Two weeks ago, while on the road speaking to BNI in a delightful corner of British Columbia, and with the start of a terrible cold, I participated in a Coaching Predictions call hosted by Milana Leshinsky.

Here is the link to the recordings for this call. Mine is the second clip in and is about 20 minutes long. I’m told the entire series of predictions ended up being close to 3 hours, so forewarned is forearmed - begin listening at your own risk!
To prepare for our segments, Milana asked us to reveal in no-holds barred fashion, a mindstream of the 3 most important trends, opportunities and landmines we could foresee for professional coaches in 2007, including how each is likely to impact a coach’s business (that’s you!), and what I’m doing about the predictions myself.

Here are the promised notes from the predictions I made, for those who missed the call or prefer reading over listening…

Coaching Prediction #1: Expect to see lots more coaching jobs.

By that I don’t mean jobs that involve coaching skills, but jobs where coaching is the core deliverable. This will happen at three levels:

(1) the Executive level - this is already happening and there will be many more of these.
(2) the non-Executive level - these coaching jobs are becoming part of the woodwork in fitness and wellness industries, in the academic world, etc.

(3) AND – coaches who are reaching a certain degree of success are now hiring associate coaches themselves, creating a demand for coaches with the skill set and experience set who don’t want to build businesses.

How to prepare for this trend?

- Collect testimonials of the hard-core type
- Use before and after progress worksheets
- Be prepared to provide examples of your coaching abilities in a resume…

Tip: As a natural benefit to your 1-1 or group coaching clients, you can already be offering to record their sessions, confidentially for their use, of course. It’s a great value add and costs you little if you use an easy recording service like this.

When the time comes you then also have the option of approaching them for permission to use audio clips you record for the purpose of your coaching portfolio. This bolsters your application immeasurably as you are helping prospective employers understand how to recognize great coaching.

It’s early yet in the days of coaching jobs, and people aren’t altogether clear how to hire the best coaches. This is great news: you can help them hire you.

What I personally hope to do in light of the increasing number of coaching jobs is help build connections between those who want the jobs and those who are in a position to hire. I’ve already spent several years developing my business as a place that helps with business management and infrastructure so as to facilitate coaches hiring other coaches. Love that.

Coaching Prediction #2: Watch for a great deal more coaching in the mainstream media.

There will continue to be coaching in reality television, as a part of the bigger premise of the show. But you’ll see in 2007 a couple of shows where coaching is the focus. Many of us have hoped that this would happen in a way that can showcase the real power of coaching – well, isn’t it awesome that it’s now coming?

As I explain on the audio clip from the Coaching Predictions call - I cheat a little with the word ‘predictions’ here because some of these things I know to be a forgone conclusion. Plus, I think you’ll agree that we create our own future so if I have anything to do with the predictions, let’s just say I like to think they’ll be a little more than predictions when the year is through.
So, how to prepare for this one? It may sound silly, but stay flexible. Be prepared to nimbly take advantage of this trend in your marketing collateral. Now may not be the time to print 1000 business cards. Hedge your bets and be ready to take advantage of trends, language and ideas as they sweep through.

What I hope to do is support the coaches who are even now preparing for big launches in radio, video games and yes, TV, as well as help coaches who want to make the most of the halo effect of all this.

Coaching Prediction #3: I also predict an increase in mainstream criticism of coaching and the self help industry as a whole.

Some of you who are following along know this has begun already in the form of recently-published books painting self-help as a whole with a very dark shade of black. And of course, there is the backlash to the very successful movie ‘The Secret.’

So how can you prepare for this? Isn’t it hard enough to market your coaching business?

More details to this worthy question in another post, but in general terms, my best suggestion is that each of us embrace the criticism as an opportunity. Don’t run from the criticism, take it as a vitamin and let it strengthen you.

Because here’s the thing, when I take a close look at some of what’s being said - there is real truth to it. And hearing that truth at a deep level can only make us better at what we do, and how we talk about it.

And although Milana only asked us for three, here are four more quickie predictions I slipped in. Note: Because I had to leave the call early, I wasn’t able to cover each in detail on the record so the notes will be where you get the most detail.

Coaching Prediction #4: We will see a handful or so coaches emerging as leaders in definitive (and perhaps unexpected) new niche markets.

Again, I say this more from a factual standpoint than a crystal-ball or tea-leaf standpoint. There may be more than a handful but I can stand by at least a handful at this moment. Hint: This means more coaches hiring coaches as the new niche market embraces coaching results and demand increases.

Coaching Prediction #5: There will be a steady increase in the number of mergers and acquisitions taking place. That is, the buying and selling of successful coaching businesses by people in and outside the industry.

Whether it’s because veteran coaches are moving out of the market going onto other things, selling, thinking about their legacy as a coach or just simply planning exit strategies…or…. just the fact that the coaching landscape is coalescing and consolidating …this is also already happening.

Unfortunately, this type of meta-activity also means it becomes much more important to have your grown-up business ‘ducks in a row’. As business goals of varying coaching organizations overlap and sometimes even clash, there will be lawsuits and other ‘vigorous’ negotiations. Yes even among coaches.

How can you prepare? Think bigger about how to reach your goals. If one of your goals is to build a list of 10,000, how can you leapfrog the organic process of doing that? Ask, who’s getting out of the biz? Who’s going on sabbatical? How can you step in, acquire or buy a business asset?

Also, be prepared to invest in infrastructure – accountants, lawyers, business managers etc.

As for myself, there are a couple of businesses I’m looking at acquiring and/or merging with now – and that’s something I haven’t done before in the coaching industry, for myself, only for clients. So this will be an exciting time of growth - one that I aim to navigate without adding too more hours in front of the computer. Fun.

Coaching Prediction #6: We will see increased numbers of companion coaching programs – where coaches create programs based on existing best selling material.

For example Coach Carol Ross’ work based on Dan Pink’s book ‘A Whole New Mind’ called “Leading with a Whole New Mind.” If you’re curious about this, I’ve posted my online interview with Carol in a separate post here.

Coaching Prediction #7: We will see significant bodies of proof come to light that coaches are earning great livings.

Ah, perhaps my favorite prediction. By this I mean Real Proof - no more ‘Survey says we all stink.’ (Can I just say I can’t wait???)

As an adjuct to this, as more coaches begin earning well, the pendulum will begin swinging back towards the ‘meaning’ side of the Money–Meaning spectrum. We’ll start hearing more conversation about the social value of our businesses. How can we best give back? How do we manage our legacies or build charitable organizations that reflect our values? How can we infuse our business successes with greater meaning?

We’ll see more innovative creations along the social venture line, for example the book ‘The BIG MOO’ by Seth Godin where 100% of author royalties went to charity.

—-end predictions—-

Needless to say, it’s truly the most wonderful of times, isn’t it? Great evolutionary tension, as it were.

And now, over to you. What do you see and feel, hear or think, as you consider your spot on ‘the map?’

What are you interested in hearing more about, as the predictions bear fruit? What questions do you have?

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