Could your career use a coach?
Hold a mirror up to your face – is the person looking back at you doing all of the things that they really want to do with their life? Do they want to climb the career ladder, lose weight, learn a language, act confidently? Are they heading in the right direction to achieve all of that? No one cares about what’s going to happen to you and where you’re going to end up more than you do …but there could be someone who cares enough to help you get there.
‘Coaching will work by unlocking your potential, taking you from where you are now to where you want to be, quicker than if you did it alone’, sports coach Tom Landry tells us. ‘A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want hear and see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you can be’.
Current research from the CIPD and the ILM indicates that more than 80% of organisations use coaching with their employees. Why do they do this? Because the impact that it has is worth the investment. The ILM are quick to make the point that coaching is about achieving; that is, achieving high performance rather than addressing poor performance.
We get it, as city professionals you’re already busy enough as it is, but that’s why coaching could be perfect for you – it won’t make you stop and look back. It’s action and solution oriented, and concentrates on forward motion. It’s for those of you who just want to get on with your lives. A coach will encourage ‘out of the box’ thinking and help you out of the rut you might have found yourself in. Plus, given most coaches work by telephone or Skype, having a meeting won’t eat in to your precious replying-to-all-those-emails time. Offering services to those both in the UK and overseas, companies like Plan Ahead Coaching are both flexible and cost effective.
A little cautionary tale though; many coaches are unqualified, and these people may not recognise when coaching is the wrong method of intervention. A fully qualified coach will have some extremely well practised skills, listening and asking questions being two of the most important.
When was the last time someone really listened to you without judging or butting in or trying to tell you how much worse or better things are for them than they are for you? When was the last time you could say out loud all your crazy ideas without someone making a judgement about just how crazy you are?
Above all, a coach is absolutely non-judgemental. They’re not there to share their opinion of your dreams, they’ll just help you unpack them all and work out how you can achieve them for yourself (and more importantly if you really want to achieve them at all!) At this stage you don’t need to worry about how you’ll achieve something, you just need to be clear and positive about what it is you want to achieve.
Coaching is about looking in that mirror and deciding if you like what you see, or if you might like to tweak a few bits here and there. Jamie Brindley shared with us just how much coaching changed his life: ‘I was drifting along in a dead end job, paranoid about my manager and with low self esteem and confidence. The ‘Wheel of Life’ made me prioritise and focus on what was important, and with Penny’s guidance and fantastic coaching I am now pursuing my dream of moving to Spain. My weekly goals have been really useful and I have pride in myself, and more confidence. Now my goal is clear and achievable, my future is what I want it to be, and much of this is down to the coaching, which I have thoroughly enjoyed’.
Coaching is a tool that can only work for people who actually want to make a positive difference for themselves and their careers – and who doesn’t want that?
Penny at Plan Ahead Coaching is fully qualified to offer this service!
