Taking the plunge: is coaching for me?
What is coaching?
Coaching is a conversation with a purpose: to move you forward in an area that is important to you. You could think about this as moving away from a problem, or issue, or towards an ambition or future state.
Is it right for me?
Do you recognise yourself in any of these statements?
Are you stuck on a problem or an issue, or have a general sense of something being ‘in the way’?
Do you have a goal or ambition that you’re not reaching, or perhaps are afraid to articulate?
Do you have a general sense of being capable of more than you’re achieving right now?
Do
you have a clear goal, but there always seems to be something in the way of taking the first step?
Are things going really well, but you’re sure it’s just luck and the wheels will come off any moment?
If you answered ‘yes’, then coaching could certainly be suitable for you. As a rule of thumb, for coaching to be effective, look out for:
a desire to make a change of some sort, even if it’s not initially clear what this change is
belief in your own ability to affect the change you are looking for, even if this belief wobbles sometimes
commitment to doing something about it, if you could only be clear what
some sort of need to address this now, and you’re fed up of it lurking in the back of your mind
What is it like?
Coaching is different from mentoring or consulting. You’re the expert on you, and your situation, so the coach won’t be offering their opinion, or giving advice. The goal of each session is driven by you, and the coach’s role is to be a companion and guide in your thinking journey. What is getting in the way? What makes this really important to you? How will you know that something has changed? What are you believing about yourself that makes this difficult?
Whilst you’ll spend time talking about the situation or problem you’re facing, the focus of the conversation is about ‘the who’ (ie the person experiencing this), rather than ’the what’ (the situation itself). We’ll also focus more on where you want to get to, than on what has happened in the past.
As the coachee, you’ll be the one doing most of the talking and the thinking. The coach will bring the deep listening, specific questions, observations, challenge and most importantly, the time and the space to do this work. It can be fun, thought-provoking, uncomfortable, liberating and challenging. But always kind and supportive. Together you’ll uncover insights and bring self-awareness which will lead you to meaningful and lasting change.
If that sounds like something you could do with, then coaching is probably right for you. Next step is to find yourself the right coach, so here’s a blog post that can help you with that.
Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash