A coach is a trained professional who specializes in helping you reach your personal and professional potential, which is particularly important in today’s uncertain and complex world. Typically, this is accomplished through a series of 1-on-1 or group sessions designed to help you achieve your goals. A professional coach can offer a variety of tools and techniques while providing an objective perspective.

Rick works to build trust and safety with his coaching clients and act as a “sounding board” as they work through their goals. Rick’s coaching approach is informed through his formal education, professional law enforcement background, work in business operations, and his own personal experiences.

There are many reasons an individual or organization might want to hire and work with a coach. Some of the more common reasons you would want to hire a coach are:

- There is a challenge or goal you want to achieve

- When attempting to accomplish personal or professional goals, there are gaps in information, ability, confidence, or resources.

- A desire to improve performance

- Looking for clarity in making tough decisions

- Work and life may be out of balance in some way

- Want to identify core strengths and skills, along with how best to leverage them

Absolutely! There are several studies and other evidence to support that the return on the investment of coaching far exceeds client expectations. The International Coaching Foundation’s Global Coaching Client Study showed that clients reported improved work performance, better business management, more efficient time management, increased team effectiveness, and more growth and opportunities. The same study found that coaching clients noted greater self-confidence, enhanced relationships, more effective communications skills, better work-and-life balance and an improvement in wellness. Nearly 70 percent of individuals indicated they had at least made back their initial investment or more.

There is no getting around it but working with a coach requires a financial and time commitment from the client. The coach's level of experience, area of competence, level of certification, and education all go into fees. Along with the planned outcomes, you should consider the energy and effort that goes into coaching.

Rick specializes in leadership and executive coaching to help clients communicate effectively and build stronger relationships that are important for success in all aspects of life. His goal is to become a trusted partner, where you can share your thoughts, ideas, and concerns about current events or simply help be a guide as you mitigate challenges in your career and personal life.

Coaching typically begins with a personal interview (either face-to-face or by video call) to assess the individual’s or business’ current opportunities and challenges, define the scope of the relationship, identify priorities for action and establish specific desired outcomes. Subsequent coaching sessions may be conducted in person or over video chat, with each session lasting by the established length of time in the contract. Between scheduled coaching sessions, the individual may be asked to complete specific actions that support the achievement of the client or organization’s personally prioritized goals. Rick may provide additional resources in the form of relevant articles, checklists, assessments or models to support the individual’s or business’ thinking and actions. The duration of the coaching relationship varies depending on needs and preferences.

Mentors are people with greater experience than the people they mentor, and so mentoring is a power relationship, usually in alignment with a specific career path. Mentors often give advice and can be excellent for networking and career development.

Coaches establish a supportive relationship, in that the client holds the power and the coach helps to shape the client’s development in a tailored fashion. Coaches almost never give specific advice, instead, they help clients reach their own conclusions and goals. Coaches are excellent leader developers. Coaches will have specific education, training, ethical standards, and experience developing their clients.

While Rick’s work is primarily focused on helping improve public safety leadership development programs, he also serves individuals and organizations across other sectors such as education (students, teachers, administrators), government (local, county, and state), healthcare, and especially small businesses / entrepreneurs.

Rick works with business and individual clients to help build better leader development programs, improve foundational leadership skills, and drive better performance. Rick provides one-on-one individual leadership and executive coaching, consults with organizations to evaluate or build leader development programs, and offers tailored multi-session workshops to provide a deeper level of understanding of the skills needed to drive effective leadership.

The needs and preferences of the person or team being coached will determine how long the coaching relationship will last. Three to six months of work may be sufficient for some types of targeted coaching. People may find it advantageous to work with a coach for a longer amount of time, depending on the needs or goals of the individual or team.