The Coaching Market in Portugal, by Robyn Logan (ICA Strategy Director)
I recently moved my family and myself to Portugal, partly for personal reasons (I want my children to be exposed to other cultures and languages) and partly for professional reasons (ICA is gaining a strong presence in Europe and I wanted to explore that market for myself first hand). We have been here a month now and I still pinch myself daily to make sure I am not living a dream. When I think back now to the trepidation I felt about moving so far away (Melbourne Australia is a good 30 hours by plane) and the feeling of overwhelm as I started on the process of renting our house, finding a place to live in Lisbon, finding a crèche for my children etc. etc., I am amazed that we actually made it. But we did, and it was well worth the effort. So before I get into my observations of the coaching market here - let me just invite all our readers to make your dream a realilty today. It really is that old cliché of “feel the fear and do it anyway” The best way to make your dreams come true is by taking action towards them every single day. And of course a good coach will make all the difference in getting you there. So if you haven’t hired a coach yet, get onto it today!
Now, onto the coaching market in Portugal. My first observation is how well developed the market is here. It might be a small country in the scale of things, but it seems to have an energized group of coaches really motivated to grow the profession in their country. Last week I went to a meeting of the IberianAmerican Coaching Association, it is a professional association for coaches in Latin America. They have members from 26 different countries, including Spain and Portugal
The room was packed with coaches, all there to contribute to the development of the profession of coaching. After a speech by the President, on the importance of professional associations there was open question and discussion time. I found this discussion very interesting and very grounding. The topics discussed and issues raised are the same topic and issues I here discussed all over the world. Four big threads in the general group discussion were:
1.) The global nature of coaching
Many of the coaches in the room coach only face to face, with clients from Portugal, even though many of them speak English. There was a lot of discussion about the fact that coaching is a global profession and that many coaches use the telephone with email support. Someone also made the point that Brazil is a big market for Portuguese coaches who embrace telephone coaching.
2.) Telephone and online coaching
Leading on from the past topic there was a lot of interest in telephone coaching. Some coaches were questioning the effectiveness of it, and some were wondering how to get skilled in this area. At International Coach Academy we train our coaches using , in part, teleconferencing technology. Our students role play coaching over the phone and learn many of their coaching skills over the phone. We do this because our school is international, with people from all over the world, and therefore our coaches clients will be international, located all over the world. Teaching our students to coach by phone sets them up perfectly to to operate in a global business environment.
3.) The pros and cons of accreditation (and therefore training)
This debate again! It seems wherever I go people are discussing the issues of accreditation. However I must say I have noticed a shift over the past year or two. Previously the question used to be “Should I get accredited?” Now the question seems to be “How can I get accredited?” There was general consensus that to grow a profession you need to have standards and benchmarks, and to reach those you need to get accredited training. However many coaches started coaching before considering the option of accreditation. They now find themselves in the position of searching around for training. My advice is to get trained with an accredited coach training provider. Of course I think ICA is an excellent choice, particularly for international coaches 
.
4.) The increasing number of many emerging niches.
The number of coaching niches appearing in the marketplace is astounding. It seems for every specialization there is a coaching niche. Coaching for pet owners, coaching into specialist industries, coaching attached to other service delivery (like corporate training, financial planning, personal training etc.) And there is a reason for this - coaching works! It is a fact that if you attach coaching to training for example you will see better and longer lasting results. The same applies to many professional services.
I am still in Portugal for another 6 months, so if any coaches or soon to be coaches are in the area, please feel free to contact me robyn.logan@icoachacademy.com and of course if you are interested in becomming a coach please visit our website http://www.icoachacademy.com