I’ve been actively coaching others since completing my own coaching certification in 2014. I work with first-time managers, executives, founders, CEOs, and women leaders. As a coach myself, I’ve witnessed firsthand the myriad ways that coaching benefits leaders. I’m familiar with common coaching needs such as wanting an accountability partner, increased confidence, or more time for deep thinking and strategic planning.
A big part of coach training is not only coaching but being the coachee – that is, working with a coach yourself. It’s amazing what you can learn by being on the other side of the table. As a business owner, I’ve worked with a variety of coaches at different times including leadership coaches and even a sales & business coach. I hadn’t had a coach in a while, but recently I felt the need so I started working with someone new.
Prioritization helped me focus
Knowing my goals is not an issue – I’m great at goal setting! That is to say, I have a list of five to ten things that are important to me and that I’d love to accomplish. The first thing my coach did was get me to focus. It’s well and good to have a mile-long list of goals, but like any good coach, she asked me what on my list was most important. What did I need to do differently ASAP to keep things from breaking? What was getting in my way? How would I measure our success over the next 3-6 months? In a word, she forced me to prioritize.
I became more accountable to myself
I’m a very accountable person, so I never thought I needed an “accountability partner” which is a role coaches often play. I’m good at following through, doing what I say, and meeting deadlines. But in this round of coaching, I had an ah-ha moment. The accountability I needed was not to the coach, but to myself. I wanted to change my long-standing habit of overscheduling. It’s something that comes up for me periodically. I get it under control and then over time I stop actively managing it and find myself back to square one. Maybe you have habits like that – the ones you have known about for decades and find hardest to change.
Overscheduling had become a really big pain point for me. I love my work, but looking at my calendar first thing in the morning was making me cringe. Seeing all those back-to-back meetings with few breaks and no time to get other work done gave me a pit in my stomach. I could not look forward to the day ahead. If that isn’t a reason to change, I don’t know what is.
I realized one commitment could result in big changes
It was my commitment to change that brought so much value to that conversation. My coach probed, brainstormed, and asked questions. I agreed only to solutions I was willing to try, that I thought would really move the needle. When a friend or colleague is giving advice, you might nod along with their suggestions even when you know they won’t work. But nodding along with your coach is a big mistake. The goal instead is to keep pushing yourself and rejecting ideas that don’t feel right, until you land on the one that does. I had a breakthrough when I realized I needed to take fewer networking meetings to get my schedule under control. I knew I was committed by the way I felt leaving that meeting.
It’s entirely possible that what you get out of coaching will be significantly different than what I did. The beauty of coaching is that it’s a one on one relationship where the learning, approach, and style are customized to you. No matter what your goals are or what makes them stick, I can tell you that all coaching relationships benefit from prioritization, accountability, and commitment. I’ve also noticed that coaching is incredibly useful in changing long-standing habits – the ones you know about and have tried to change, often over years or decades, with little or no progress. At least, that’s what it’s done for me.
Interested in coaching for yourself? We’re proud of the depth of expertise and experience on our coaching team. Reach out here, we’d love to chat.
