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What is Coaching?

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Queen Bee Coaching was founded by women who know the power of coaching.

We believe that offering free coaching to support women working to create change in Greater Manchester will help us move towards a more equitable society. The stories of the clients we have served over the past eight years have proved this to be true.

One of the core values of coaching is to always hold the coachee at the heart of the conversation. It is a non-directive form of personal development, meaning the coach is led by the coachee’s needs and wishes. This can particularly have an impact on women who, because of discriminatory societal constructs, are so often not able to make ourselves the focus of our own lives. By giving women a space to think, we help you grow your skills and confidence in order to accelerate the positive impact you can have through your work and make Greater Manchester a more equitable place for all women.

Coaching might be different from other kinds of development support you’ve had in the past.
A coach believes that you already have all the answers within you, so coaches don’t give advice. A coach and coachee build a partnership – a non-judgemental and supportive environment – so that the coachee can work out what those answers are.
A coach is fully present and really listens, to support you to think about and explore a topic for yourself, looking at options and obstacles, then deciding a way forward that you can commit to. Coaching gives you time to momentarily step away from the demands of your life to focus on yourself and think about how you want to develop.
Coaching might help you find a way around any barriers you are facing. It could help you with confidence, career development, work-life balance, challenging work relationships and achieving your goals – among many other things!

At QBC, we offer an initial session for the coach and client to get to know each other and to understand what the client’s goals are. After this, we offer six, free, one-hour sessions, either face to face or online, where the client can work through their coaching goals. One of the greatest strengths of QBC is the quality of our coaches. We have a robust application process to maintain this and all our coaches adhere to European Mentoring and Coaching Council standards.

You might not see yourself as a leader but, whether your work is big or small, we do. To us, leaders are not only people who hold senior job titles. They are people with ideas that they believe will make a difference in their community – and they are people who turn those ideas into action. For us, there is not one, set definition of a leader. If you are working on something you believe in that will create positive change in society – you are a leader to us.
 
When you are working to challenge discriminatory constructs in society, it can be easy to feel alone in your endeavours. Clients also have access to our network Queen Bee Connect, which shows change-making women in Greater Manchester that they are not alone and brings them into a community of women facing similar challenges so that learnings can be shared and everyone grows together.
 
In June 2023 we sent out a survey to former clients and 47 responded. Here is the impact six free sessions from QBC had:
  • More than 93% of respondents said coaching from QBC had helped them to make progress with their goals.
  • More than 90% of respondents said coaching from QBC had made them feel more confident.
  • More than 87% of respondents said coaching from QBC had helped them to develop.
  • More than 89% of respondents felt they were more likely to progress their career as a result of being coached.
  • More than 79% of respondents said coaching from QBC had made them more aware of tools and resources they can access to support their personal development.
These are the principles of coaching we abide by at QBC.
1. Coaching is about change. Our clients come to us because they want something to change, to learn something, do something differently, achieve an aspirational goal or manage a problem. Our role is to help them to become more effective at doing that.  
2. Coaching addresses the whole person – past, present and future. Whilst our work with clients may be focused on their growth and development within their working lives, we need to work with enough of the whole person to address the inevitable issues in their work that come from (or are heavily influenced by) their whole life – past, present and future.
3. The client is resourceful. The client has the resources to resolve their issues.
4. The coach’s role is to enable the client to access their resourcefulness. The client has an important perspective as an ‘expert of themselves and their context’.
5. Coaches should follow the client’s own agenda. 
6. The coach and the client are equals. For the time that we are working together in a coaching context, this is a partnership of equals, even if in everyday life there are  differences between them – for example around age or experience.
 

FAQs

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Queen Bee Coaching offers free coaching to support all women, particularly those from diverse backgrounds and experiences, to overcome barriers, increase their impact on society and rise to positions of influence, in order to accelerate Greater Manchester toward equity.

You can apply to receive coaching or to become one of our volunteer coaches. The application forms can be found on the Join Us page, which you can get to by clicking the button at the top-right of the screen. If you’re not sure our offer is for you, we’d urge you to get in touch with us using the Contact Us page so we can help you decide. After a successful application, you’d be matched with a coach, who would contact you to arrange an initial conversation before you begin your six sessions together.
You can also apply to volunteer with our support team, who keep the whole operation running.

We offer our coaching for free thanks to our volunteer support team and our amazing volunteer coaches. Coaching is often associated with corporate executives and can be expensive, but we know it can be a powerful development tool for anyone. That’s why QBC was founded to offer free coaching to those who might not usually be able to access it.