Questions about local vs distance coaching

My thanks go to all who have been in touch recently. I've had a lot of questions about business coaching and a topic that has come up more than most has been on the subject of distance coaching. Specifically, does coaching have to be face to face? And does distance coaching work?

The short answers are "No" to the former and "Yes" to the latter.

So that's it. Thanks for stopping by....

Kidding!

I would liken it to distance learning which has opened up academic opportunity to millions that have previously not had the option of further education. Naturally, there are times when distant learning can be difficult. For example, if you're doing a science course and you have to run a complex experiment, it's unlikely you'll have a full lab set-up at home, but most of the time it works extremely well for all concerned.

One to one distance coaching can be hugely successful. I utilise calls, email and video-conference calls, typically via Skype.

Of course, there are times where it really does make sense to have a hands-on, on-site engagement and I do a lot of these, but for the most part, distance coaching can be highly effective.

To that end we have numerous overseas coaching clients as well as here in the UK, some of whom 100's of miles away and some extremely local. The internet makes the world a small place and technology is so good now that a client can be on the other side of the world and it just doesn't matter.

So there you have it. Distance coaching works. It takes commitment to putting in the time but it can be highly successful and extremely rewarding for all parties. Another advantage is flexibility. Can't fit a coaching session into your usual working day? This isn't a problem for either local or distant coaching. I have a number of executive coaching clients that prefer an out of hours time slot. And of course, if we're talking different time zones your 6am could be my 2pm and so on.

If you'd like to engage a business coach but have resisted due to lack of local resources or you're short of time during your regular working day, that needn't preclude using the services of a business coach. So feel free to get in touch to discuss your individual requirements.

Thanks as ever.