Success invariably comes from dedicated hard work. Sometimes such dedication narrows focus and diminishes awareness of what else is going on that might be relevant or coming up on the horizon or simply sublimated. A good coach helps you take stock and that inevitably leads to raising awareness of everything going on in your world. Quite often there will be something you may have missed. A good coach does not need to know what these things are beforehand. How could they? But they do need to have the experience, general awareness and questioning skills to help you realise what they may be.
In short, anyone who has a meaningful goal or who just wants to be the best version of themselves. For some, it could be that the goal in question is to find the right goal for them to aim for. This is particularly true of the young people I coach. However, it can equally well apply to others at some form of crossroad or indecision in their life. The answer is - on most occasions - just lying there waiting to be coaxed out into the open.
As well as goals to consider there are also "issues". These can be anything that crops up that will have a bearing of one kind or another on the current plan for you, personally. What is the best way to deal with it?
In the absence of an immediately obvious solution an issue can sometimes become a bugbear and throw things off track. The end goal remains the same. The distance and detachment your coach will have from the issue itself can often reveal perspectives to reach it that you had not considered. Sometimes, these might be drastic options for you to consider and not even have been thinkable except from someone who is - and remains - a "detached" observer.
Coaching attracts many practitioners who learn how to use various coaching techniques. However, a good technique can only take their clients so far. It is only when that technique is married with a deep experience of the opportunities and pitfalls that life can present that the full range of positive coaching outcomes can be realised.
In the absence of a personal recommendation for a coach always check the level of experience a prospective coach for you will bring with them. My own range of experience is set out below.
David Rolfe is a BAFTA-winning documentary filmmaker. In the 80s he made films for the major oil and civil engineering companies, Shell, Wimpey, Taylor Woodrow and Costains on their projects around the world.
After the theatrical and TV success of his feature documentary on the Turin Shroud, The Silent Witness, he was engaged as senior producer/director for LWT/ITV and then the BBC 1980 - 1995. His films include over fifty documentaries researched, produced and directed on a wide range of subjects. Each one involved deep immersion into the subject and featured the highest level of participants and contributors including major celebrities, prime ministers and royalty.
Filming is the ultimate "team" endeavour especially when, as it sometimes did, involve accessing dangerous territories and hostile subjects.
The British Film Institute has archived my films and a full list can be seen below.
I set up Performance Films Ltd in 1990 and made films for Discovery, BBC and also major corporations. With my business partner, Paul Kent, we discovered the art of Performance Coaching when a client - Woolwich Building Society - commissioned a film about this new management technique emerging from America. Its principles were most succinctly summarised by the British "trouble-shooting" industrialist, John Harvey-Jones. Famously, he said "If a manager only "tells" someone what to do he is using yesterday's solution for today's problem." Modern good management is now seamed in the gold of that realisation. Having the wisdom of knowing when to apply its principles is enshrined in performance coaching.
Rolfe adopted this new coaching technique to help manage the production teams under his direction and, with Paul Kent, established the first full-service performance coaching business in the UK, Performance Consultants. Clients included Barclays and NatWest Banks, Woolwich Building Society, PWC and AstraZeneca. Partners and practitioners included champion racing driver Sir John Whitmore and Olympic champion David Hemery, MBE.
Back row centre: David Hemery MBE, Sir John Whitmore, Paul Kent. Front, sitting, David Rolfe.
Examples: adults at some form of crossroads - either professional or personal - and just need to touch base with someone who can give them an informed but detached reflection of what, probably, deep down they may even already know. Sometimes, through a coach's skills of exploration, new ideas and options will occur to them. A whole new world may open up or, perhaps, just a gentle touch on the tiller to get on the right track for them.
Young people staring into the void that is their future but with little sense of which direction of travel to take. For both, often, just a single session will stir the ambition and will to succeed that had laid hidden, waiting to fight its way out. Very satisfying for all concerned.
Stage 1: A systematic analysis of where you are in relation to a perceived goal is fundamental. Sometimes that goal may evolve or change focus. You will decide. The following two stages raise your own awareness of what needs to be achieved and then generates an appreciation of the responsibility necessary to see it to fruition. The fourth and final stage is the most important as it elicits precisely what you will do to proceed to the next level. It sounds a lot but it can be accomplished within a one hour session. It may be all you need and for some it is. A good coach never generates dependance. However, they will always be there as and when.
In short, at a time and place that suits you. For coaching in person I am based in Seer Green near Beaconsfield. These sessions can be in my home office and captured on video for future reference and safeguarding purposes. Or, more informally, in a coffee shop.
Thanks to Zoom and similar technology, my clients can be anywhere in the world. All sessions can also be captured on video for future reference.
Each subject required research in depth and exposure to virtually every aspect of life you could imagine.
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Contact: David Rolfe, Performco, Town Hall, Penn Road, Beaconsfield HP9 2PP
Email: info@performco.co.uk