Is coaching online better or worse than coaching in real life?

Video transcript:

As I'm recording this it's in a time of lockdown
with Covid-19 and there's a question about coaching
that comes up. An obvious question is
coaching online better than coaching in real life?
So is coaching online better than coaching in real life?
How do they compare?
Now I would say from 20+ years of coaching people
on the phone, online through Zoom
or in real life. I can give you a fairly clear
picture of coaching and how different things work.
One thing I would say, that people often forget
is the benefits of coaching by phone or zoom.
It's so much more convenient, in so many ways.
So your coachee can be at their place of work
or some quiet meeting room, or if it's the
evening, in their own home.
They can be in their own environment and the
comfort of their own space.
Obviously coaching online doesn't involve any travel
so that saves time, it saves money. It's better
for the environment.
But what about the impact of coaching its self?
What difference does it make and how do they compare?
And to be honest I'd say there's absolutely no
difference. Certainly its my experience when I take
on a new coaching client, professional clients that
want coaching or mentoring, they often like to meet
up at least once, to know in real life who they are
dealing with but very quickly find that online
coaching is just as good, if not better.
Much more convenient and they achieve just the same
kind of benefits in performance improvements
that they would have done meeting face-to-face.
So, I think, as people get more comfortable using
Zoom and online formats they're going to find a lot
more online coaching, people being comfortable
with that, valuing that over coaching in real life.
One thing I will say that's come up with people
using Zoom for the first time and realising this
is an issue is this feeling that you have to be
looking at the camera all the time and having to
present yourself in a certain way.
And that just certainly isn't true.
So give yourself permission if you're doing
coaching online to, for example, turn the camera
off. You can talk to a client or work with a coach
perfectly fine just by actually hearing their voice,
If you're not comfortable with the camera.
Certainly give yourself permission to be comfortable.
You don't need to be in the frame all the time
as long as you can hear each other
that's what really matters.
So use online coaching in a way that works for you
and a good coach will adapt to what works for you,
to give you the best possible coaching experience.
So is online coaching better or worse than
real life coaching? In many ways it's actually better.
It saves time, it saves money, it's better for the
environment and with a good coach it doesn't make any
difference whether it's online or in real life.
OK, I hope that's helpful. Let me know what you
think in the comments below.