FAQs - frequently asked questions

Consultancy

Q. How much does it cost?
A. We understand that you want to make the most from your budget and we will work with you to decide on the best options given the budget available. You can usually expect to invest £1,500 for a day's consultancy work.

Facilitation

Q. Why should we use C-Changes rather than someone in-house?
A. It is often useful to have an independent person because they will be impartial and also they will ask the "idiot" question.

One-to-one coaching

Q. What are the benefits?
A. Enormous. Examples include gaining clarity and focus; overcoming barriers; facing major life changes; improving business performance; having more fun; getting fitter; losing weight; finding a partner; and deciding on a new career.

Q. What is coaching?
A. Coaching is a powerful partnership that inspires people to take action to achieve results in their personal and professional lives and to create the life they want.

Q. Who uses a coach?
A. All sorts of people. Typically successful individuals who realise that to fulfil their dreams in a complex world they can't do it alone.

Q. How does coaching work in practice?
A. Usually you work with a coach for three to five months. Sessions can be face to face or over the phone and are arranged at times to fit your life style.

Q. How much does coaching cost?
A. The cost depends on how much you wish to invest in yourself. Packages are designed with you to suit your needs. All our coaching is backed up with ongoing support by email and telephone, if needed.

Group coaching

Q. What are the benefits of group coaching?
A. The most important benefit is that each individual is being assisted in their learning by 4 or 5 other people who each have very different ideas and ways of thinking. This encourages the individual to think more widely. Another major advantage is that the group dynamics can encourage people to follow through on commitments they make.

Q. Does it fit with other methods of personal development like one-to-one coaching or mentoring?
A. Absolutely. They could complement each other nicely.

Q. What about costs?
A. These vary depending on where the meetings are held, whether it's a group from a number of different companies or is a group of staff from just one company and whether group members undertake a one day fast track coaching course. Excluding venue costs, a guideline for a group coaching programme would be an investment of £950 per person.

Training courses

Q. Do you hold open courses or are they all company sponsored?
A. Although most of our courses are company sponsored we also run some open courses. See the future events page.

360 feedback

Q. What is 360 feedback?
A. It is a powerful tool for getting feedback on our performance from colleagues who know us well - our boss, our peers and direct reports. Usually that feedback is in a highly structured written form, which is passed to a third party for analysis. We then receive a report telling us about our strengths and development needs. Alternatively "paperless" 360 feedback sessions can be arranged.

Q. What are the benefits of 360 feedback?
A. Good 360 feedback will clearly show where an individual's strengths and development needs lie. With luck it will also relate these to the job profile. The report can form the basis of a valuable dialogue between the individual and their manager focusing on how the job can be better tailored to the individual's existing skills and how learning opportunities can be created to build new ones. The report may also provide the basis of a personal development plan or the foundation for work within a group coaching setting.

At an organisational level 360 can be a useful tool in creating a feedback culture, encouraging dialogue and improving communication.

Q. How is the individual supported through the process?
A. Where the scheme does not specify who to ask for feedback, individuals sometimes need help to think through who they should best approach. But most important is to have someone to talk to about the results. Although these often coincide with the individual's self-perception there may well be areas of variance which come as a real shock. So the individual needs someone to talk to who could be a manager, someone from the HR team or a coach. Senior executives will normally want to employ the services of a coach from outside the organisation who can help them work through the findings, what they mean and what's to be done about them.

C-Changes can help with introducing a 360 feedback scheme and providing one-to-one coaching for individual managers through the process.

"Advice is like a stranger - if welcome, he stays the night; if not welcome, he returns home that day" African proverb.