With all the talk of late about "Personal Coaches", here's some additional perspective on taking the "leap".

PERSONAL SOLUTIONS

TEN STRESS BUSTERS

SOME SWEAR BY PERSONAL COACHES

By O.K. Carter

Some professionals have a secret weapon. They've got a personal coach.

I touched on this—perhaps made fun of the trend—recently. But a couple of up-and-coming executive/entrepreneurial types called to say that they’ve made tremendous professional and personal gains since hiring a personal coach.

And a personal coach herself - one of around 1,000 nationwide - called. She's Arlington psychologist Dr. Carol Gaffney.

Only a small portion of Dr. Gaffney's business involves coaching, but she's reasonably well known via authorship of a book on a related subject, Dr. Gaffney’s Coaching Guide for Better Parents and Stronger Kids.

She strongly defends coaching.

"Coaching is not the same as therapy," Dr. Gaffney said. "It involves getting to know what you want professionally and personally, working and asking for it. It gets people in the here and now."

A typical coaching relationship begins with the coach inviting the client to write down their life story and complete a battery of personal and professional inventories. Follow-up communications can be in person or over the phone, via fax or even E-mail.

"The reality is that we're living in a chronically stressed society," Dr. Gaffney says. "The greater the stress, the more adrenaline you produce. Adrenaline creates a fight-or-flight reflex that long term can be devastating for your health. What's usually needed for professional or personal success is not fight or flight, but calmness and attention to goals."

Not everybody is coachable. Here's a test from "Coach University" an accrediting program, to see if you're among them. Score yourself from one (less true) to five (more true) on each statement.

• I can be relied upon to be on time for calls and appointments.



• This is the right time for me to accept coaching.



• I am fully willing to do the work and let the coach do the coaching.



• I keep my word without struggling or sabotaging.



• I’ll give the coach the benefit of a doubt and "try on" new concepts or different ways of doing things.



• I will speak straight [tell the whole truth] to the coach.



• If I feel that I am not getting what I need or expect from the coach, I will share this and demand that I get what I want and need from the relationship.



• I am willing to stop or change self-defeating behaviors that limit my success.



• I have adequate funds to pay for coaching and will not regret or suffer about the fee. I see coaching as a worthwhile investment in my life.



• I am someone who can share the credit for success with the coach.