Frequently Asked Questions

Coaching With cicoach.com

Q: WHY HIRE A COACH?

A: As someone living with a chronic illness, you're dealing with so much. It is a constant struggle to balance your health needs with expectations from others both at home and at work. Coaching is a safe, supportive place to focus on you and what you need in order to succeed.

Q: HOW IS WORKING WITH CICOACH.COM DIFFERENT FROM WORKING WITH ANOTHER COACH?

A: At cicoach.com, we are passionate about giving people living with chronic illness the support and tools they need to do more than survive, but to thrive, in their professional lives. We have coached hundreds of professionals, senior managers and leaders with chronic illness. Our founder, Rosalind Joffe, is a recognized expert on chronic illness issues in the workplace, who also lives with chronic illnesses of her own. She knows, first-hand, what it takes to wake up daily and confront the unique challenges that you and millions of others face trying to work successfully while managing their health.

Q: WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM THIS EXPERIENCE?

A: Living with chronic illness and working with a coach are a powerful combination that yields positive change. At the minimum, you can expect to:

• Examine your chronic illness at work and what you can do about it.
• Explore new behaviors and develop new competencies
• Cultivate strengths you already have
• Develop new strengths and competencies for desired outcomes.

Q: WHAT CAN I EXPECT IN MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MY COACH?

A: Coaching is a relationship of equal partners. We bring many years of experience living with chronic illness, working in organizations and coaching individuals. As your coach, we will ask questions, create exercises and share our knowledge to help speed your development. While you have many years of experience developing your skills and knowledge, you probably have limited knowledge regarding your illness as it relates to your career. As a client, you will be ready to fully commit yourself to learning, testing and reevaluating what works for you with honesty and integrity to the process.

Q: WHAT HAPPENS IN COACHING?

A: We coach on the phone which saves your time and physical energy, keeps the cost down and allows greater flexibility in our meeting times. Each session follows a similar format: we review your homework exercises, identify what you want to focus on today and your desired outcomes from the call, explore this issue and how it relates to the overarching theme and desired outcomes that you set, design practice homework.

Q: HOW LONG DOES A COACHING ENGAGEMENT LAST?

A: On average, people work with us for 6 months but we’ve worked with clients for one month and others for years. We have found that it takes a minimum of three months for you to get comfortable and another three to implement change. Finally, our work together isn’t limited to our scheduled phone calls! Following each call, we will email you a summary of our meeting and we are available between calls for emails or brief phone calls.

© cicoach.com Rosalind Joffe 2008. Feel free to use part or whole document with attribution!