Stage Coaches: As life gets busier, coaches preach simplicity, empowerment

Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003 | 9:32 a.m.

It's a lot of money, really.

For as much as $1,000 a month, couldn't you simply buy more time?

Why pay a life coach to help organize your schedule and set goals when you could simply stock up on Post-its, daily calendars, self-help books, weight-loss programs and motivational seminars?

Because, as Barbara Lindquist says, "I have all that. And I can set goals. But this is not the same thing.

"I can read all kinds of books on how to get organized. But it's really important that you have someone who has the expertise to hold you to it."

At age 52, Lindquist describes herself as a results-driven, assertive woman who strives to achieve at a higher level.

Lindquist has spent several years in retail management and has her own networking company.

After her father, whom she took care of at home for 12 years, died, Lindquist hired a personal life coach to help pull her out of depression and move forward.

The coaching program helped determine Lindquist's life's mission and goals and values, which included taking steps toward better health and eliminating much of her multitasking.

"One of the things life coaches do is help you to decomplicate and simplify your life and do things you enjoy doing, like sitting for 10 minutes doing nothing," Lindquist said. "I was a high achiever. But part of my problem was that I didn't set boundaries. I became a workaholic. My goal now is to create the life that I want to live ... Last night, at 5, I was in the dark, raking leaves. I was having so much fun."

Life coaches are hired to offer encouragement, expertise and assist in achieving personal and professional goals. Prices for coaches' services vary depending on the coach. In the past 10 years life coaching has been knitting itself into the mainstream, where home workers are just as likely to hire a coach as executives climbing upward. The Internet is saturated with life-coach websites, life-coaching links and training schools.

There is coachinc.com, findacoach.com (launched by coachinc.com) and lifecoachmaster.com, among dozens of others.

Ninety percent of coaching is conducted over the telephone. Clients find their coaches via the Internet and through personal referrals.

The International Coach Federation, a nonprofit association of personal and business coaches, works to set standards in the industry. ICF has 6,000 members in more than 145 chapters in 30 countries.

Kick in gear

At rates ranging from $125 per month and higher, coaches are hired to help instill personal and professional empowerment. They also help with dating problems, communication skills and setting and assessing goals.

"People are tired of waiting around for the next 10 to 20 years experiencing the same rate of progress," said Sandy Vilas, chief executive of Coachinc.com, Coach U and Corporate Coach U. "We're a fast-food society. We want what we want when we want it. We want it now."

Most people would do it themselves, but, Vilas said, "They're lazy. They need a good swift kick in their rear end. A coach is a champion, cheerleader, advocator, partner."

Vilas, who says he has coached 400 clients in the past decade, estimates that there are 40,000 life coaches worldwide. Coach U, a coach-training program that offers mostly teleclasses, has trained more than 10,000 students and graduates.

Eight years ago Coach U had 10 or 12 competitors, Vilas said. It now has 140. Vilas expects the number of training programs and coaches to continue growing as the concept of coaching becomes more common.

Philip Cohen, a local master coach from Sparck International (sparkint.com), who serves on the board of directors of the International Coaching Federation, sees coaching as another step in the self-help evolution.

"People are beginning to question, 'What kind of life do I want to have, what brings me joy?,' " Cohen said. "Books and tapes? They're good. But they're not complete."

Life coaching, Cohen said, "It's very action-oriented. The idea is to have you bring out the best for you.

"I work with all kinds of people. Some have been self-help junkies who have read the books, listened to tapes. There are others who say, 'I want to have something different in my life and I want the quickest, easiest way to get it. The coach's only agenda is the client."

Cohen's own life coach assists him in his personal relationships and in growing his seminar business.

"It's something I could do, I'm willing to do," Cohen said. "But I have so much on my plate. When I'm with my coach I have a specific time to focus on it. If something didn't work, we'll have a conversation about what happened, what got in the way."

Of coaching, Cohen said, "It's for people who want something in their life and know they have to invest something to get a return."

Type A

Roxanne Andler, a 40-year-old mortgage broker in Madison, Wis., met Las Vegas coach Judy Irving -- president of the Nevada Professional Coaches Association -- several years ago at a seminar, then later hired her as her coach.

"I've had a good life," Andler said. "Do I want to make it better? Yes.

"Judy keeps me in balance, basically my whole life in balance, not just one thing. If I didn't have her I'd probably be a workaholic. I use her to keep the rest of my life in balance. We look at what my core values are and where I'm coming from and ways to accentuate those core values.

"One of my values is the need for recognition and appreciation. I was always striving to get recognition from other people. One thing Judy does is show me how to get recognition for myself. Each week I write down six accomplishments."

With 2004 less than a week away, Andler said she and Irving will discuss next year's goals and review last year's.

"We look at my accomplishments for 2003," Andler said. "I changed a couple midcourse. I reached 90 percent of them. If there's anything I haven't accomplished, I finish that.

"I've been pretty successful at what I've done. In order to use a coach successfully you have to have to want to better your life. I've had business coaches as well."

Way to go

Lindquist also worked with Irving.

After reading Dr. Joel Robertson's "Peak Performance Living," she attended Robertson's seminar in Las Vegas, where she met Irving.

Irving coached Lindquist weekly for four months. Now Lindquist works with a life coach/personal trainer who has her on an exercise program and meal plan. She still has monthly sessions with Irving.

"It's not that I hadn't been exposed to this stuff," Lindquist said. "To be a VP for a corporation, I went through lots of training, leadership and management seminars.

"What you're really doing is setting small goals for yourself and she holds you to it. You need a checkup to ensure you are progressing. We live with ourselves. It's pretty hard to see (objectively) what we're doing."

And for whatever a client wants to work on, there's a coach waiting.

As of last week Findacoach.com lists 1,795 coaches for personal/quality-of-life issues. Of that number, 705 focus on creativity. There is a life-transformation and career-transition coach, a get-more-time-in-your-life coach, a shyness coach and an it's-not-too-late-to-be-what-you-might-have-been coach.

The same website lists more than 1,500 business coaches.

"Coaching is like a partner, someone who is in your corner, pulling for you all the time," said Irving, who says she works with about 20 clients in Hong Kong, Canada and the United States. "With a self-help book, you only get the side of the book. You don't have feedback," Irving said. "Most people who hire a coach want to make a change, reach a goal and take advantage of an opportunity, or say, 'I want to communicate with people in my department in a real powerful way.' "

Of those who hire life coaches, Irving said, "They're often professional, entrepreneurs, those transitioning in their lives, maybe coming out of divorce ... or often it's someone not organizing, not prioritizing, feeling that there doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day.

"(Clients) want more money, more time, with less effort, more satisfying professional and personal relationships.

"We waste a lot of time. It's not that some have more time than others. It's that we don't use the time wisely. Oftentimes we spend time doing unnecessary things."

As have many of her clients, Irving has indulged in reading self-help books and attending seminars.

But, she said, "You'd leave the seminar feeling you can take on the world. Three weeks later, it's gone. There's no one to hold you accountable. A spouse or significant other has an emotional attachment to the outcome.

"If people feel disorganized, very often they feel powerless. They just want to feel they are in charge of their calendar. It's the three 'Ds' -- do it, delegate it, dump it. We need to dump more often than we do."

For Lindquist, whose desire is to experience guilt-free joy and have more time for herself, there has been success.

"It's better now," Lindquist said. "I woke up one day and said, 'I'm creating the life I want to live.'

"I could see it was actually becoming what I wanted."com

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