What is coaching?
Whether you are looking for business coaching, executive coaching, life coaching or a combination, the common goal is to gain a new perspective that allows you to grow and prosper in work and life. You don’t know what you don’t know and an effective coach gives you new insights to overcome barriers, perceived or otherwise, in order to empower you to maximize your potential for personal and business success.
Coaching can assist an individual to make significant improvements in all aspects of their life. Some of the more common areas where coaching is used are:
- Overcoming inner conflicts that hold you back, or keep you “stuck in a rut”
- Fulfilling your potential
- Finding your motivation and drive again
- Clarifying your direction
- Finding meaning and purpose in your current or a new career
- Discovering your passion
- Greater confidence (in your personal and/or professional life)
- Feeling happier
- Self empowerment
- Becoming more influential
- Identifying your talents and abilities
- Career and goal assessments that are realigned with your values
- Personal growth and development
- Overcoming stress and anxiety
- Positive thinking
Like most services, there are reputable coaches and not so reputable ones. The coaching industry is largely unregulated in Australia and the service itself can represent a significant monetary investment especially for a small business. How do you find a coach that will deliver the right return on investment?
Finding the right coach
Ideally, the person you are considering working with will agree to an initial consultation to get to know you before any discussion on costs and duration of programs. Everybody is different so it follows that coaching programs need to be individually tailored to suit you and your goals, both personal and professional. Be wary of pre-packaged coaching programs that are framed around one-size-fits-all. A good coach will only be able to advise you on what they recommend after they have taken the time to interview you and get a very clear understanding of both where you are now and where you want to be.
Always check credentials – have they completed recognized training in coaching? Are they happy to produce a copy if requested? How long have they been working as a coach? And most importantly, on what do they base their experience – have they undergone a coaching program themselves? Have they successfully run a business? Or is their knowledge based on some other experience and what does that look like? Are there synergies between their experience and yours?
What does a coaching program look like?
If they tick every box so far, you are going to want to know what they perceive the barriers are to you getting from where you are to where you want to be and how they intend to help you overcome those barriers. This is the right time to talk about length of program and cost of program. You should feel confident their assessment and recommendations are made only after a thorough interview with you and perhaps some basic testing (both written and online tests are commonly used). You should also feel confident that there are regular reviews scheduled into your program and that these are tied to agreed milestones. Whatever your individual journey looks like, you want to know that you are getting there and each step towards the goal should be clearly understood, agreed to, and measured. It’s also great to agree on how you are going to celebrate achieving your milestones. Undertaking fundamental change in your life is hard work and often you are required to push through your comfort barrier in order to achieve great things. Each milestone is worth celebrating!
The key to coaching success:
Ultimately the most important aspect of undertaking a successful coaching program is your willingness to embrace change. You have to want to try new things, consider different perspectives and challenge yourself to go beyond your perceived limits. It’s often a leap of faith which is why the right coach will work with you to establish a strong foundation of trust. Once you are open to listening and taking on advice, you have the potential to grow beyond the limits of your own knowledge and experience. It’s an exciting journey with life-changing consequences.
What Bravo’s business coach has to say:
“I love helping people. More specifically, I love helping people reach a greater sense of awareness of self. Without awareness, there can be no change. Without change, we repeat the same ingrained habits.
It gives me a great feeling to assist someone just through conversation and genuine connection. Coaching to me is a series of powerful questioning, building around and working towards an individual’s specific goal (or goals). I use all my senses and fundamental listening skills to encourage a flow of conversations that brings space of thought and awareness of an individual’s own potential. I do this whilst holding them accountable for change or adjustments that will over time create a greater sense of clarity and long-term meaningful empowerment.
It’s a dance between a coach and a coachee. One leads and movements/steps (conversations) become easier, the beat resonates and there’s a greater connection between what is being said and what is being felt. I love working towards an ‘AHA” moment. The light bulb that switches: the neural pathway that gets stopped in a clear ‘wow’ moment before it continues on its usual route. It’s the moment you know that your methods of connection and questioning work. It’s the moment your client dances freestyle, no holding hands, feeling completely safe, no judgement, like no one’s watching – and it’s the moment that they too believe in the amazing power of coaching.”
Cristina Rojas is a fully accredited coach with Coaching Australia having completed her degree with Swinburne University. She has over sixteen years experience coaching sales teams, managers and executives to succeed in both their corporate and private lives. Cristina specializes in mindfulness coaching and uses a holistic approach when working with individuals and businesses. She is currently completing training in health and community counselling in line with her passion for assisting less advantaged groups. She also runs her own business.
To make an inquiry or to find out how Bravo can assist you to meet your life goals, send a query or email Cristina directly at cris@bravopeoplesolutions.com.au. You can also book a discovery session online.