So, you are considering whether or not to engage a professional coach. You may be wondering if coaching can benefit you specifically in your line of work, or with your particular life situation.
Well, if you are wondering that then I can tell you that, yes, coaching would definitely benefit you.
Let me give you an example of a hypothetical coaching partnership to illustrate for you the different ways that coaching can work for you.
Ian is a successful professional, he works at director level in a small business with several co-directors. The business employs a small number of others including Janet, who acts as an executive secretary for the directors.
It is Janet in fact who mentions the possibility of using an executive coach. Janet worked previously for a company where the senior managers had engaged in coaching services and they said that they had found it very useful in providing them with focus, direction and motivation in their work and in their private life.
Ian and his co-directors are running a successful business and are experiencing a period where communication in meetings was becoming increasingly difficult due to what is perceived to be a “clash of personalities.” Ian’s colleagues find him “stubborn” and “resistant”, Ian in turn feels that his colleagues are ganging up on him and are “manipulative.”
I agree to meet with the business to explain how I can help and to agree a way forward. This situation is perfect for executive coaching. Coaching literally means transportation from one place to another, in this case from a place of poor communication to a destination where each party can relate comfortably to each other in order to continue to build a successful business.
The business contracts my executive coaching services and from there on my relationship with Ian commenced. Initially our discussions seek to discover what makes him tick, we discuss his life in detail, ambitions, successes, non-successes, and current challenges.
From our initial discussions we are able to identify several areas of life that Ian wants to progress and develop and we agree actions that Ian will take in order to work towards these objectives.
In the following weeks we review Ian’s progress towards these objectives, we change track a few times until Ian becomes absolutely clear on where he wants to go and we never lose sight of our end goal of improved communication with his colleagues.
Ian expresses it to me as “an adventure” and that is what coaching is really, an adventure. It is an adventure and a voyage of discovery into what you have currently in your life and where you want to go. In my role of coach I provide Ian with the appropriate questions in order to allow him to gain his own insights into his thinking, the programmes that he is running internally. I provide encouragement and support when he needs it to continue learning and to be curious of how he is thinking.
It is Ian that eventually draws his own conclusions and finds his own solutions. It is Ian that now understands more about how he thinks, and how we all think differently. It is Ian that works and lives his life with renewed purpose and renewed vigour.
Oh, and the business is happy because Ian appears much more “approachable” these days…..
Please call us on 0114 2360047 to discuss how we can help you with your coaching needs.
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