When I started my training, I thought I knew what coaching was. I didn't. The biggest learning I've had so far was finding out what coaching wasn't.
Before I started my coaching career, I had spent 20 years advising clients. Using my expertise, knowledge and experience to tell them what to do, creating marketing strategies, advising on staffing structures, advising on business decisions. I was hired as the professional to give advice which would usually be taken. I was also told I was great as giving advice to friends and fellow professionals. So, I concluded, I had all the attributes to be a great coach.
“I never cease to be amazed at the power of the coaching process to draw out the skills or talent that was previously hidden within an individual, and which invariably finds a way to solve a problem previously thought unsolvable.”
– John Russell
Thankfully, I have found I did indeed have many of the attributes needed to be an effective coach, but being good at giving advice wasn't one of them. Coaching isn't about the coach telling you the answers. Coaching is about giving the client the environment in which they can find their own answers. This approach is transformational. This isn't giving someone an answer, then every question they have in the future, they feel the need to return for advice. This is about helping a client shift their own thinking, learning how to find their own answers. Only through this transformational approach, does a client truly benefit for now and the future.
You are not broken. You do not need fixed.
Take a seed. Chuck a seed on a concrete slab and it will die. Nurture a seed, giving it the perfect conditions, finest fertilisers, water and sunlight and the seed will grow and flourish. We find the right conditions so the seed can grow and realise its potential. If the seed on the concrete doesn't grow, the seed isn't broken. It just doesn't have the conditions to thrive. People are not broken. Everyone can grow in the right environment. Coaching helps provide that environment. An environment in which people can thrive.
“A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.”
– Ara Parasheghian
Feel inspired?
Book a free discovery call today to see if coaching could be your way forward.