Do you feel stuck in your career, relationships, spirituality, emotional development or your life in general? Do you feel like you’ve tried every kind of help that there is out there from mainstream to way, way out there? Have you thought of working with a coach?
You may have heard of coaching in the sporting or the corporate and leadership arenas, but coaching as an approach can be applied to many different sectors, arenas and even specific areas of our personal life. So if you feel like you’re not quite achieving your potential or you just want to accomplish a specific goal, a coach could probably help you. There are numerous reports about the benefits of coaching within different settings, but mostly it boils down to this; coaching will provide you with:
- Clarity about who you are, what you want and how to go about achieving it
- Skills and resources to better manage yourself within your own context
- Improved self-directed performance and accountability
Coaching is about empowering people to be the best version of themselves or to live up to their full potential. More specifically, coaching is a process in which a coach supports their client to achieve their goals or to make thought and behavioural shifts to grow and develop certain areas of their life. Professional coaching is usually performed by qualified people who empower clients to improve their capacity and performance, and help them achieve their full potential. Depending on your coaches’ qualifications and approach, this will typically involve regular sessions or meetings in which you would address some or all of the following questions:
- What would you like to achieve?
- What is between where you are now and where you would like to be?
- What do you need to do to get there and how can you do that?
- What, if anything, have you tried before to achieve these outcomes?
- How do you stick with it and sustain the growth and development you have achieved?
Accountability is a big part of success and the coaching process. Your coach will support you to be accountable for the commitments that you make to yourself, the coaching process and achieving your goals.
Depending on your coaches’ approach and your specific context, the length of your coaching process may vary. Many coaches will negotiate the duration of the process with you at the outset and provide for regular review so that you can assess your progress and decide whether you need to continue.
The duration and frequency of the actual sessions will also vary according your coaches approach and your particular circumstances, but you should probably schedule 45 minutes to an hour in your diary. Again, this will probably be discussed at your first session.
The process of coaching is an investment in your growth and development within your career, your wellbeing and your life in general. It is typically a working process and can be somewhat uncomfortable at times, but the rewards are worth it.