How often should I meet with a Career Coach?

Potential clients often ask “How often should I meet with a career coach?” The answer to this question depends on how deep you plan to go into the work — I have had new clients arrive, and INSIST we meet every week to “Get it done as swiftly as possible.”

I get this – if I’m going to engage in a process, I, too, generally want to be “at the other end of it ASAP. ” When I have given in to this pressure, the journey has been like a bonkers helter-skelter ride. This does not mean The Work doesn’t work. What it means is that both coach and client arrive rather breathlessly at the end of the process with a WHOLE heap of integration work. It works, AND it is also discombobulating.

So, my guidance is for us to meet bi-weekly. This way, The Work doesn’t only get done in the session slots. This way, The Work gets to roll out in between…. There will be tasks that you set yourself, things you explore in your sector, profession or entirely leftfield areas to explore (whilst held in the safety of your current role and the coaching relationship.

This bi-weekly version allows the new information we discover about you and your internal works to surface and integrate all over again. It is ready for our next session together, where we will work on a new layer of you.

The body also responds well to routine. Your cells absolutely know that on Thursday, we will be doing a deep dive together. Your body can rest and be open to the full experience of the next bit.

Best of all, and this is where you can really capitalise on your investment, is to factor in some accountability sessions following the first intense chunk of work.

The place most clients ‘lose” it’s is that they fail to continue to put themselves and their true professional desires first and foremost once they have gone their separate ways – to meet with someone regularly to whom they do not have to explain themselves, to be held accountable for the actions that were set.