Pure online coaching without face-to-face contact is unimaginable for many coaches. However, accompanying coaching online can be a benefit for clients and coaches alike! We show you 3 advantages of blended coaching over traditional coaching that prove: spatial separation can even be helpful!

Coaching and online – how does it fit together?

Whether executive, team, or personal coach: all coaches strive to support their clients individually and sustainably in development processes. Fundamental to this is – of course – a personal relationship between coach and client: gestures and facial expressions are often just as important in the coaching process as the words in face-to-face conversations.

The trend, however, is increasingly leaning towards “online”: many companies and clients desire less in-person time and instead more flexible online content – not least to save time and thus money.

But forgoing in-person appointments in coaching – doesn't that contradict the basic idea of personal support?! Only at first glance: different forms of e-coaching are already being offered.

However, if you as a coach do not want to completely give up direct contact with the client, you can make use of a method that has proven itself in further education for years: blended learning, the integration of traditional face-to-face learning and e-learning.

Blended learning means meaningfully combining face-to-face learning and e-learning.

You can also transfer this connection to coaching: connect your personal coaching appointments with online support! Below, you will learn about the benefits this has for you as a coach and your clients:

What can blended coaching achieve?

Advantage 1: High flexibility in everyday life

Part of your coaching process runs time- and location-independently over the internet – even outside of the actual coaching time. This allows, for example, offering your client regular impulses via email, messenger, or special software. These regularly remind your client of the content from the coaching and help integrate it into everyday life.

Impulses can be short video messages from you to the client, for example. Questionnaires with reflection questions, small exercises, or a coaching diary are also suitable content for online support. What impulses are possible is largely determined by the communication method you choose: special software like blink.it offers you the best selection for this.

Advantage 2: Reflection in the personal space

In blended coaching, you gain a second space in addition to the traditional shared coaching space: the personal space of your client. This can be at home, on the go, or simply a place that the client has chosen for themselves.

This personal space offers your client tranquility and a pleasant atmosphere to deal with coaching impulses, their own development, or personal thoughts – keyword self-reflection! Since there is no time pressure in the personal space, as is often the case in the coaching room, especially introverted clients benefit from this.

Blended coaching allows clients to work on coaching impulses at home in a relaxed atmosphere.

Advantage 3: Writing helps in the development process

If you rely on a coaching diary (see advantage 1) and reflection in the personal space (see advantage 2) in your blended coaching, the third step follows automatically: writing down thoughts, feelings, and progress in the coaching process.

Writing has numerous advantages for the development process: thoughts and feelings are transported outwards instead of remaining in the head. Writing also “forces” the client (in a positive sense) to articulate their thoughts precisely. Moreover, writing allows taking an outside perspective to judge processes and problems more objectively.

Summary: Blended coaching vs. traditional coaching

| | Blended coaching | Traditional coaching | || ----------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | --------------------- || personal support | in the coaching room in the personal space (online) | in the coaching room || Reflection & impulses | in conversation in everyday life online | in conversation in everyday life || Communication about progress | in dialogue in writing (e.g. online diary) | in dialogue |

Conclusion: Combining in-person and online for more effective coaching

In coaching, you can perfectly apply the principle of blended learning: combine in-person coaching and online phases to perfectly merge the benefits of both methods. In the end, you and your client receive a more sustainable coaching experience.

For you as a coach, blended learning or blended coaching has many more advantages that you can also wonderfully communicate as selling points for your clients. What those points are, we have gathered in the free PDF “Selling points for your online support.” Download the PDF now and convince your clients of the concept of “blended coaching”!

Have you tried blended coaching yourself? If so, please share your experiences with the concept in the comments! We look forward to your input 🙂