Online Tools for Professional Coaches
In recent years, the need for coaches to meet clients face-to-face has largely diminished. There are still many coaches who prefer or even insist on meeting clients in person and in some coaching situations, that is the right choice. But today’s web has opened up the possibilities to allow coaches to work with clients online. We’re not just talking about the telephone, there’s so much more.
Skype. Face to face can still happen, even when separated by oceans. Skype is a web-based telephone service that works through your computer and allows you to talk, video conference, instant message, and share files. It’s an excellent communications hub enabling professional coaches with the ability to meet clients no matter where they are.
GoogleDocs. GoogleDocs is a free online word processing application. If you use Microsoft Word, GoogleDocs feels excatly the same. Files are stored online in your own secure account and you can access them from any computer. But GoogleDocs offers coaches two additional advantages: You can share documents with others so that both of you can work on the same document at the same time without overwriting the other person’s work. For example, that means that your client on the other side of the globe can sign into a document that you’ve shared with them and the two of you can work on their goals. Together, at the same time. And the other benefit to a coach: GoogleDocs allows you to create custom forms that can be posted on your website. New clients can fill out the form online, click submit, and all of their answers are entered into a GoogleDoc for you to review before their first session. Why not have one form for new clients and another form for your regular clients to fill out before each session?
Mindomo or Mindmeister. These are web-based mindmapping software that allows you to create mindmaps online. Like GoogleDocs, more than one person can edit a map at once, making it the perfect tool for you to work with your clients no matter where there are. (I’ve listed both of the ones that I’ve used here, and there are others, but I prefer Mindmeister).
Blogs. Blogs aren’t just for you to promote your business so that the world can see. Blogs can come with limited access for only certain people to view. A coach might have a client create a blog as a personal journal of their progress, and set the viewership permission so that the only people who can see blog are the client and the coach. This allows the client to keep the coach up to date, and the coach can add comments to encourage or direct where necessary.
These are just four tools that can empower coaches to meet with clients anywhere, and to collaborate with them in real time, all the time.
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