In this video I’ll answer the question “how long does a coaching programme last?”

If you prefer to read rather than watch the video you’ll find a machine generated transcription below.

How long is a coaching program?

The simple answer is how long  is a piece of string, but I know that’s not very useful.

The executive summary is that coaching is done on a rolling monthly basis and there’s no contractual tie-in. People continue to come for coaching as long as it’s useful and it’s as simple as that.

I always say, have it in your mind that it’s likely to be a minimum of six months in order to get effective change, but it’s always your choice. Coaching comes to an end when you feel that you’ve got what you want from it.

In a nutshell, that’s the answer to the question, but I will keep on talking if you’d like me to elaborate on that.

When people come for coaching, there is something in their life they want to be different, and that thing that they want to be different is unique to them.

Now, it’s unlikely that there’s a quick fix. If there easy solution they would have found it by now and we wouldn’t even be having a conversation.

Another thing that’s important to remember, is that it’s not my job to solve anybody else’s problems and even if I could it’s not usually the best long-term solution.

You might have heard that the saying “give a man a fish, you’ll feed him for a day, teach a man how to fish and you’ll feed him for the rest of his life” and there is so much wisdom in that.

Whatever you are trying solve we will solve it together. I know some very effective problem solving strategies and through experience, I’ve learn how to apply those principles to pretty much any situation.

So I believe that the best gift that I can give you is to help you to analyze your own challenges and to learn how to simplify them, and then for you to learn these principles the problem solving. Not by learning them in a theoretical way, but to learn them by applying them to whatever challenge you brought to coaching. That is what gives you a real deep understanding.

The result of doing that is that you solve your own problem.You know how you did it, and you know how to apply that same strategy for future challenges.

So that means that you’re not just walking away minus the original problem, you’re walking away minus the original problem, but also taking away some very valuable life skills.

How long does that take? As I’ve already said my stock answers, have it in your mind that will be working together for six months or longer. I need you to be thinking in that way. If you are budgeting in your mind for three months then you might be walking away when we’ve done half the job and in all honesty don’t do that.

When I say budget for, coaching is not just financial commitment. It is a commitment to invest time and emotional energy in the process.

As part of our early conversations, we will explore together if the time’s right for you, and if it’s the right thing for you to be making those commitments.

If it’s not that is okay, it doesn’t do either of any favors to begin and then find out later that coaching’s not a good fit for you.

If it is, then great. If we are going to work together, then we will have had several conversations before you get to that point. Probably quite long conversations and that way you’ll be walking into the first session feeling excited and knowing that this is the right thing for you.

So just to be clear there is no minimum contract we work together on a rolling monthly basis and you are not tied into anything. So when I talk about commitment I’m talking about a mental and emotional commitment.

If you come in thinking I’ll try this for a couple of months see what happens, that’s not a good starting point.

A good start-in point is when you say to yourself, I am fully committed to this for a minimum of six months or however long it takes.

I hope that’s been useful to you and I hope it’s been a good explanation. And just to restate what I said earlier, I think the only true answer to the question how long does coaching last, is that coaching continues for as long as you find it useful, it is always your choice.