Why the heck would I need a coach?
Look, I get it. A LOT of people don’t understand the “need” for a coach (dedicating the time, making the financial investment, having those uncomfortable conversations that ultimately lead to your growth). Ten years ago, I was working for a company that made the bold investment to hire coaches for all their new leaders. I didn’t fully understand what I’d be getting myself into, but I agreed to work with a coach because-- free coaching (and what could it hurt?). Thankfully I had a gracious and supportive coach who didn’t take my lack of understanding personally and instead, effortlessly showed me the value a good coach can add to your professional and personal life. That experience was the catalyst that started me on my own coaching journey, nudging me to pursue formal coaching training and planting the seed for my coaching business in subsequent years. Funny how life works, isn’t it?
The objective of coaching- the why-is to improve and elevate one’s performance, to help the coachee develop the skills and tools needed to achieve their personal/professional goals. If you really think about it, why wouldn’t everyone utilize a coach? Athletes have coaches to help them build their skills and improve performance. Musicians, singers, and actors have coaches too. Why wouldn’t a doctor, teacher, banker, insert-working-professional-title-here hire a coach to improve, to be better and do better? Come to think of it, why wouldn’t anyone hire a coach? Coaching has taken off so much in the past decade that there are even specialized coaches for various aspects of your life: Parenting coaches, Health & Fitness coaches, Business Branding coaches, etc.
How have you been wanting to improve? In what ways do you want to do better, be better? Is there a disconnect between who you are and who you want to be? Where you are and where you want to go? Wouldn’t it be great to have a little help in staying focused, remaining driven and being held accountable for those goals? Asking yourself these types of questions is the first step of embarking on a coaching journey; a journey that ends in exciting self-discovery, doing better, being better and a huge sense of accomplishment.
And, if this blog post doesn’t convince you to hire a coach, check out this TedTalk.