What do you think Oprah Winfrey, Hugh Jackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Eric Schmidt, and Bill Gates all have in common? Famous? Yes. Rich? Yes. Successful? Yes. However, aside from being rich, famous and successful, they all have one other thing in common. They all have, and advocate for, life and business coaching. And perhaps, that’s why they are rich, famous and successful. They have invested time and effort working with a coach and understanding how to self-reflect, set goals and work with a coach to reach their goals.
What is coaching? Coaching is a series of confidential meetings focused on achieving the goals of the one being coached. A coaching culture is one where organizations value the principles of coaching – bringing in a coach to work with the organization. This encourages candid and respectful conversations between the coach and the client – executives, teams and individuals. The coaching culture fosters open and trusting conversations, self-reflection, and promotes collaboration in problem solving and performance improvement. It encourages continuous learning about one another, facilitates effective cultural and organizational changes, and engages and empowers people and employees at all levels.
Coaching is most powerful when the following five factors – The Five A’s – are present during the coaching process:
Awareness: Becoming aware of the key behaviors that either help or hinder progress and growth. We can’t change what we’re not aware of, so cultivating awareness of how we show up and what we can do differently is crucial.
Alignment: Coaching works best when there is alignment with what a person or organization wants to work on and what is significant to them. It is also important to have buy-in and involvement between a coach and the coachee, so there is a common understanding of the focus of the coaching as well as support for the process.
Action: Creating clear goals and a written action plan will help provide a road map for achieving the vision for the future. The plan also provides a baseline for the current state, pre-coaching, and demonstrates progress toward the desired state, post-coaching.
Accountability: Coaching creates the conditions for people to take responsibility for their growth and provides built-in accountability because the coach will check in on the progress made toward agreed-upon action items from the last coaching session.
Acceleration: Developing clarity around goals, support in overcoming obstacles, alignment on the focus of the coaching, a written action plan, and a committed coach that holds the employee accountable, the pace in which results are achieved is often significantly accelerated. Oftentimes, challenges that one has faced for many months, or even years, that they have been unable to address on their own, become resolved much more quickly and successfully, and with better results, when a coach is involved. This is the power of coaching in action.
An ICF credentialed, experienced Coach knows how to set the tone, ask the right questions and help you reach your goals – as an individual, as an organization that values a culture of coaching. Individuals become more engaged, the workforce becomes more collaborative and, that in turn makes an organization better!
To learn more about how adding a coach to your team will help you stay focused on your mission reach out to one of the Consult-Train-Coach professional coaches here.
We also offer online coaching certifications in a partnership with the Coach Certification Training Academy. To enroll as an individual or an organization, go here learn more.
