The Benefits of a Communication Coach and How to Prepare for Your First Coaching Session
Have you ever thought about hiring a communication coach? Or wondered how a coach can help you?
The truth is, nearly everyone can benefit from working with a communication coach. Whether you’re a professional public speaker or just getting started in your career, there are certain elements of speaking that can be improved exponentially with the right observations and strategic feedback.
In this post we’ll cover a bunch of frequently asked questions, like what a communication coach is and what we do, some of the benefits of a coaching relationship (either one on one or in a group setting), and what to know before your first communication coaching session.
Let’s dive in.
What Is a Communication Coach and What Do They Do?
In a nutshell, communication coaches work with people on their communication skills. Sounds obvious, right? Think: presentations, speeches, sales pitches, and even everyday conversations. No matter what type of important communication you have coming up, a communication coach can help you get the results you’re looking for.
In fact, most people seek out coaching when they find they aren’t getting the results they want after they communicate with others. Whether it was a big sale that didn’t go through or a presentation that didn’t quite land with their audience – a communication coach can observe, give real-time feedback, and make suggestions on the bigger picture and some of the smaller details (which often get overlooked) that can make all the difference.
As a communication coach myself, I have a background in International Business and was a professional public speaker for a number of years (amongst a plethora of other titles). If you’re interested, you can check out my full bio here. I imagine that every communication coach’s background will look a bit different, and it’s important to know who you’re working with before you engage in a coaching relationship.
What are some other things to do before working with a communication coach? Follow them on social media, subscribe to their email list, read their blogs if they have them, etc. This will help you get to know their approach to communication and the specific areas they can help you with. For example, one communication coach might specialize in helping people overcome language barriers while others might specialize in presentation coaching or confidence building.
Since there are so many different areas of communication, it’s important to know what you’re looking for before engaging with a coach. And if you don’t know, ask those who communicate with you regularly, or ask to see the survey results of the latest presentation you gave. After all, until we know what we need it may be hard to start the conversation with a coach.
The Benefits of Communication Coaching
Now let’s get into some of the many benefits of working with a communication coach. To be honest, there truly are so many, depending on who you work with and what your objectives are, of course.
Off the top of my head, here’s a high-level view of some of the benefits you might receive from communication coaching:
Increased confidence in front of an audience, a stronger and more powerful vocabulary, a step-by-step plan to approach any piece of communication (whether it’s a speech, sales pitch or conversation), a clearer sense of self and what you bring to the table, the list goes on. Overall, think: confidence, and a stronger, more effective approach when preparing and executing communication.
I can’t speak to other communication coaches, so the benefits I just listed are specific to the coaching that we offer at Connect To The Core. If you choose your communication coach wisely, those benefits will more than likely still apply.
Like I said in the previous section, it’s important to get to know your communication coach before working with them to see if the two of you are a good match. If you’ve been around the Connect To The Core community for a while, then you might be able to make some pretty educated guesses about how we like to coach. For starters, we have a lot of fun, and we offer unique tools that are designed to get to the root of communication – connection. Hence, Connect To The Core.
A huge benefit of what we offer (specifically our signature program, Encore Communication Coaching) is access to our signature tool, The Power To Connect.
This powerful method is the exact process that I and hundreds of my students have used to plan impactful speeches and communication. It’s pretty cool. To learn more about the Power To Connect and Encore, check out this page.
What to Know Before Your First Communication Coaching Session
Now that you know what a communication coach does and some of the benefits of working with one, let’s talk about how to prepare for your first communication coaching session.
To make things easier, I’m going to refer specifically to Encore here, which is a group program that also offers one-on-one coaching and feedback. Although, the advice I’ll give will help you ahead of any coaching session.
Communication coaching can be intimidating at first. The cool thing about Encore is that you’re working alongside other people who are also serious about improving their communication skills, in a super fun, judgment-free environment. It’s quite unique and the results are extraordinary. Send me an email at [email protected] if you have questions not answered on the Encore page.
The first thing I’d recommend before any communication coaching session is to prepare. Preparation is key (as you’ll hear me say a lot on social media). Read any emails that you receive from your coach before the session and make sure you’ve filled out any necessary “homework” beforehand. For Encore, we usually ask our students to fill out a form and to bring some topic ideas for the presentation they work on during the program. In any case, bring a pen and paper and be ready to learn.
The next thing I’d recommend is to come to your first session with an open mind. Public speaking can be intimidating, and more likely than not, you’ll be pushed out of your comfort zone at some point during the session. Whether it’s introducing yourself to others or giving your opinion on a topic, becoming a stronger communicator requires you to push the limits of what you think you’re capable of.
This tip applies to so many things in your life. If you enter into new situations with an open mind and are ready to absorb the environment like a sponge, you’ll be more than ready to take your communication to the next level. And as a coach, those are the kind of people I want on board.
Conclusion
There you have it. You now know what a communication coach is and what we do, some of the benefits of coaching, and what to know before your first communication coaching session.
To learn more about Encore Communication Coaching, be sure to visit this page. Our next session kicks off on January 10th, 2022 and we're currently offering a discount when you use code HELLO22 at checkout (valid until December 17th, 2021). We would love to have you there. If you’re not ready to make the Encore leap just yet, check out this page that details many of our other products and programs.
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