If your sessions are requested and sponsored by your employer, only mutually agreed-upon, overarching information may be shared, per your coaching contract. The details of our discussions are kept confidential.
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Bold Exploration: Through powerful questioning and proven coaching tools, we will explore new modes of thought and action even as we carefully excavate & examine established, comfortable ones.
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Adaptability: We will use a variety of coaching techniques and tools, changing course and employing new methods as appropriate. If we find that an approach does not work for you, we will make modifications to accommodate that.
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Intentional Goal-Setting and Accountability: We will focus on results. We’ll set purposeful goals, reassess them as needed, and develop methods of accountability that work for you and keep you on track.
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Patience and Empathy: We will work at a reasonable pace that is led by you in a challenging but non-judgmental, psychologically safe environment
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Ethical Practice: Our work will adhere to the highest ethical standards, as outlined by the International Coaching Federation and the National Communication Association
How will coaching help me to be a better leader?
​A coaching partnership allows you the time and space to mindfully consider your strengths and challenges as a leader and plan purposeful improvements in both. It increases self-awareness by providing a platform for examining your communication and leadership practices—things you do everyday but may not be aware of or may seldom reflect on. Coaching facilitates the perceptual shifts that will motivate you differently so that you can reach the goals you desire but may have trouble achieving. The coaching partnership helps you to be open to, and take purposeful action on, performance evaluations and other feedback from supervisors, peers, or direct/indirect reports. Coaching with Amber Kinser cultivates the “soft”/power skills that are critical for effective leadership, including emotional intelligence, growth mindset, adaptability, leader presence, body language, time and energy management, conflict resolution, self-regulation, self-confidence, managing impostor thinking, and acting from choice rather than reflex.