I got a note recently which utterly made my day.  It was sent as a response from one of the lessons in the Coaching With Software course:

Hi John!

First, I want to let you know that reading and pondering the articles you’ve sent has forced me to think differently about what my business really needs to provide potential clients. Years ago, I hired an executive coach to help me be accountable. Looking back, what their service ultimately became was an endless stream of worthless platitudes. They sounded and felt good but had absolutely no value or substance to help me move my business forward and hold me accountable. There was absolutely no meat just a bunch of feel good fluff that I was paying for on a weekly basis!!!

My coaching business has been on hold, for several years, because I could not see any inherent value that could be provided to potential clients.  You have inspired me to think differently and therefore, have decided to move forward again.  I am currently working on the details necessary to put my former coaching practice back in place. I have decided to use CoachAccountable as the vehicle to help me accomplish this.

You will hear back from in a couple of weeks once I have things back in place to support my coaching practice.

Thank you for inspiring me to take action!!!

Jack

I think Jack really gets to the heart of the hangup many have with coaching: all too commonly, it just boils down to so many feelgood platitudes.

As coaches we’re all pretty well adept at being a top-shelf cheerleader for the people we coach.  That sort of ability, to lift up and motivate others with our words, is neigh on a requisite of the practice.  But to truly have our coaching be worth taking seriously (not to mention worth coming back for), making our coachees feel good has to be balanced with actual lasting results beyond our interactions.  It has to contain structure, concrete actions to be taken, sincere follow through with those actions, and the courage to actually measure the results and respond accordingly.  Ultimately, it has to be results-based.

The degree to which the coaching industry is taken seriously depends on it.

To have CoachAccountable be recognized as a tool for giving those sorts of lasting results through structure and accountability is among the most important praise it could receive.  Thanks for the kudos, Jack.