Online coaching facilitates more openness for the people who are involved in executive coaching. When people engage into face-to-face executive coaching, there are certain moral reservations to be observed. This is not the case with everybody who is looking for executive coaching but in many cases, people feel more comfortable to communicate openly when they are involved in online coaching as the two sides can not see each other. Just not seeing each other brings more openess in online coaching.

We know that people are more scared of other people than anything else. For some reasons people are scared of each of other. For example when you walk in the streets, you do not look into the eyes of the people who are coming from the opposite direction. You try deliberately to avoid any eye contact. Deliberate eye contact is considered a kind of intrusion in the other people's privacy. While if there is a dog or a cat coming from the other side, human beings feel more comfortable looking at them.

Face-to-face executive coaching requires acceptable level of trust to be completely effective. If there is no trust, there will not be sufficient openness for revealing the kind of things that coaches need to know. In face-to-face coaching, body language reveals a lot of hidden secrets that maybe considered a kind of embarrassment. Most of my clients found that online coaching gives them the chance of saving face and embarrassment. In the case of online coaching, they sit in the comfort of their own homes and feel more comfortable in opening up and saying what they want to say.

For this reason, a lot of people prefer to call for coaching online after a few face-to-face coaching sessions; especially if they want to get coaching on matters of private importance. It is much easier to communicate an embarrassing matter on the phone with an executive coach. The client usually does not focus only on one aspect of his life. Different aspects are usually talked about in all executive coaching sessions whether they are face-to-face coaching or they are coaching online. Once the matter is considered personal and private, it is hard for the client to feel easy to communicate everything in face-to-face executive coaching. In matters that are related mostly to business coaching, face-to-face executive coaching is easier to be conducted and this is more true when business coaching involves confidential affairs. The legal confidential affairs are best to be discussed privately in a face-to-face executive coaching session but matters that maybe considered mostly private and personal maybe more fully expressed on a coaching online session.

This also depends a lot on the level of comfort of feelings of the client in different circumstances. I had a client that felt more comfortable in receiving online coaching on matters relating to his relationships. He used to talk more with confidence in a coaching online session. His tone of voice was vibrating with more energy. The fact that I did not see him on a coaching online session, gave him more confidence to expresses views on matters that brought usually embarrassment when were raised in face-to-face executive coaching.

Everybody must consider this aspect of executive coaching: what is not convenient for the client? Is it coaching online or is it face-to-face coaching? The value system of the clients determine whether they want face-to-face executive coaching or online coaching. The executive coach must be sensitive to their preferences and give them sufficient choices to call for the kind of coaching that meets their requirements more effectively.

The point is that both coaching online and face-to-face executive coaching can work.



Thanks to Reza Borr for contributing this article to our Coaching blog:

International Coaching Federation