Why do you need to sign up a coach in 2016?– Part 1 of Blog
One of the questions I find myself answering most often is, ‘Does coaching work?’
The question that comes next is ‘Will coaching help me? Will it help me in my career?’
Yes. It most certainly will and here’s how:
1. Coaching can increase self-awareness
2. It can help improve your job satisfaction levels
3. It can enhance growth opportunities
4. It can enable you to have more harmonious relations with people
All good things to look forward in 2016 aren’t they?
According to coaches.com, good coaches:
- Create a safe environment in which people see themselves more clearly
- Identify gaps between where the client is and where the client needs or wants to be
- Ask for more intentional thought, action and behaviour changes than the client would have asked of him or herself
- Guide the building of the structure, accountability, and support necessary to ensure sustained commitment
A lot of organizations are engaging with coaches to help their senior management with the above benefits. Coaching is increasingly being used to fine-tune the talents of people who’ve been identified as rising leaders.
But coaching is a nascent industry in India. So it’s natural for people to have questions. Here’s my answer to all those who are asking ‘How can a coach help me in my career?’ A coach can help you:
1. Go on a journey of self-discovery. A lot of our problems get sorted when we realize the genesis of the problem – which is really the story we have inside our heads about the problem. Sometimes you may be your own worst enemy and not know it. Coaching can help uncover this.
2. Set goals. Once you understand what story is enabling / disabling you, you create the space to form goals in alignment with your values. All progress begins with goals.
3. Development plan. It’s not enough to have a goal. One needs a realistic plan and a means of achieving it and measuring progress. Coaches can help with this.
4. Develop the mind-set of a problem solver. Coaching helps rewrite old thought patterns and help us embrace a ‘Why not’ attitude instead of a ‘Yes, but…’ attitude.
5. Change your story about yourself. On the most fundamental level, coaching helps you replace the disabling stories inside you with enabling stories so that you can set the ground for long term change.
Ultimately, a coach enables you to take accountability for your life.
In my follow-up piece to this blog, I will discuss how the client can make the best, most optimal use of a coach. Stay tuned for that one.
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