What I love about Coaching

This year the International Coach Federation (ICF) celebrated ‘International Coaching Week’ last week, 4th-10th May 2020. Generally, activities are run globally offering training, networking, and insight into other niche areas of coaching and business development. However this year, COVID-19 had other plans. We were offered some virtual programs and I enjoyed a Mental Health Awareness webinar. It was interesting to learn a little more about mental first aid, models available to use in the workplace and where coaching fits in.

International Coach Day was on Wednesday 6th May, professional coaches were encouraged to pledge a coaching session. I cannot wait to see the statistics of how many coaching engagements took place globally on that day, all I can say is, that is a whole lot of brain activity and aha-moments in one day! I had the pleasure of coaching a young executive who was passionate about being an effective leader. She had never experienced coaching before, so we spent the beginning of the session defining what it is and sharing expectations for the hour.

But let us take a step back for a minute. Once I had pledged my 60-minute session on the ICF website, I promptly made a social media post, updated my booking system with a free code for that timeslot and pushed it out across three social media platforms. It went quiet. I even heard the same feedback from a coach colleague within my network. It got me thinking and questioning… WHY?

Why hasn’t this FREE coaching session been snapped up in the first 24 hours of the post going live?

Is it that people do not know what coaching is?

Are people letting their ego win and they think they do not need coaching?

Maybe people thought there must be a catch, nothing is free these days!

Or was it the ever-changing social media platform algorithms?

So many questions, with no real answers.

The session was eventually secured and then cancelled for legitimate reasons. I then reached out to someone in my network that I thought would be curious about coaching and what I do. Thankfully, the time was suitable, so the gift of coaching was presented. One of my favourite parts of a coaching session is towards the end when I ask the coachee to reflect on our time together and tell me their biggest insight or takeaway from the session. Ok, another is the part where they commit to any actions and a time they will provide an update. (I am an action-orientated coach. I do love when people have their insight, the dopamine, the energy, clarity, and confidence to move forward).

It always feels good when my coachee is happy at the end of a session and thanks me. I often share that they did all the work, the thinking, the actions from any previous sessions and now are ready to take further steps to their vision. I am invested, do cheeky check-ins here and there and provide whatever support they need, but they do all the work. I provide a safe space for them to think, I see them for who they are and who they want to be and the power that it brings is what makes coaching so special.

I believe in coaching, the difference it makes to peoples lives and how good it feels to have someone truly listen. Coaches over the years have helped me grow my business, obtain a lifestyle flow of exercise, control my lurking imposter syndrome, and helped me commence writing my book (again). Amazing progress can be made by simply listening, hearing what it said and sometimes what is not said, asking powerful questions, digging a little deeper, stretching, thinking outside the box, staying focused on the vision, on track and accountable, and most of all, celebrating success to further embed new habits.

What do you love about coaching?