Most people agree that coaching face to face is best. Coaching over the telephone is also well established. However, as more and more people use email and text-chat programs daily, the skill for being coached over the internet is spreading wider. It is worth considering as an additional coaching arena.
Text has several distinct advantages over vocal conversation:
You are able to review and edit your sentences before you click the "Send" button.
Typing allows time to think and better analyze what your client is saying.
You and the client both maintain a transcription of your conversation for further analysis and review.
The client can be in his office or home without the issue of privacy even in open-space environment with others around.
On the disadvantages side, there are two major ones to consider:
Text is slower. The fastest typist can not type as fast as we speak. You can have certain portions of your coaching process already typed and use simple copy-paste to hurry things a little, but not much.
It is easy to misread intentions into text. In order to make coaching through text possible, both coach and client should be slow to take offense and willing to give the other a lot of credit for good intentions. People with a tendency for automatic negative thoughts (i.e. some people with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) are not good candidates for internet text coaching.
Find out how to become a successful coach and leave the ranks of the 'Part time' coaches. Get the cutting-edge free report '7 Steps to Become a Successful Coach' at http://www.ecoachingsuccess.com
The author of this article has chosen to make this article available with free reprint rights. Click here to copy this article.
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
