Vacation time is also a time for taking stock of your career, your skill set and your personal goals. More and more, people are deciding that a great way to get themselves on-track to take that next step is by using the services of a coach. Here are a couple of points to keep in mind when thinking about entering a coaching relationship:
1. Coaching isn’t therapy. The focus is on the present and the future, not on problems and what caused them. It is solution oriented.
2. Coaching takes time. Nobody can say exactly how long, but since it seeks to clarify new goals and effect behavioral change, there are no “snap your finger” solutions.
3. Coaching is hard work (for the coach and for the client). I am often mentally exhausted at the end of a coaching session and I am sure the client is even more so.
4. You get out of it what you put in. Between coaching sessions you should be reflecting on the topic at hand, asking the coach for “homework”, making notes to bring to the next session, etc. Challenging the coach to help you go farther gets the most out of the process.
5. Good coaching makes you more independent, not dependent. The effective coach is working him or herself out of the assignment by helping the client reach their goals.
6. Expect your coach to ask lots of questions and not disperse a lot of advice. Sure, coaches share tools that help people reach their own conclusions. But they don’t force-feed solutions to a client.
Whether you are CEO or just starting out in your career, coaching is a powerful tool available to you to find and keep your vision on target and reach your goals.
- Herb