Things to Know and What to Expect with Blumer CPAs Coaching

Since business coaching is an often misunderstood service, we have put together a list of
things you might expect from our coaching services.
Coaching is not consulting. A consultant often seeks to become an expert and tell you how
to do things. To be sure, this is often helpful, and something we do at times. But coaching
is a skilled means to help the client think better. We unravel complexities in your business,
help you prioritize them, think through them effectively, challenge your beliefs about these
issues and then chart a path forward. And we do all of this with you at the center of our
work. That is, we help you come to the proper conclusions that you must take to be
successful.
It even sounds like counseling, and so be it. Coaching is more like business counseling than
it is consulting. To that end, trust, and the freedom to ask you difficult pointed questions
is very important for us to do our best work.
Thanks for this opportunity! We hope the following thoughts can give you some ideas as to
how to approach our coaching services.
A) Key Elements of Coaching
1) You typically have the answers, not us
Coaching isn't mentoring, therapy, or consulting, although it's related to all of those
disciplines. The key difference is that in those relationships you're typically seeking answers
from an expert.
Our expertise is in building meaningful coaching relationships, but were not experts on you
or your goals, and we typically don't have answers for you. We have questions, and you will
ultimately have to discover the answers that are right for you.
You may feel as though you don't have those answers, but our work together will be
designed to help you find them. Our emphasis on identifying the answers that are uniquely
right for you not only ensures that our work will yield sustainable results, but also helps to
ensure that you're accountable to yourself in this process, not to us or anyone else.

2) You set the agenda, mostly
We won't often determine what issues are to be addressed, and we won't often determine
the solutions that will be right for you. We say often because there are times when we will
direct you with expert advice. Our main role is to help you articulate your aspirations and
clarify your goals, to develop a process to meet your needs and to guide you through that
process. To that end, we will help you set the direction for achieving your own goals, while
also adding appropriate counsel when we find it necessary.
3) A coaching relationship is an equal partnership
We are not an authority figure, nor are we simply a service provider. We will work together
as equal partners in this process and will share responsibility for its success.
4) Choice, fulfillment and effectiveness
Within the guidelines above, our approach to coaching typically focuses on helping people
feel more fulfilled and effective in their professional lives, manage the complexities of
growth and add greater value to their customers.
Choice make us more or less fulfilled and more or less effective, and in part coaching is
intended to help you understand how each choice you make affects these aspects of your
life.
Fulfillment is uniquely defined by each of us for ourselves, but a useful starting point may be
"Achieving your fullest potential in the areas that are most important to you."
Effectiveness is also individually defined, but a useful starting point may be "Achieving your
goals consistently with a sustainable level of effort."
B) Key Characteristics of the Coaching Relationship
1) Confidentiality
We have bound ourselves to be confidential in all things shared in a coaching session. That
burden does not apply to the client - the client may share anything discussed in a coaching
session, but we will not.
2) Trust and accountability
We need to do what we say we'll do. Within our coaching engagement you're accountable to
yourself, not to us or to anyone else, and our success will depend on building trust over time
by fulfilling our commitments to each other.
3) Honesty
While our coaching relationship must be one in which both of us feel a sense of caring and
appreciation, it must also be one in which both of us feel free--and even obligated--to be
honest with each other. We will always speak professionally and with respect, but we will
also strive to be as candid and direct as possible in order to be as helpful as possible.

C) Things to Expect in a Coaching Session
1) Interruptions and pointed questions
We may interrupt you, and ask direct, pointed questions. It's important that we find the
communication style that's most effective for us as a team; it's essential that you feel heard
in our discussion; and we don't want excessive politeness to get in the way of real
communication.
2) Requests and responses
We may make suggestions, and you always have at least four responses to choose from: You
can say "Yes," say "No," suggest an alternative, or ask for time to think about it further. In
a sense, any feedback or data that we provide can be thought of as a suggestion, and you
should always feel that you have the ability to accept it, reject it, modify it, or defer it.
3) Getting stuck
Prepare to get stuck from time to time, particularly one or two months after we begin.
Coaching clients sometimes become excited by the potential for change that appears in the
first few sessions but are then disappointed when actual change doesnt follow immediately.
Bear in mind that it will take time to identify desired changes, put them into effect, and
experience sustainable results.
4) Resistance
Effective coaching will at some point run into your fears or concerns and generate
resistance to change. This is expected and actually desirable, because it's an important
indicator of progress. Both of us will need to learn to identify and recognize signs of
resistance and discuss them explicitly.
D) Getting Started
Consider the questions below. We're not obligated to pursue any of them, but they may
serve as a useful starting point in our work together.
1) Questions to understand you and your current situation
What activities have the most meaning for you?
What works for you when you make changes successfully?
Where do you get stuck?
How do you deal with disappointment or failure? How do you deal with success?
What helps you fulfill your commitments? What gets in your way when you don't?
What's satisfying about your work today? What's unsatisfying about it?
What one thing could you do immediately that would make the greatest
difference in your current situation?
2) Questions that will allow you to help define my role
What does "coaching" mean to you? What does it not mean?
How would you advise me to coach you most effectively?
If you seem stuck, how would you like me to help?
3) Questions to understand where you want to be in the future
Where do you want to make a difference?
What would make your work so compelling that you would do it without
compensation?
If a goal is an external, visible outcome, what are your most important goals?
If a commitment is an internal force that drives you to set and achieve goals,
what are you committed to?
If a habit is a small sign of a larger process, what helpful habits do you want to
encourage? What counter-productive habits do you want to break?
To build on your success or achieve lasting change, you will have to explore and
better understand your assumptions, mental models and beliefs. Which
assumptions, models and beliefs support your success? Which ones are getting in
your way?
Who do you want to continue being? Who do you want to become?

Thanks again for the opportunity to embark on this journey together! We hope our attempt
to coach you to greater success will serve you for many years to come, whether we continue
to coach you or not!


Your Coach, Jason M Blumer, CPA, Business Coach, Writer, Speaker

Jason has been coaching creative individuals since 2008 and seeking to help them chart their
future more clearly. People have quit jobs, created companies, hired people, fired people,
fought fear and made a lot more money under his coaching counsel. Jason has had his own
coach since 2005, which has changed his life and the trajectory of his firms growth
forever. Jason follows a particular study of coaching called Neuroleadership. Neuroleadership
is the scientific study of the brain, and how this relates to the fields of leadership
development, management training, change management, consulting, and coaching. Jason
is a member of the NeuroLeadership Institute: http://www.neuroleadership.org