Why use Coaching?

Why use Coaching?

Clients often come to coaching as they feel stuck in a rut with some aspect of their life or work, and recognise that they need a new perspective, a motivation and a supportive partner to gain traction and move forward.

Coaching is particularly useful when an individual has a general sense of the place they want to reach, but is unclear as to how to get there, and not even sure what they will find when they do! The topic for coaching can be very varied and is sometimes only a useful starting point. It is not necessary to come to a coach with crystal-clear set of objectives or goals; in fact, sometimes figuring out what your goals are is, in itself, the purpose and objective for coaching.

Coaching is often used in the workplace to help an employee with career transition, such as taking on a promotion, or returning to the workplace after a period of leave. It is sometimes requested by managers to help an employee with a specific area for development, and coaching is similarly used by private clients who are looking to make changes in their personal life.

To give a few different examples, I have experienced coaching in a business context whereby the client was working on:

finding an authentic style of leadership after a significant promotion;
encouraging their team to be more willing to debate and challenge each other and;
developing more self-confidence and conviction when meeting with senior stakeholders.

Outside of the workplace, clients have wanted to work on:

finding the right combination of "relaxing", volunteering, and paid work once retired;
whether to start a small business around their passion for dog training, or whether to get a "sensible job" and:
how to find the right work-life balance after falling pregnant during a time of significant career opportunity.

I have personally also been in coaching and have worked with various coaches on a number of topics. Some of my early, most powerful coaching sessions were probably in working out what, if anything, had changed about my career ambitions having had children. Read More...