One more time, in the same ICF survey as we have previously mentioned one additional topic was addressed we thought our readers would find of interest, why people employ a coach.

Most clients turn to their coach for help on time management as well as career guidance and business advice. To a lesser but still significant extent, they seek coaching on relationships, family, wellness and spirituality. Clients, who could select as many choices as were applicable, said they work with their coach on the following issues:

• Time management: 80.5%
• Career: 74.3%
• Business: 73.8%
• Relationships/Family: 58.6%
• Physical/Wellness: 51.9%
• Spiritual: 51.0%
• Personal: 45.2%
• Goal-setting: 39.5%
• Financial: 38.1%
• Creativity: 11.0%
• Other: 01.4%

In the same ICF survey previously mentioned participants were asked the most frequent outcomes they attributed to their coaching experience, these included a higher level of self-awareness and self-confidence, a more balanced life, smarter goal-setting and lower stress levels. Specific results were as follows:

• Self-awareness: 67.6%
• Setting better goals: 62.4%
• More balanced life: 60.5%
• Lower stress levels: 57.1%
• Self-discovery: 52.9%
• Self-confidence: 52.4%
• Improvement in quality of life: 43.3%
• Enhanced communication skills: 39.5%
• Project completion: 35.7%
• Health or fitness improvement: 33.8%
• Better relationship w/ boss, co-workers: 33.3%
• Better family relationship(s): 33.3%
• Increased energy: 31.9%
• More fun: 31.9%
• More income: 25.7%
• Stopped a bad habit: 25.7%
• Change in career: 24.3%
• More free time: 22.9%
• Increased profitability of business: 17.1%
• Other: 15.3%
• Started new business: 12.9%
• Empowered employees: 11.0%
• Business turn around: 09.0%
• Change in residential location: 05.7%

The same International Coaching Federation study previously mentioned asked the question of what value coaching clients perceived as a result of their coaching experience. The responses were as follows:

A landslide of 98.5% of coaching clients said their investment in a coach was well worth the money.  

• 70% of clients said their investment in a coach was very valuable.
• 28.5% said their investment was valuable.
• 1.5% said their investment in a coach had not been valuable.

If you have been thinking about coaching and wondered if it was worth the time and investment the results of this survey should help convince you that chances are you too can gain from a coaching experience.

There are many ways to describe coaching and numerous adjectives used to convey what coaching is all about. Thus, this a survey done by the International Coaching Federation caught our attention. The following are the primary reasons people chose to work with a coach:

By far, most coaching clients pay their coach to be a sounding board - to really listen to them and give honest feedback. Clients, who could select as many choices as were applicable, characterized the role of their coach as the following:

• Sounding board: 84.8%
• Motivator: 78.1%
• Friend: 56.7%
• Mentor: 50.5%
• Business consultant: 46.7%
• Teacher: 41.0%
• Taskmaster: 30.5%
• Spiritual guide: 29.5%
• Other: 13.3%

In our experience the primary reasons people initiate a coaching relationship with us are: Sounding Board, Motivator, Mentor and Business Consultant. If you have had a coach in the past we would be interested in your experience.

So who are we Baby Boomers anyway? Statistically speaking, chances are you are a Baby Boomer if you are reading this article and work. Why, you might ask? Because the majority of individuals in the workplace today are Baby Boomers- there are 77 million of us and we hold a majority of leadership positions in the United States along with a majority of all other positions as well!
We entered the workforce en masse; nearly 40% of us within a very short timeframe, which caused us to be very competitive- there were only so many jobs and many of us were competing for them at the same time. So what else influenced this generation?
Influences include: Suburbia, TV, Vietnam, Watergate, protests, human rights movement, drugs and rock ‘n roll, the pill and women entering and staying in the workplace. As we had families, cities were no longer capable of housing all of us so the suburbs were born; we spread out away from the core cities and created whole new communities. The pill was a major development allowing women for the first time in history to control their reproductive system. In fact, the pill was so popular when it became widely introduced around 1965 that we drastically reduced the number of offspring we procreated. This is the reason that, despite the fact there were 77 million of us, we only had about 45 million children, whom we now refer to as Generation X.
Some of our defining characteristics are: We are competitive, idealistic and we question authority. This last item is interesting. Although we still question authority, we often fail to realize that, in most cases we, the Baby Boomers, are the authority! Generally we are good team players; we had to be with so many of us kicking around. We are driven and we are willing to work long hours to get ahead. In our Generation Workshops, we often see this last item as being a divisive issue between Baby Boomers and Generations X and Y. The two later generations are seeking work/life balance; while to Baby Boomers, work is life. To X’ers and Y’ers, work is only a component of life and not the most important one by any means. As a Boomer, this is an important distinction to keep in mind when working with younger generations. Often we will hear from Baby Boomers that the younger generations are lazy and not as committed to the organization as Boomers. Generations X & Y are not lazy or less committed while they are at work, however; as I said before, work is only a component of their life and work/life balance is very important to them. Baby Boomers live to work, the younger generations work to live, a distinction that should not be lost the next time you have the urge to criticize an X’er or Y’er.
We Baby Boomers have a unique opportunity to leave a lasting positive legacy after we are long gone. We collectively have the fundamental attributes and characteristics to leave the world a better place than when we arrived. In fact, the word that best describes us is “hopeful”. This desire to make a positive contribution to society is a very common refrain we hear from Baby Boomers. It would be interesting to have insight into the world 75 years from now to see how it all turns out and what lasting impacts Baby Boomers have on the future.