Certainly, there are a lot of tools and strategies that you can use to take your career to the next level, and coaching is definitely one of them.
We see lots of coaching in the sports arena where athletes have a coach to keep their heads in the game, and help them develop awareness of the bigger picture, in the context of each win or loss. They listen, assess the athlete’s situation, push their potential, and keep them on track to achieve their performance goals.
In the same way, leadership and career coaching helps you develop awareness of your strengths and opportunities. Leadership and Career coaches help you identify and achieve your goals by tapping into and unlocking the potential you already have inside, helping you move beyond where you thought you could go.
Sir John Whitmire, a pioneer of coaching in the workplace, defined coaching as “unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn and find their own answers rather than telling them”.
Coaching shouldn’t be confused with mentoring. A coach helps you to discover new ways of learning; the mentor will guide you by showing you exactly how to do something. Mentors are more teachers or experts who are in your field and where you want to be. They tell you the solutions rather than a coach who facilitates your learning through asking questions and providing frameworks to help you uncover your own solutions.
Coaching most definitely does work. Take it from the most famous people on earth like Oprah Winfrey, Eric Schmidt and even Bill Gates who all recommend coaching.
“Everyone needs a coach. We all need people that give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”
Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft
“The one thing that people are never good at is seeing themselves as others see them. A coach really, really helps.”
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
“[Coaching helps you] stop the crazy mind chatter in your head that tells you all the time that you’re not good enough.”
Oprah Winfrey, TV personality and actor
“A coach just has a different perspective. Still to this day, the best have coaches because the coach can see what you can’t see because you’re in the forest, they’re outside of it.”
Tony Robins, Author, Philanthropist and Life coach
So what are the top 5 reasons to invest in a coach
They help to unpack your thinking
Through questioning and actively listening and reflecting back, a coach facilitates your learning by helping you unpack your thoughts, to support you to the best you can be. They meet you where you are at and help you define where you want to be and what you will do to get there. Coaching focuses on thinking, as your thoughts drive your feelings, emotions and beliefs which ultimately drive your behaviours and actions.
They keep you accountable
In a coaching session, the coach helps the you commit to actions that will take you towards your desired outcome. They help the you to tap into the energy you have around the learning and insights and turn these into realistic actions. Being accountable to someone else other than ourselves and saying your commitments out loud, the more likely you are to take action. After all we don’t like to let others down.
They help you see new perspectives and stretch you
Coaching provides the space for you to make connections and to see things in a new way. The coach they helps you prioritise thoughts and goals and help you gain clarity of what is important to focus on. The coach also know when to challenge and stretch you! They will open you up to new ideas and possibilities that you may not have thought of and create just the right amount of positive stress for you to reach peak performance ( yes a little bit of stress can be positive, there is a tipping point). A coach is an objective third party (don’t make assumptions or come with any specific agenda) which can often happen with you seek out peers, managers or friends and family for help and support.
They acknowledge your progress and provide positive feedback
Coaches are often called ‘cheerleaders’ they make observations and see the big picture of how you are progressing and focus on reinforcing and acknowledging you for the progress and learning you achieve along the way. This is so important as we are often our own worst critic and tend to focus on what we haven’t done yet or what we are not good at, this is especially so when we are learning something new. A coaches will be your source of encouragement to keep going, growing your confidence and performance.
They provide structure
Finally, having coach helps you get organised with your goals and sets you up for success. By following a structure framework with clear and specific career or leadership goals, they help you to cut through the noise, chunk down your big goals and into achievable strategies and actions so that you can focus on the next stpe rather than trying to do it on your own and getting overwhelmed.
In summary, coaching provides a safe and supportive space in your busy lives to focus on your goals, explore new options and learn more about ourselves. It is a unique opportunity to challenge, reflect and be accountable to yourself.
If you are truly determined to take the next step in your career, you want to focus on a specific area of your development, or make shifts in your leadership style, or you want to get more clarity and balance around your career goals and wellbeing, then getting a coach is one of the first steps – and best investments – that you will ever make for your career.
Don’t try and climb the mountain on your own, get a coach to walk beside you, helping you each step of the way, to dig deep inside yourself, leverage your strengths and the resources around you, to be the best version of yourself and conquer that goal.
Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash