Today's Coach Ezine | October 24, 2002

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View this issue online at http://www.todayscoach.com/2002/102402territories.html

The future of coaching discussion will continue in 2 weeks' time.

Thursday, October 24, 2002

Dear Today's Coach Reader:

Is coaching becoming a tad boring for you?
Are clients ho-humming your best efforts?
Are you doing your nails or checking email during a coaching session?

Here's a simple, proven solution: Enter new territories

When my coaching drooped or the client's focus tended to wane, I used to figure that "Well, maybe it's time for the client to take a break from coaching. After all, they reached their goal (or they were about to give up trying)."

That was before I started entering new territories with the client.

Looking for examples of "new territories?"
Here's a chart that we teach from during the Certified Coach Intensive (http://www.coachvilleconference.com). You'll see 12 of the scores of new territories that you can introduce to a client.

pdf of above is viewable at http://www.coachville.com/conf/cci/12territoriesnewpdf.pdf
above graphic is copyrighted 2002 graduateschoolofcoaching.com. no duplication without license.

For example...
Let's say that your client seems to be having a lot of problems at work and at home. They've done their best to reduce the number of these problems, yet they continue to occur. What's a coach to do? That's easy -- introduce the notion of standards to your client and shift the focus of the coaching from solving problems to raising standards. When you do this, the client elevates above the problems territory and will live the rest of their years above the typical fray of life. All because you entered a new territory with a client. It's a simple as that.

Another example...
Say a client is working hard toward reaching a significant goal but the progress is mixed. Some weeks, great progress is made only to be lost as momentum dissipates -- the client finds that consistently keeping the energy up and the focus on is a challenge. Now, you could cheerlead this client to success (but you'd better bring a very full set of pompoms and a megawatt bullhorn). Or, you could be a coach who shows the client how to design environments that do 99% of the work and virtually ensure success. Introducing the notion of 'well-designed environments' is the solution to this type of problem. It's a virtual guarantee of success. And, this strategy is likely to be totally new to the client. It's entirely up to the coach to broach it. Again, it's up to you. Often clients don't know about these various "territories."
(FYI, there are 7 types of environments worth designing.)

Make sense?
What I'm saying is that it often works to your advantage to introduce new foci to a client as a way to either forward/accelerate their stated goal, or as a way to obviate the need for their initial goal (as in example #1 above). And, again, it's up to the coach to introduce these new territories; clients don't often think in terms of territories -- they are usually focused on goal achievement or problem solving.

Here's another graphic
In the Certified Coach Intensive, we call this type of graphic "the orb;" we have one for each of the 15 proficiencies.

Below, you'll see the basic tools that you can use to first introduce and then enter a new territory with a client. As you can read below, you can use educational tools, discovery tools and awareness-building tools. You would use these tools as a way to describe/enter one of the 12 territories described above.

pdf is printable at http://www.coachville.com/conf/cci/012territoriespdf.pdf
above graphic is copyrighted 2002 coachville.com. no duplication without license.

Moral of the story...
We are a key, pioneering influence in the lives of our clients. And when you know the territories worth introducing to your client, you are a well-informed guide. Just one new territory can be worth an entire year of coaching fees to your client. Just one territory can double your value to that client. Just one territory can extend the coaching contract to run a year or more.

Why? Because territories, once entered, take time to fully discover and to make the most of. And as a coach, you are the perfect partner for this process.

I hope that this was useful.

Best,

Thomas J. Leonard
CoachVille.com
thomas@coachville.com

Note: The Future of Coaching Series will return in 2 weeks' time.

Personal Note:
After a positive experience in Philadelphia and London in the past two weeks, we're off to Boston today for the Certified Coach Intensive this weekend, then on to Sydney, Atlanta, Denver, Seattle and Ft. Lauderdale. Then, in February (we believe) a train the trainer version, along with 30 more cities for the Intensive. It's a wild wide to expand from a totally virtually enterprise to becoming the largest provider of live/local coach training in the world -- all within 6 months. Many thanks for your ongoing support and encouragement. -T