“...the perfect mentor to help me on my way...a judicious mixture of kick ass/ encouragement/humour...to create the conditions to help to achieve my ambition.”
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FAQsThese are some of the questions that people most often ask about coaching and mentoring – if you have a question that isn’t answered here, please contact us… What results can I expect?What would you like to achieve? This does vary, depending on what you want to achieve, so check out the benefits section and the results section where past and current clients talk about what they are getting from their sessions. What is coaching?Coaching is a set of development techniques which focus on specific skills, issues, knowledge and tasks that the client wants to gain and achieve, in order to improve their performance in aspects of their professional or personal life. Through coaching, latent resources are unleashed and skills are developed in order to achieve your goals. What topics does coaching cover?People come for coaching because they want to make changes in one or several parts of their life, such as:-
I want to make some changes, but I don’t have time…Perhaps the question is “how can you create more time to make those changes?” The process of coaching can help you to focus on the parts of your life, where you want to make changes and work out how you can get effective results in a way that is realistic for you. The Coaching Checklist explains what coaching covers. How do I know if I am ready?This is a very personal and individual decision. Read the Coaching Checklist on our site and see if the descriptions match how you are feeling about your life at the moment. There is also a section called Can You Be Coached? which explains more about when coaching works well – and you can always contact us with your query too, for a no-obligation discussion. Why should I hire you?If you are looking for coaching and you value working with a practice which is ethical and professional and you want to make some changes, then we have the skills, approach and track-record to help you identify and achieve your goals. You can find out more about our practice and the results we can achieve on our site and we also offer a free assessment and fact-finding session as part of our service. How much does it cost?This will depend on the number of sessions. Written estimates are provided based on what we agree. Who have you worked with?A wide range of people coached and mentored through private practice, and also through urban regeneration programmes; programmes funded by the Arts Council such as Arts & Business, as well as working for the Education Leeds Mentoring programme. Triskell clients range from managing directors and executives, through to account managers and women breaking into senior management and people starting up in business. We also work with artists on their professional development and motivation and women going through transition in their lives. How is it different from consulting or counselling?There are some similarities – we both work with people and their problems, but there are some important differences too. Coaching and mentoring are action oriented and focus on now and the future. They may deal with personal and professional issues, general life issues and support you in improving your performance, achieving goals and creating desirable results. In contrast to consulting, in coaching the expert is the client, who also takes action based on what is agreed. Counselling is a purely personal therapeutic process which is often prompted by some kind of specific personal crisis or problem, and often deals with the past as part of that process. What is independent mentoring?At Triskell, we feel it is vital that mentoring happens from an impartial, confidential, external perspective and we call this independent mentoring, so that there are no vested external interests or potentially conflicting demands or outcomes that may arise, for example with funders or business support agencies. What will I get from coaching and mentoring?This is highly individual, as you can see in the feedback included on this site. Your sessions will help you identify clear goals and tactics and support you in achieving them. Often as part of the changes you make, you will become more innovative. Innovative individuals seem more likely to be rewarded with better remuneration; promotional prospects and job security and be able to cope better with pressure and change around them. What about confidentiality?Confidentiality is an important aspect of any ethical coaching or mentoring relationship, which is built on trust. Sessions are completely confidential. Sometimes in mentoring, we are asked to provide more general feedback and progress reports to an employer, but this is done in an open and transparent way, and shared with the mentee, who also has an opportunity to comment and contribute. We recommend that wherever possible, the specific work that is done in the mentoring programme is confidential. How is it quality controlled?Along with supervision, evaluation and regular reviews, we also subscribe to the code of ethics established by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council. We make our process as clear as possible by beginning with a code of conduct, which we agree before we start work together. How do you choose a coach or mentor?We look at a range of factors during our matching process including the needs of the client and the coach or mentor’s personal style and their match with the personality (and where relevant, organisational culture) of the client. Supervision, monitoring and evaluation all help to ensure that the relationship is working throughout the process. Should for some reason, either party feel the relationship is not working, the coaching/mentoring relationship would be ended and new options discussed. How often do sessions take place?A programme will be worked out and agreed early in the relationship, including time for reviewing and evaluating progress. Frequency needs to be tailored to the individual, depending on the needs and issues of the person and allowing for support using the telephone and email. This is agreed and included in the code of conduct, which forms our coaching contract. Some people like a phased approach, moving from more frequent to less frequent sessions, while some like to meet weekly or fortnightly, some three weekly, some monthly. In coaching, if the gap is longer than three-four weeks, it may be hard to maintain momentum though. How long is a session?We can usually cover most things in a regular session of around 1-1.5 hours (or maybe 2 hours if there is goal setting or work to review and feedback on). Many people like to have ongoing contact between sessions, so we supplement meetings with email and phone time as and when required - which varies from 15 minutes to 1 hour a month. The short answer is, it needs to be tailored to the needs of the person and their goals, so we would agree something together and this is built into the contract we agree, based on the early goal setting session to plan an individual programme. How are sessions costed?Our work is costed based on the programme that is agreed, including the number of sessions required, plus any additional expenses such as travel. The first meeting is free, as a “fact-finding” session to establish what will be required and to ensure that both sides are comfortable with making an agreeement. Usually we start with a series of 5-6 initial sessions, followed by a review. We can then book a further block of sessions, or one-off “top ups” if needed. Of course, sessions will also cost the person’s time to participate - and the value of the changes or return on investment needs to considered too. Are you insured?Yes, we hold professional indemnity cover of up to £2 million for coaching and mentoring services, through the Association for Coaching. What about payment?In all cases (unless we agree otherwise), as outlined in our terms of business, we ask for payment in full before we deliver the requested services to you. Payment can be made by you by phone transfer; e-banking or by guaranteed cheque. How can we measure the return and value of coaching and mentoring?The relationship has both tangible and intangible benefits – some of these are outlined by clients on this site. During our early work, we set clear goals and objectives and these will be measurable, so you can evaluate the progress you are making. Some time in each session is also spent reviewing action and progress that has occurred between sessions. How can an organisation measure the return and value of coaching and mentoring?A model for measuring tangible benefits and return on investment is currently being evaluated (Dembkowski and Eldridge, 2003). Areas which an organisation might consider when evaluating coaching could include:-
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