This month in the CAM Community of Coaches, we are giving attention to coaching websites.  We had a webinar addressing the seriousness of your website (serious, but not too serious!).  The webinar replay is available here on the CAM Membership site if you missed it.

At CAM, we’ve had to discipline ourselves to not overdo our website.  What does it mean to “overdo” it?  For us, three things:

1. Expect the website to attract tons of new coaches. It took us years to learn the simple lesson that 99% of great websites are not magnets (attracting new people) but welcome mats (helping people who are already looking for you find what they’re looking for).
2. Constantly adjusting the site. Brian and I both love the tech side of things, so we have to restrain ourselves when it comes to tweaking, adjusting and re-vamping the website.  While you can’t totally ignore your website, managing a good site is more like crock-pot cooking than stir fry.
3. Valuing looks over substance. I’ll admit it, I am as sucker for a website with pretty pictures and pleasing aesthetics.  While I’d love for the CAM site to be like a work of art, I’ve had to learn that a website is more work than art.  In other words, it has to get the job done, not just look great.

I’m curious what your experience with your website has been:

• What have been the hard-learned lessons?
• What lessons are you still trying to learn?
• What’s causing you the most struggle?

Please share your experience in the private Facebook group.  Not on Facebook?  Email your experiences to our Community Coordinator Martin Torres and he’ll post them for you.

This month in the CAM Community of Coaches, we are giving attention to the powerful synergy between asking questions and active listening.

I like to think about asking and listening as coordinating and collaborating skills.  Think of how your two feet work together to allow you to walk – left, then right, then back to left, and so on.  Of course, you could get where you want to go by hopping on one foot, but that wouldn’t be very efficient or enjoyable.  A coaching conversation is propelled forward primarily by the back-and-forth rhythm of questions and listening.  The key is that what you hear from the client naturally leads to what you ask, and vice versa.  This leads me to make two observations:

• If the quality of your questions is low, it usually has something to do with a low quality of listening. Too many coaches try to hear every-single-one of the details, which causes them to fail to truly hear the essence of what the client is sharing.  When this happens, the coach’s next question is usually kind of crappy (pardon my French).
• If the quality of what your client has to say is low, it usually has something to do with the quality of your questions. Powerful questions get a client thinking and creating new awareness, not rehashing old stuff or going in circles.  If your client is jabbering on about who knows what, you might need to look into an upgrade to the quality of questions you’re asking.

As you can imagine the relationship between asking/listening can create either a downward, negative spiral or an upward, positive spiral.  You want the positive one.

What are your thoughts on the relationship between listening and asking?  Please share your experience in the private Facebook group.  Not on Facebook?  Email your experiences to our Community Coordinator Martin Torres and he’ll post them for you.

This month in the CAM Community of Coaches, we are giving attention to getting your PCC.  The PCC is the designation for “professional” coaches, and I think it’s a great goal for every coach to offer professional-level quality to every client.  This may or may not mean you go through the process of becoming an actual Professional Certified Coach (PCC).

Should you go for PCC?  In my opinion, certification of any sort boils down to 2 things:

1. Do you need to demonstrate your credibility to those who are deciding whether or not to work with you as a coach?  Many organizational clients and some individual clients only work with PCC’s.
2. Do you know for sure that you’re providing professional-level coaching to your clients?  For some coaches, certification is a huge boost to their confidence.  Confidence is the dimmer switch on your competence, so it’s important to keep your confidence appropriately high.

I’m curious about your experience with PCC.

• Have you already earned it? If so, what was the process like?
• Are you considering it? If so, what are the main factors in your thought process?
• Have you decided not pursue it? If so, what was your reasoning?

Please share your experience in the private Facebook group.  Not on Facebook?  Email your experiences to our Community Coordinator Martin Torres and he’ll post them for you.