What Is Coaching?
Coaching is a powerful tool for personal and professional growth, helping individuals achieve their goals, fulfil their potential, and improve their overall well-being. Whether you’re looking to manage stress more effectively, build resilience, or explore other areas of personal development, coaching provides the structure and support you need to succeed.
In this section, we will explore:
A summary of coaching
My approach to coaching
The flexibility of coaching
Looking for a deeper dive in to what coaching is? Check out my article on the details of how coaching works and what the benefit is, including practical examples and a case study:
Read more: What Is Coaching?
A summary of coaching
Coaching can be called the bridge between where you are and where you want to be. It can be called the streetlights that illuminate your journey. In the very simplest terms, coaching is a tool that helps you identify what you want to change, and helps you make that change.
I like to see myself as my clients’ very own GPS for their lives, helping them get to where they want to go. I’m not here to drive the car for you, and I’m not even here to decide the destination. But what I can do is help you make sure you get to where you’re going in the fastest, most efficient, and most empowering way possible.
Coaching is also primarily forward-facing. This means that, while it’s important to understand your circumstances, the focus of coaching isn’t to ruminate on the past. Coaching looks at where you want to go and puts together a plan to help you get there. It helps you to identify what strengths you have that will help you unlock your potential, and what barriers might be in the way of your success, and how you can overcome them.
This marks coaching out as separate from, say, counselling, mentoring or therapy. Each of these talking services can provide immense value, but they have to be utilised in the correct context. If you’d like to know more about the differences between coaching, counselling, mentoring and therapy, I have written an article on that topic.
Read more: Coaching vs. Counselling vs. Therapy vs. Mentoring.
If you’re looking to understand coaching in more depth, I have an article that explains the coaching process with real-life examples that goes in to more detail. You can find it here:
Read More: What Is Coaching?
If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, check out my Services page to see my fees, or Contact Me to book your free, no-obligation 30-minute Discovery Call today!
My approach to coaching
I am what is called a “client-led” coach. In practice this means I spend time truly understanding a client’s circumstances, and understanding the importance of where they want to go. My experience has told me that by investing the time to make sure we understand what problems we are hoping to overcome, we are more likely to provide solutions that can stand up to scrutiny.
This, to me, is the most critical issue for us to overcome. Having the intent to change is great, but without follow through it can be at best misguided, and at worst demotivating. Any plans you put in place need to be exciting and motivating, but also realistic. There is no point in coming up with exciting plans that fall away as soon as life takes over. We have to build a plan that takes in to account your circumstances, your strengths, and your barriers. They are all relevant, and none of them are insurmountable.
It’s also important to ensure any plans we create will stand the test of time. Success for me is when my clients no longer need me. I’ll love helping you on your journey, but the most pride I will get is when you feel able to confront your challenges without me, safe in the knowledge that I am always here, always behind you, always ready to pick up again if things get tough.
If this approach sounds like it’d align with your needs, check out my Services page to see my fees and how to book an initial session. Read more: Services.
The flexibility of coaching
The great thing about coaching is how flexible it is. It can just as easily help you find a new job after a redundancy as it can help you to make new friends. The principles stay the same throughout; it’s about where you want to go, and how you will get there.
As a client-led coach, one thing I notice is how often people’s direction changes. Many come to me with a specific goal in mind, such as gaining a promotion at work. But once we start to dig in to it further, some start to realise that obtaining a promotion isn’t actually what they are looking for after all. Maybe it is to feel less stressed. Maybe it is to feel like they aren’t stagnating. It can be anything, but once we hold their original plan up to scrutiny it falls apart, and a new, more important goal comes to light. And that’s a good thing! Following through on a plan that doesn’t speak to you any more is not a good use of your time or energy.
I also have plenty of clients who come to me without knowing where they want to go. They can tell that life isn’t where they want to be, but how can you tell what will ultimately solve that? That’s where being a client-led coach can become so powerful, because we can spend the time really exploring your circumstances, your preferences, your habits, your dreams, your barriers. We can put them altogether using an extensive range of tools to identify what it is that feels like it needs the most attention, and then work together to get there.
So if you think you need help but don’t know where to start, that’s no problem. I’ve helped clients with finding a new job, getting a promotion, feeling less stressed, finding fulfilment in a more balanced life, improving their self-esteem, becoming more organised, starting a Master’s Degree, learning to drive, learning a new language, moving abroad, and many, many other topics. As I’ve said throughout this site, coaching is about you. If you want to take back control of your life, we can do that, whatever it is.
If you think you’re ready to give coaching a try, you can check out my Services page for my prices, or you can get in touch using this Contact Form to discuss anything that might be on your mind.
