It’s a question I get asked often. ‘Does coaching actually work?’ The pessimists have tons of questions. And they like to have answers for all of them before they sign up. On the other hand, the optimists tend to think about the possibilities. And they take the chance.
Whether you finally hire a coach or not is entirely your decision. But since the question gets asked a lot, let me share some benefits I know people have experienced as a result of enlisting a life coach:
1. Coaching rewires your brain by helping you ask the right questions. You’ll stop asking questions like ‘Will it work?’ and instead ask ‘What if it works?’ You’ll imagine possibilities, not catastrophes.
2. Coaching is first and foremost, a journey of self-discovery. So don’t get fixated on having it all figured out before you start. By doing that you become your own biggest hindrance to the coaching process. Take a chance. Let the journey unfold. Let the questions get asked. You will be pleasantly surprised.
3. Nothing helps us neutralize irrational fears like coaching. Coaching pulls the rug out from under irrational fears and enables us to replace them with more enabling stories, ones that help us be more productive and confident as opposed to ineffective and rattled.
4. A good coach will push you to get crystal clear on what you want from life. Next comes translating those wants into goals and plans. Clarity is one of the biggest benefits of coaching.
5. Coaching trains your mind to always think about what’s next. Dwelling on the past is fine as long as you’re learning from a mistake. Otherwise, your focus has to be on the future. What do you need to DO NEXT to achieve your goal? Like meditation and yoga, coaching forces your mind into a zone of POSITIVE ACTION and unleashes your most practical and powerful life force.
6. Coaching doesn’t help you ‘strengthen your strengths and improve your weaknesses.’ That’s hollow corporate speak. If anything, coaching helps you hone your strengths correctly and be mindful of your weaknesses. No one can turn into superman and that’s not the objective of coaching.
7. Last but not the least, coaching helps you develop the mind of a problem solver. You will create new, positive neural pathways in your brain that sniff out opportunities, reserve judgment, find confidence and replace ‘I want this but’ with ‘I want this and so…’
In short, coaching can change the way you think and that in turn can change your whole life.
If you would like to get coached, you can get your company’s Learning & Development organization to pay for it. If your case is strong, they most certainly will and in case they don’t, you can and should consider investing in it. An incredible amount of clarity and confidence can get generated after seeing a coach. There is a psychic value to this that cannot be put into figures. I always tell my prospects not to treat coaching as an expense but as an investment.
So if you’re sitting on the fence, all I have to say is, ‘The very fact that you’re considering a coach means there’s something to it. Now don’t think of all that can go wrong. Instead think of all that can go right. And take a chance. There’s nothing to lose and a lot of clarity to be gained.’
The correct going-in attitude can create very different outcomes from your coaching experience.
About the Author:
Sandhya Reddy is a leadership & transformation coach based in Bangalore, India. She is the Founder and Principal Coach at Chapter Two Coaching, a coaching consultancy that enables everyone from CEOs to work-from-home parents to achieve their goals by replacing self-imposed limitations with enabling stories.
Many of us in our thirties experience a disquieting realization: what brought us to middle-management may not take us to senior-management. This is true. To chart a new career path, one needs to think and do things differently. This is where Sandhya can help. She is a coach. Life coaching, executive coaching, business coaching, personality development, leadership coaching… they are all part of her forte. Her Executive coaching programs helps tomorrow’s leaders set new goals, make new plans to achieve those goals, get that elusive promotion through a blend of knowledge, action and image-building, enhance influence among the leadership team, be more productive, get more out of one’s team, and be known in the company as an indispensable performer and future leader.
Follow Sandhya Reddy on Twitter @sandhyareddy