Many professionals who manage coaching for their organizations are super savvy about coaching these days. In fact, a sizeable percentage of them are certified coaches themselves.
But for many people, there remains some mystery about what really happens when an individual works with a coach. Each individual’s coaching experience is different, of course, but there are some common threads that all coaching experiences should share.
How Coaches Help
An individual who works with a professional certified coach will:
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- get crystal clear about what matters most to them in their current work;
- evaluate their own goals vis-a-vis the organizational goals and examine the extent to which their actions will produce the desired results;
- develop a vision for their future selves and their ideal career trajectory compared with what they thought they wanted when they were starting out;
- assess their strengths: identify overused ones and make room for underutilized ones;
- appraise their weaknesses and make a plan to shore them up or find other ways to mitigate their impact on effectiveness;
- identify gaps in their awareness of themselves and others, their skill sets, experience, and competencies, and decide which of these gaps need to be addressed;
- develop a plan of action with goals, milestones, and action steps to discuss with their HRBP and boss; and
- stay the course.
What Good Coaching Produces
Good coaching produces great results. Some examples of what individuals take away from coaching include:
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- a new understanding of what feeds their soul and makes their hearts go pitter-patter;
- the skill of deciding how to break down seemingly simple tasks that have until now confounded them; e.g., left to their own devices, most extremely competent individuals will fail to achieve things because they don’t take the time to break them down into clear, manageable steps and put them in order of Do Now, Do Next, Do After That, Do Later, and Do Never;
- more tenacity; e.g., instead of giving up on or forgetting about undone objectives to focus only on the path of least resistance, they learn how to tweak the plan as new information comes in and continue to forge ahead;
- a habit of self-inquiry when they find themselves complaining or blaming others;
- a practice of taking full responsibility for improving all their relationships;
- an increased ability to respond instead of react—to take a breath, take a step back, and see situations from multiple perspectives;
- an ability to identify what drains them and take action to eliminate it, or otherwise manage the effects; and
- a deeper understanding of themselves—how their own needs drive their behavior for better and, more often, worse—and their impact on those around them.
People who engage with a masterful coach walk away with increased clarity, laser focus, super intentional action, and less wasted time and energy. They are better prepared to navigate the ever-increasing speed and complexity coming at them every day.
Less noise, more music. Less grind, more joy.
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Interested in learning more about ways to increase the leadership bench strength in your organization through coaching?
Join us for a free webinar on October 22, when Blanchard senior executive coaches will be sharing all the details in From Insight to Impact: Elevating Leadership Performance Through Executive Coaching.
You’ll get an insider’s look at all the ways that Blanchard leverages 26 years of coaching experience to improve performance in today’s organizations!
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About the Author
Madeleine Homan Blanchard is a Master Certified Coach and cofounder of Blanchard Coaching Services. She is coauthor of Blanchard’s Coaching Essentials training program, and several books including Leverage Your Best, Ditch the Rest, Coaching in Organizations, and Coaching for Leadership.
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