Imagine if you could enjoy the benefits of coaching from the comfort of your home. What if you could be coached in a bikini on the beach or a robe in bed. Or if coaching was just a fraction of the cost of traditional coaching. And, imagine if that coaching didn’t just make you feel good, but also produced hard, science-backed results. That’s where eCoaching comes in!
These are the goals that the ALV founders wanted to achieve. It was a long road with a few bumps and turns along the way. But eventually, ALV’s proprietary eCoaching technology was born.
Why we built an eCoaching platform
I was in my early 20s when it became clear that my career in Finance would not be my forever job. I quickly found my calling in coaching! And I was eager to start helping others to find career they were equally passionate about. But there was a catch. Coaching can be very expensive. And most of the people I knew who were my age couldn’t afford it. I wanted to build a solution that allows them to reap the benefits of coaching without the hefty price tag.
I had also seen a career coach myself when I was considering leaving Finance. And it opened my eyes to just how outdated the industry really was. The coach gave me a four-page multiple-choice questionnaire. Then, based on some four-letter personality type that I somehow share with 1.5 billion other people, I was told what I should be doing with my life.
Really? Surely, I’m not that predictable. And surely, I don’t fit into the same career path as a billion others do. I wanted a more personalized solution but I couldn’t find one! At least one that didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. So, I sought out to build it.
What is eCoaching?
eCoaching provides an innovative technology-based solution that makes personal and professional coaching far more accessible and affordable, without compromising the benefits. Trained and certified coaches developed ALV’s eCoaching technology. They used the principles, models and methodologies applied in every day, live sessions with their clients.
In short, eCoaching is an online platform that mimics the experience of working with a live, human coach!
It’s composed of predominantly coaching-based questions and is also enhanced with coaching videos, insights, activities, tips, resources, and challenges. This question-based approach empowers the user to embark on a self-reflective journey. They reach their own insights and feel completely in control of their ideas and solutions.
It saves our clients money
Let’s take navigating a career transition as an example. It starts with self-reflection. This helps you really understand who you are and what you need from your career to be happy. It then moves into aligning what you’ve learned about yourself with the job market to find the optimal career for you. After that, there are tactical activities to help you land the job like updating your resume and preparing for interviews. If we didn’t have some of the coaching work done in the platform, we would double the amount of sessions. This would nearly double the cost of the program to accomplish the same objective!
How it’s different from the others
Many coaching companies are “online” or may even us the term eCocahing. However, what most companies mean is that their coaching is virtual. It’s pretty typical in the coaching industry today for sessions to be conducted via video or phone versus in person. We do our coaching remotely as well using Zoom.
When we say eCoaching, we don’t just mean live sessions conducted over the internet. We mean the use of our proprietary online eCoaching platform to make the conversations in our live sessions much richer and to make our coaching engagements more affordable, on-demand and data-backed.
A bit more about how it works
The platform and its programs were developed using evidence-based coaching models and methodologies. They are rooted in adult learning, positive psychology, and neuroscience. Let’s dive into these a little deeper.
The Positive Psychology
The eCoaching process focuses not on what was or what is, but instead on what could be. In every eCoaching module, individuals are prompted to understand obstacles, develop solutions and commit to new ways that they can apply these solutions to increase their fulfillment and performance. The focus is on extracting potential, not only identifying potential, but also devising application-based strategies to reach it.
eCoaching also helps individuals to transform negative thinking habits and reappraise ‘problems’ to identify solutions. The individual is encouraged to consider the valuable lessons and insights that arise from each and every experience. This helps them to transform stifling perceptions of ‘failure’ and develop a ‘growth-mindset’.
The Neuroscience behind it
The brain has around 100 billion neurons. It is the connection between these neurons that guides our thoughts, behaviors and actions. How many connection possibilities are there between 100 billion neurons? A lot.
Telling people what they should do or giving them a simple solution to a complicated problem is very rarely effective. People need to make their own connections, come to their own insights and develop their own solutions in order to make meaningful decisions that result in sustainable change.
Unfortunately, this requires a lot of effort and energy. And this often leads to being overwhelmed. Without a coach, individuals very rarely engage in this type of deep and self-directed thinking on their own.
Daniel Kahneman, a notable psychologist known for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, has studied this phenomenon in depth. He has identified two types of thinking. “System one” is the fast, automatic and default approach. “System two” is the mind’s slower, deeper and analytical mode. Typically, the process of fundamental and sustained growth can only occur when we engage in system two thinking. However, because this is more arduous and draining, we often quickly revert back to “system one” thinking. This leads us to make decisions that aren’t carefully considered and thought out.
The eCoaching platform helps individuals overcome this obstacle. It supports them to remain with their thoughts and reflection – in “system two” mode – for prolonged periods of time.
The questions, tools and empowering techniques used act as handrails for the individual to arrive at their own insights and solutions using system two thinking. If the individual feels stuck, they can reach out to their coach, who will be in touch, typically immediately. The client is also encouraged and reassured with regular coaching videos, tips and resources. Because our clients arrive at their own conclusions, they have a far higher level of commitment, confidence and motivation to take meaningful action and achieve their desired results!
Wrapping Up
Coaching is an immensely valuable way to develop both personally and professionally. It helps you improve self-awareness, emotional intelligence, confidence, productivity, and performance. Clearly, there is no doubting the benefits! However, for a long time, coaching was financially out of reach for many individuals and organizations. Not only has coaching always been a significant financial investment, it has also bought about a range of logistical challenges costing valuable time and resources.
Our eCoaching technology has finally introduced an unprecedented solution – one that is affordable, measurable, flexible and scalable meaning that both individuals and organizations can benefit from the same powerful results of traditional coaching but with the convenience and comfort of their own space and time. Finally, you can personally and professionally reach your goals without even rising from bed! Want to learn more, schedule a complimentary consult with a member of our team!
Katie Bennett
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- What is eCoaching and How Does it Work? - September 9, 2018