I now appreciate the power of silence.....

"I am a joint partner in an accountancy, tax and business advisory business. With the introduction of cloud accounting software our business is moving away from data entry and book keeping and we spend more time on conversations with clients, understanding business goals, analysing business performance and advising on ways in which the business performance can be improved, while doing this in a tax efficient way.

I wanted to get the training that would allow me to take this a step further and start coaching clients. I wanted to be a transformational coach as I had experienced the power of this type of coaching and the ways that it can help individuals identify what matters to them and make them far more likely to achieve their goals. I also wanted to get the skills to encourage an autonomous learning environment in my work place.

I had worked with business coaches in the past but had found that this was transactional coaching and not transformational coaching and did not often lead to a sustained improvement and goal achievement.

I chose Full Circle as it was recommended to me by Dr. Karla Benske. Karla was coaching me and I asked her who she trained with. Once on the training I enjoyed the practical, hands on training. I believe that this is the only way that can truly learn how to coach. The assessment and feedback approach is great.

I did experience challenges but there are challenges in anything that is worth doing. You have to make time to do the online Masterclasses in the evenings and take control of organising your coaching sessions and recordings. Making time is a challenge but something you overcome because you can see the benefit of putting time into the training.

Now that I have trained to become a coach I am better equipped to take an active listening, open questioning approach in my work and family life and this leads to a deeper understanding. As Covery says, ‘seek first to understand before being understood’. I now appreciate the power of silence.

I would encourage anyone thinking of doing this to go to one of the Full Circle Discovery workshops or make contact with someone within Full Circle who can provide further guidance. It has been very beneficial for me and I cannot see why these skills would not help any person"

Kenny McAllister - Certificate in Professional Coaching Practice, Edinburgh 2018