Content: solo practice, coach profession, group practice, workplace coaching, executive coaching, corporate coaching, leadership coaching, business coaching, solo practitioner, solo coach, coaching market, coaching trends, coaching service providers, large coaching practice, coach profession, group practice, workplace coaching, boutique coaching practice, solo coaching practice, coaching best practice, organizational coaching, solo practice,  executive coaching, corporate coaching, leadership coaching, business coaching, solo practitioner, solo coaching practice, coaching best practice, organizational coaching, solo coach, coaching market, coaching trends, large coaching practice, boutique coaching practice, solo coaching practice, coaching service providers, 
 

 


 

       Certified Master Coach - Some Introductory Notes: 
      Solo Practice versus Group and Larger Practices
      -for the Business / Executive / Organizational Coach
          -The need for better coach training for Workplace Coaches ©

           (includes extracts from new text book 'Behavioral Coaching' by Zeus and Skiffington -published and copyrighted by McGraw-Hill, New York)

As the 'coaching market' matures around the world group practices are rapidly gaining ground. Recent industry reports also suggest there is a growing trend for the larger sized providers acquiring the smaller sized practices.


Most practices are still single-generalist, followed by multi-specialty practices based on partnership, contractual, or salaried relationships. Client-user requirements of complex documentation of processes and demands for quality assurance of service have progressively eroded solo practitioners’ actual coaching hours and incomes, inducing them to choose employment in group practices or larger providers over entrepreneurship. Despite this general trend, many home-based coaches still hesitate to join a group practice or expand an existing partnership due to the lack of empirical evidence of the business advantage and/or the exceptional coaching results of this model over the solo practice model.


Solo Practice 

- Suits a person who is:
- self-reliant and self-contained; possesses good "street-smarts" and common sense; can sell him/herself; has patience, discipline, perseverance and a high tolerance risk.


-Some Benefits:
- coaches have more independence -you're your own boss
- the service can be tailored to the individual client's need
- the service can be highly responsive
- lower over-heads mean a lower client fee schedule
- able to implement own philosophies
- can be creative and flexible in approach and response
- can outsource or sub-contract out some specialist programs they are unable to best supply


-Some Disadvantages:

- professional seclusion
- the solo coach can become professionally isolated with no supervision or quality control mechanism
- higher workload -can get caught up in administrative details
- the single coach approach may not be the right match for all clients
- can be slow and tough building up a sizable client base and income
- the client may prefer clearly defined professional boundaries in the separation of the consulting, project management and assessment
  roles to that of coaching


Boutiques (medium sized group providers) and Larger Practices
eg: medium to large size management consultant firms (providing speciality industry advising, management consultation and leadership/executive development/coaching services) and executive recruitment firms (providing executive/management recruitment, management assessment and executive coaching services).

-Some Benefits:
- Have many structured advantages
 - able to avoid the downsides of solo providers
 - be part of a sustaining coaching culture
 - able to better present a professional identity/brand to client
 - able to provide a larger business footprint through regional associates
 - clients may feel more at ease in providing staff and company reports
 - client may perceive team size is relative to responsiveness
 - the team culture may be very rewarding and stimulating and can feed through beneficially to the client
 - a close knit team of practising professionals (with a range of specialist know-how and industry experience) who possess a standardized
   approach, language and toolkit can provide powerful insights and close working relationships..

-Some Disadvantages:
- a client may feel uneasy about how many eyes sight sessions notes and company reports
- the team's culture may promote group-think and a limited variety of approaches
- the group's head may dominate and promote a guru mentality and control over the team
- a close knit team may inhibit diversity and cause new members to excessively conform or feel excluded causing high member turnover, low performance and morale.


In Summary: -Group versus solo practice performance.
Recent research in the US shows that the group practice model for specialist service providers produces superior outcomes in terms of productivity, efficiency, malpractice risk, and provider incomes. From a professional and service perspective, coaches in group practices are better positioned to offer a range of services, share fixed costs, exchange professional opinions, and have better quality of life due to shared responsibilities, local marketing power, and better access to business capital. However, very little research exists on the quality of service in group versus solo practices. It should be noted though that high quality service, both technical and functional, is integral to achieving positive outcomes and an essential strategy for survival in the increasingly competitive professional people development marketplace.

The Certified Master Coach Course -elite training in the use of industry-proven best-practices and evidence-based psychological methodologies:
Many vital behavioral-based change models, tools and techniques and industry best-practices a professional coach requires are only available to coaches trained and mentored by an educator who is a licensed clinical psychologist and an experienced global workplace practitioner. Dr Skiffington's invitational, fast-tracked, 4 Day, Small Group Certified Master Coach Course (conducted in N.Y., London, Sydney etc) meets the critical needs for organizational, business and executive coaches to be trained and mentored in the use of validated, reliable tools and practices.  Read More >.... 

© 2007 Behavioral Coaching Institute

  

  

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Content: solo practice, organizational coaching, solo practice,  executive coaching, corporate coaching, leadership coaching, business coaching, solo practitioner, solo coaching practice, coaching best practice, organizational coaching, solo coach, coaching market, coaching market, coaching trends, large coaching practice, coach profession, group practice, coaching service providers, workplace coaching, boutique coaching practice, solo coaching practice, coaching best practice, coaching trends, large coaching practice, boutique coaching practice, solo coaching practice, coach profession, group practice, workplace coaching, executive coaching, corporate coaching, leadership coaching, business coaching, solo practitioner, solo coach, coaching service providers,