- What is one-to-one coaching?
- How to know if you need one-to-one coaching
- What concrete benefits can be expected from individual coaching?
- The detailed steps of individual coaching
- What concrete tools does an individual coach use?
- Looking for a one-to-one coach?
- How to choose an individual coach well? (Factual criteria)
Giving yourself space. Breathing. Stepping back. Letting go of what no longer serves you. Individual coaching, whether for business or personal reasons, is a unique support system that allows you to clarify, align, and transform.
At The Laughing Willow, it is above all a meeting. A trusting relationship, built step by step, where you become a full participant in your journey. There is no magic formula. Only powerful questions, a benevolent mirror, “meta” pauses and transformative realisations.
The individual coaching is a confidential and structured space, which allows us to navigate a situation, shed light on a turning point, or strengthen a professional stance.
In a company, it can support a manager in taking up a new role, assist a director with a complex decision, or help an employee rediscover the meaning in their work. It is a profoundly human approach, action-oriented, and rooted in listening and presence.
If you identify with any of the following issues, you are in a position to benefit from individual coaching:
- Strengthening one's resilience
- To support an organisational restructuring or transformation
- Knowing how to navigate periods of uncertainty and/or constant change
- Develop and embody authentic leadership
- To inspire, motivate and develop its teams in order to strengthen collaboration
- Make more strategic decisions
- Successfully taking on a new role (particularly a managerial one, integrating a co-director, etc.)
- Better manage new responsibilities
- Develop your influence, communication, and assertiveness
- Adapting to a new environment or a new team (hybrid or complex)
- Develop emotional intelligence
- Improve interpersonal communication
- Managing conflict or tense situations
- Learning to better manage pressure
- Striking a balance between professional and personal life
- Preventing and avoiding burnout
- Clarifying professional goals
- Prepare for a career change or development
- Identify your strengths and areas for improvement
- Gaining confidence and leadership
Go not where the path may lead… Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
According to studies by the ICF (International Coaching Federation, 2022), the most frequently observed outcomes after individual coaching are:
| Improved skills | % coachees observing significant improvement |
| Self-confidence | 80% |
| Interpersonal communication | 72% |
| Leadership skills | 75% |
| Stress and emotion management | 65% |
| Clarity on professional objectives | 77% |
These results are generally visible from 6 to 8 sessions, which equates to an average course of 4 to 6 months.
Each individual support is a unique journey, which we build together step by step. At The Laughing Willow, this journey always takes shape around several key stages, which are clearly defined and reassuring.
During our first meeting, we take the time to get to know each other. You express your expectations, your concerns, and what is driving you to seek support today. Together, we define the concrete objectives of your coaching.
The core of the support then follows: regular sessions, usually spaced two to three weeks apart. Each session lasts approximately 90 minutes. During these special times, you will benefit from a safe space where you can explore, clarify, and adjust your strategies. Concrete experiments will be proposed between sessions to anchor the learning in your professional everyday life.
At the end of the programme, we'll review together the coaching objectives set at the start: what have you learned? What has changed in you and around you? How do you feel in your role today? This is also the moment when you look ahead, with autonomy and confidence.
Each coach has a variety of tools they use depending on your needs, such as:
Process Communication Model (PCM), Team Management System (TMS), Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), The Work, Clarification, Co-development (CODEV), Inspired Leadership, Transactional Analysis, TIPI, Nonviolent Communication (NVC), Complex Negotiation (ADN Group)…
Whatever tools are employed, they are never an end in themselves but a means to enrich and illuminate the work we do in service of the defined objectives.
To help you choose your coach, here are precise and verifiable criteria, whether you go directly or through a Consultant directory :
- Recognised certification: prioritise ICF (International Coaching Federation) or EMCC certified coaches.
- Professional supervision: ask if the coach receives regular supervision (essential to guarantee the ethical quality of their coaching).
- Work experience: minimum of 5 to 10 years' professional experience.
- Specialisation: check that the coach has specific experience with your issue (leadership, conflict management, career management, etc.).
At The Laughing Willow, each coach is certified, supervised, and has at least 10 years of professional corporate experience, thus guaranteeing the quality of your support.