FAQsABOUT WORKING WITH ME…. INCLUDING COACHING
Q: Who do you work with?
A: I usually work with lawyers and other “purposeful professionals” who: 1) are motivated, 2) want to live an amazing life so they can fulfill their potential, and 3) are tired of being stuck in a repetitive pattern (on a personal or professional level). One of those stuck patterns may involve adversity or trauma, but it’s not the only pattern I work with. Other common patterns include changing unfulfilling work, expanding your creativity and living fully after loss.
Q: Who can benefit from coaching?
A: Usually, people who can benefit from coaching have been wrestling with one of the following: procrastination, or feeling like change is overwhelming or takes too much energy, or finally being on a repetitive “hamster wheel” so not experiencing change in a timely way.
Q: Should I book a training for my organization or coaching?
A: If you’re looking for training for your organization it’s best to send a request through my contact form. I can provide fully customized or “standard” trainings and presentations at various price points. I’ve found that the most effective trainings for organizations include a hypothetical “scenario” or story. It’s possible to add coaching sessions to a training for your organization.
Q: For coaching, how many sessions will it take before I see a change?
A: Usually you will have some insights about the changes you want after the first session, however it can take 3 or more sessions to develop the awareness and begin doing the inner work (including starting with some initial action steps) that lead to experiencing change. Coaching is a learning process and is similar to other skills (sports, creativity etc.) in terms of how long it takes to experience the results of your learning.
Q: How about coaching timing? How does timing work?
A: Sessions are on Zoom and can be scheduled using my online calendar. Like any new skill, coaching takes an hour or two each week. After you sign up for an intake session you’ll receive an intake questionnaire by email. It will take about an hour to complete the questions. Prepare to set aside approximately 1-2 (or more) hours each week for coaching tasks from something that isn’t giving you return on investment (television, social media, phone scrolling). Think about the pockets of time in your schedule that can become “coaching time”. To me, any coaching exercise is way more fun and productive than scrolling any kind of media!
Q: Not enough time or funding for a full coaching package?
A: Book a single session to start troubleshooting timing issues. (Or to address creating a budget for personal development work.) Or consider asking your organization to book a group training session. I often offer coaching alongside group trainings.
Q: What’s the return on investment (or “ROI”)?
A: Coaching sessions can accelerate your progress at work or in life, improve your well-being, help overcome hidden obstacles at work or home, shift behaviour, change inner patterns, save time (or money), improve career strategy (such as negotiating a raise), boost confidence or provide peace of mind through mindfulness. Research indicates that the benefits of coaching are greater than both the fees and time involved. To me, the cost of coaching is similar to taking a trip except that what you take home from your journey can truly change your life!
For example, this link on the “return on investment” from coaching by the “Institute of Coaching” (at McLean Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School): https://instituteofcoaching.org/resources/webinar-how-you-should-measure-roi-coaching
Q: What’s your approach?
A: Professional coaches increasingly use tools that address more than one area of stuckness or support. Just like an athlete, there may be something holding you back that is has more than one level or runs deep. Some tools that can help include mind-body techniques like “emotional mapping”. Connecting with emotions from an embodied perspective is an evidence-based process. Coaching can help increase awareness of your decision-making process, overcome hidden obstacles and even help improve decisions. (For instance by ensuring that either sensations or emotions that are incongruent with or distracting from a particular decision are included in the decision-making process to ensure that subconscious patterns do not derail the steps you’re choosing to take towards your goal.) Here’s an example study: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1321664111
Q: Do you have a coaching model?
A: My coaching model includes the following eight key factors that most lawyers and other professionals identify as important in the leadership, executive or career coaching process:
increasing vitality or sense of well-being,
increasing agency (or sense of freedom),
improving your sense of meaning or purpose,
improving relationships (with self and others),
increasing the sense of coherence within your work and life to maximize your energy;
including financial factors as part of the process;
addressing “energy drains” and finding more energy by leveraging work/life integration; and
overall, finding ways to make your life and work more congruent with your values and aligning with your sense of purpose as a “purposeful professional”.
Q: What’s the best way for me to choose a coach and make sure I get results? A little willingness to try something new (or try again) goes further than you think!
A: A responsible coach always wants to ensure that their client makes progress and gets results. Always pick the coaching option that resonates with you. The approach I use is holistic, including the physical, mental, emotional and “big picture” level (values, meaning and spirituality), because it is particularly transformative. I find that coaching methods that focus only on cognitive or intellectual change can miss the deeper, subconscious factors that can stand in the way as obstacles to change. (For example, you would expect an athlete or other leader to look not only at their core skills but their mindset, health, routines, etc.)
Professionals aren’t so different from athletes, and athletes would not expect to omit one of these levels of transformation in their performance coaching programs.
It’s important to remember that with coaching, the most important commitment you’re making isn’t to the coach or the program – it’s to yourself and your future happiness. Self-commitment will bring the best results! Often the best results come from being willing to try something new, or try again just ONE more time!
Q: Can I try a coaching session or exercise first?
A: The best way to try an exercise first is to check out the Free Downloads section..
Q: Can I see your bio for coaching?
A: A copy of my bio is below, and there are more details in the About section.
Coaching biography:
Helgi Maki has helped lawyers and other professionals navigate career challenges with professional coaching since 2017. She helps lawyers remove the blocks that limit personal or professional success to generate (or regenerate) success that works for them, from the inside to the outside of their lives.
More specifically, Helgi helps lawyers who want more enjoyable work find (or create) professional work worth doing that’s purposeful and allows them to live fully while using their skills and talents.
Helgi is the lead editor & co-author of a book on lawyer resilience and trauma-informed lawyering published in Spring 2023 by the American Bar Association, Practice Management Division. (Career blocks for lawyers often include conflict, challenge or adversity of some kind.) Her book is available at: https://www.americanbar.org/products/inv/book/430137593/
Before working in coaching and consulting, Helgi was a partner at a large national Canadian law firm. She is a graduate of UofT Law School, has a Master’s Degree in public policy and uses her extensive training in resilience skills and adversity/trauma (including mindfulness and movement) to provide training to legal professionals. Previously, she also worked with a leading international legal technology & data analytics company. She has been featured in numerous Bar Association, law school and other law organization events on resilience, adversity and related topics (such as human rights). Her academic writing has been published in the Canadian Supreme Court Law Review.
Helgi’s career coaching and “map-your-career” approach have been featured by the Ontario Bar Association’s Career Accelerator Program (led by the Innovator in Residence 2023).
Helgi’s coaching clients typically boost their resilience skills, decision-making strategies, mindset and confidence to benefit both work and well-being. Tangible benefits of coaching for clients have included negotiating a raise, finding a new position (or career), changing the type of organization or practice area (or other career pivot), improving lifestyle (such as creative practice or wellbeing), navigating challenging conversations and creating new work relationship networks.
Helgi uses mind-body methods that include mindfulness techniques to help clients navigate both professional career and related personal challenges in a holistic way.
In addition to providing 1 on 1 sessions, Helgi has assisted with training legal leaders (both lawyers and judges) plus training coaches and therapists on the topics discussed in her book.
Helgi is a graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law with an M.A. in Political Economy from Carleton University (Norman Paterson School of International Affairs). She joined the Ontario Bar in 2003 and the New York Bar in 2005.
Q: What’s your “fun fact”?
Fun fact about me is I’ve also been teaching movement for almost 10 years, so I have lots of experience with modifying any strategy or step towards change so it becomes do-able, interesting and fun!
Q: Can I see some testimonials for coaching?
A: Here’s a testimonial, and there are more at the bottom of my Home page.
“Helgi is an amazing coach. I was blown away in our first 15-minute meet and she has been my coach ever since. Her ability to help me get to the root of the issue and share the tools to help me improve have been monumental.
I’m so thankful that she followed her heart, and moved into a coaching career. She is truly a phenomenal coach and meant to be in the field.”
—Jennifer, coaching client