Coaching courses - worth the money?

[goteam]

Coaching and mentoring seem to be becoming more respectable and I'm wondering about courses. I did a free weekend and it all seemed a bit corporate. I'm less interested in business coaching and more interested in using coaching skills in my current job. It's currently unregulated unlike other disciplines like counselling but it does seem to be a growing field.

Has anyone done any coaching courses? Where? They seem expensive (around 3k) for something unaccredited.

I got offered a life coach as part of my redundancy/back to work plan, it was really about motivating me and encouraging me to try new jobs to apply for, unfortunately my not getting back to work was probably a lot more due to being a parent unable to work full time hrs, than being unenthusiastic, I found it a bit delusional to be honest, I was told to think of being sat on a beach enjoying a holiday and the rest will fall into place, reality is there is a recession on and they seemed to not provide me with help in dealing with the lack of jobs with wage that pays enough to cover living costs without having to apply for benefits. It was an anxious time for me, and I felt being around deluded people telling me 'you can do it' didn't help me, I remember at the time amazed how much they were being paid!

Sorry for my spelling errors, am using a phone not keypad

It's not clear from your OP what the objective of the course would be. Are you wanting to learn to coach others or is it a matter of being coached to perform better yourself?

Are you interested in having some coaching or becoming a coach?

Sorry. Interested in becoming a coach or using coaching in my middle management job, not receiving it.

Ldnmum, thanks for sharing your experience. Sorry it wasn't great. I'm a very practical person so wonder if I could convey the necessary positive thinking but I have had people I manage say that I'm a really good, inspiring manager so I wonder if I could build on that...

I can't comment in detail on the course side of things but I've had two business coaches in my professional life (I'm a senior exec in a global MNC) I found them both really useful. Their talent was helping me reach the right conclusions by asking questions rather than leading. I wonder if that would be the right approach for someone internal who has likely got done vested interest in outcomes?

As an internal leader it sounds like what you need would be something more specific: change mamagement/conflict resolution etc

Whoops lol my experience was over 5 years ago, and I think the life coach I had been assigned wasn't that great, I had just lost a well paid job, that meant I had to sign on , I had also experienced a bereavement and I wasn't in the best headspace, the life coach was a bit deluded about what was really available and accessible for women in my position

Thanks Whispering, that's really useful. I see what you mean about coaches working better when external. You may be right about other options.

Ldnmum, Sounds like a tough time. Perhaps there were the kind of life coaches that spout any old motivational crap back then. I hate that too but it does seem to be getting more respected and professionalised.

Anyway, ill investigate other courses (my work are crap at actually developing staff)

Goteam back then I felt the main thing reason we had been assigned them was because they had the gift of the gab and talked their way in, I honestly felt that while I was trying to be realistic, my life coach was acting like I should 'go for it' and I could tell her mind was on the money! I have done lots of team motivational courses but individually they just didn't work for me, it is similar to the trends in people employing counsellors, both have very ambiguous qualifications and no overlooking organisation overseeing them.