Coaching is a long-term endeavor. No wonder, as most coaching occasions are related to changes. To successfully implement changes, it takes time. The more meetings with a coach are necessary, the more expensive the fee becomes. A price of several hundred euros deters some clients. In addition to the price, time also plays a significant role. The time investment is far more precious for many executives than the monetary investment.
The solution: Conduct the coaching process "offline" and online. If you offer online support as a coach, you can restructure the time requirement for coaching. The time spent with the client on-site is reduced. The client works on their coaching topics on their computer or smartphone. This saves you and the coachee time and travel costs.
Addendum: Digital coaching offers many different applications. Colleague Laura summarized 5 formats for online coaching in a recent blog post.
Does online coaching deliver on its promises? Research on online coaching is scarce.
Online therapy is now well-researched, and the results are promising: A meta-analysis from 2015 showed comparable effects of cognitive-behavioral online therapy in comparison to regular cognitive-behavioral therapy for various mental disorders (Source).
But coaching is not therapy! There are still only a few studies on the effectiveness of online coaching compared to traditional coaching. The book "Professionalization of Coaching" by Astrid Schreyögg and Christoph Schmidt-Lellek (2015) beautifully highlights the relationship between coaching research and coaching practice. Every coach should engage with this subject. You can find the complete book here: The Professionalization of Coaching.
If you want to delve deeper into the topic, I recommend the website Virtual Coaching by Prof. Dr. Harald Geißler. In the download area, you will find many resources on online coaching, including his study on E-Coaching. According to his recommendation, the combination of online and offline coaching is the ideal choice as it utilizes the advantages of both coaching types.
Utilizing the strengths of online and offline
There are certain parts of the coaching process that are very individual and require personal contact. Of course, there are exceptions. Some coachees desire anonymous coaching and therefore only want to use online coaching. In business coaching, several meetings at the beginning of the coaching process are important to establish rapport, clarify the assignment, and establish a working relationship. When we use the COACH model as support for the coaching process, assignment clarification, analysis, and certain methods can be better implemented in personal contact.
An online support can be a helpful tool in the coaching process to provide information, maintain contact, reflect, and give exercise suggestions. It is quite possible to provide the coachee with preparatory information before the coaching begins. However, online support will primarily be used in the change and harbor phase. For practical transfer, online support can be a powerful tool.
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Furthermore, there are topics and information that affect many coachees and are similar (e.g., exercises to build good self-management). If you create online content on these topics, you only need to create this content once and you can use it repeatedly in various coaching sessions. It could be information offerings. In the coaching session, for example, an executive expressed interest in various models for conflict resolution. However, since there is no time in the live session to discuss such a model, you send your coachee the prepared information, and in the next session, you discuss the contents.
Another support offered by online assistance is through regular reflection questions in the follow-up. This way, the coachee focuses their attention on the change topic or the implementation of exercises.
Towards the end of the coaching phase, the frequency of contact with the coachee decreases. Through online support, coach and coachee can exchange sporadically. If you add new content for the coachee to the online support during the coaching phase, then the coachee can also look back on the content of their coaching process later and inform themselves as needed, even weeks or months after the coaching ends. You create these online contents "on demand". The online support "grows" with the progress of coaching and is available after completion.
You could also surprise your coachee with small video impulses every two weeks. You support your coachee and potentially secure a recommendation if you provide a good coaching experience. The competition in the coaching market is growing, and with such an additional offering, you can differentiate yourself from other providers.
Take two or three minutes to sketch out your online support. If you want to get more concrete, then call us and tell us what you have in mind. If you know good sources on the topic of online coaching, feel free to leave me a comment. I am always curious!
