Coaching - is it better face to face or by telephone?

When I first meet with a prospective coachee or with the line management or HR sponsor for this work, the conversation inevitably gets round to the coaching approach that I will take.
My response to this question is based on my preference to coach people face to face in a number of coaching sessions 4 - 6, spread out over time 4 - 12 months. This gives me and the coachee adequate time to establish the necessary relationship, rapport and understanding for them to do the necessary thinking that in turn leads to them ACTING in a new, more confident, focused and decisive way in the areas of work and life that are really important to them.

In my experience that can be done best through this series of face to face meetings, possibly supplemented by e mails or telephone conversations, rather than by telephone coaching conversations alone.

This face to face approach is the way that I learned to coach people 15 years ago and I think that it offers all of the communication benefits of this type of relationship that are not available over the telephone. However I have to recognise that in recent years telephone coaching has risen rapidly in popularity and that it forms the cornerstone of the life coaching industry and of the training courses offered to people who are new to coaching and learning about how to do it.

The potential benefits of telephone coaching are these:-
- no travel time or cost
- it can take place anywhere in the world, day or night
- it provides a concentrated, focused approach
- it avoids other visual distractions
- it provides for a level of personal safety and security.
The drawbacks to telephone coaching are these:-
- it may provide a shield for a person
- all of the body language signals are absent and therefore more than 50% of the meaning & understanding may not be available and transmitted to you as a coach
- some of the key signals between coach and coachee are missed
- the rapport established is different at best and much less effective at worst.
So when I hold these initial, preparatory conversations with prospective coachees, I explain what I do and how I coach i.e. face to face, and I describe how I think that telephone coaching differs from and compares to my approach and I let the prospective coachee or sponsor decide. I do not overtly criticise telephone coaching - but it is not the sole coaching experience that I am prepared to provide

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