What is Coaching?| Why you need a Coach
Table of Contents:-
Where are you 10 years from now?
Imagine it’s the year 2032, 10 years from now.
Who are you?
Where are you?
Are you happy?
Who’s around you?
Where do you live, with whom?
How do you look?
Do you have a career/business you enjoy?
Do you have the health you want?
Do you have the person you want with you?
Are you living your dream life in 2032?
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago,
The next best time is now.
~Chinese Proverb
If you want to be anywhere close to this dream life 10 years later, now is the time to plant the seeds of this dream life.
And once you have your destination clear in your mind, all you need to do now is create a roadmap to lead you from now to 10 years later.
AND, to help you build this roadmap, taking the optimal route, using the best of what you have and improving on what you can, comes in the role of a coach.
What is Coaching?
According to the International Coaching Federation, “Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.“
So there you go!
Unlike popular belief that a coach will train and mentor you- a good coach actually asks you a lot of questions to help you discover your values, your why, your story, your achievements and then help you create a streamlined process to bring out the best in you.
Coaches nowadays work in person or virtually providing one on one sessions or group sessions.
Why is Coaching becoming popular?
According to Havard Business Review, the modern coach in the corporate world started as Twenty-first century managers have come face to face with the reality that they can’t always provide all of their employees with answers. In order to cope with the quick changes, companies are moving away from traditional command and control practices in favor of something very different: models where managers give guidance rather than instructions while empowering workers who learn how to adapt themselves to constantly changing environments unleashing fresh insights which ultimately leads them towards success.
This perhaps has been adopted in all spheres of life-rather than being told what to do, having an external trained professional to help you realise and play to your strengths and qualities to achieve the success you are after.
Who is Coaching for ?
Coaching is really for anyone- men, women, young adults who may be going through these situations in life-
Coaching is ideally for
Individuals looking at optimizing their performance.
Working Mums
Individuals going through Change
1. Individuals looking at optimizing their performance.
Coaching is for anyone who wants to optimize what they’re already good at – example: you could be a highly driven, successful business woman and your requirement is that you have to always exist at this high-performing state. Coaching with the right coach can help check whether or not there are any practices in place so as prevent stress levels from lowering confidence when things get tough.
2. Working Mums
The balance between work and home life can be tricky. That’s why coaching is so helpful for working mums who want to have the best of both worlds! Coaching helps women set priorities during different seasons so they stay productive t work while also making sure that all aspects of their lives, especially the precious time with their children are taken care of.
3. Individuals going through Change
Coaching can be used by anyone who is going through changes in life-like changing jobs, starting a business, starting a healthy lifestyle, or getting divorced from their spouse and need help in making positive growth decisions that will lead them towards achieving more personal goals than they ever thought possible before.
So, unlike popular belief, coaching is not just for individuals who want to address certain problems, though there may be underlying problems that you may discover that are hampering you from getting to your goals.
Who is Coaching not for?
When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
~The Buddha
The thing is- not everyone needs a coach. When you get someone to coach you, it’s a time to learn- learn about your strengths, abilities, talent, skills, but it is also a time to discover your weaknesses, limitations, mindset, ignorance and so on. Unless you are willing to let go off your ego and become open to sharing your true self with the coach, coaching might not be right for you.
What is the difference between Coaching and Therapy ?
Therapy
Therapy helps individuals learn how to better manage their emotions by focusing on resolving difficulties arising from the past that hamper emotional functioning in present. It also improves overall psychological health and deals with current situations more positively through a variety of techniques like journaling or meditation
It is important for people who have experienced traumatic events such as abuse, abandonment etc., because these can lead into depression which affects our ability at work place productivity.
Coaching
Coaching is a process that supports personal and professional growth based on self-initiated change. The coach fosters accountability, follow through with actionable outcomes to help you reach your goals in pursuit of specific intentions.
Types of Coaching Covered here-
Leadership coaching is a process that helps leaders identify and build their strengths so they can be more effective in the roles of CEO, manager or entrepreneur. This type of training also includes strategies for improving communication skills as well as building relationships with co-workers which are all essential for success as an leader in the corporate or as a small business owner.
Confidence Coaching is an exciting new addition to the world of coaching. It can help people in improving their life skills, such as public speaking or selling products on an individual level, and so help improve self-esteem and build a healthier, more confident you!
It’s all about boosting your inner confidence!
Wellness coaching helps people align their mind and body with the life they want to lead- with practices that help YOU better manage YOUR health & wellbeing so that it lasts into perpetuity.
Life coaching is a type of personal and professional growth that focuses on the client’s journey to self-discovery. Life coaches help their clients achieve these goals through various means, such as assisting with goal setting or offering generalized guidance in life domains like relationships, careers/workplace or business.
Common types of Life Coach:-
Holistic Life Coach
A holistic life coach is someone who helps you in every area of your life as they are dedicated to helping you develop your mind, body, and spirit. A holistic life coach focuses on these three areas that are related to the whole so that you can live more intentionally and more mindfully to truly heal, be complete, and move forward.
NLP Life Coach
NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming and an NLP Life Coach has an additional NLP certification over their Life Coaching experience. NLP is a technique that involves understanding your mind, the way you communicate with yourself and learning how to reprogram the mind to break down your subconscious barriers that’s holding you from reaching your goals.
It’s a form of consulting that helps entrepreneurs and small-business owners with their daily operations and growing their business. You will be able to get honest feedback on what needs improvement- be it the business systems or the mindset of the business owner, which can lead you in the right direction towards achieving your goals.
Career Coaching
Career coaching is the process of helping someone find their inner strength, build self-respect and confidence in themselves. It involves guiding individuals towards reaching personal goals that they may not have previously thought possible through providing practical advice on how to achieve success at work without sacrificing your values or integrity as well as building resilience so you can handle difficult situations better when they arise.
Relationship Coaching
Relationship coaching is a way to find the best solution for you and your partner.
It helps with understanding different personalities, communication styles as well as dealing skills that will lead into healthy relationships in both personal or professional environments.
What are the benefits of using a coach?
1. A Coach will help you get to your Goals faster
Have you realised how easy something appears when someone shows you how to do it.
Whereas if you had to figure it out yourself, you’d probably have spent a lot of energy in figuring out how to use it that when it’s finally time to use it, you actually have no more fuel left in you.
It’s the same with Goals!
Yes, you can shed off 10kgs, land that corporate role, scale your business…live your dream life, but doing it alone is going to take up a lot of your energy in figuring it out- googling, filtering the results, testing many of them to find out which one actually works, its exhausting.
Now, bring in the coach- A good Coach in the niche you are planning to improve upon will have done the “setup” several times. If we’re talking about the 10kgs, the coach would have spent time understanding your lifestyle and know what diet in combination with what exercises would help you lose that 10kgs quickly.
All you have to do now is execute the plan. You get to your Goal faster with a lot of energy still left in you to perhaps do another 10 kgs.
2. A Coach will hold you accountable
Having Goals and Strategies is great, but if you don’t go and implement them, well it’s pretty much useless.
The best part about having a coach is that they hold you accountable! You have no option but to do your homework and show it during your meetings.
Yes, a friend can hold you accountable, but when the energy of money is exchanged, it has this magic. You’re more likely to be accountable to a person you have paid to for their time than your friend whom you could buy a coffee and get yourself off the hook.
3. A Coach will teach/ point you to new skills.
A Coach can help you identify what you have to learn or unlearn and teach them to you/ point you to the right direction- be it a soft skill or a hard core skill. Because a coach would have dealt with many individuals, it’s more likely that they have already witnessed the issue you are having and would most likely have a solution to it.
4. A Coach will Identify the underlying issue
Many times we think we need help with something, but the truth is that we there is something else that’s holding us back.
Example would be someone looking for a business coach to help with their sale strategy. On discussions with the coach, they might find out that the strategies look brilliant; it was rather the fear dominated limited money mindset in that person that was stopping them from making the sale and earning that money.
A good coach will be able to trace the underlying issue and help/refer you to some other coach who can address that issue that’s keeping you from success. Read some interesting unexpected stories of Business Coaching Success here.
5. A Coach will provide Support and Motivation
Doing anything challenging is, well, challenging. Again, be it losing the 10 kgs, finding the love of your life or starting a business- all of these activities require you to get out of your comfort zone and many days it’s going to be extremely difficult. Many days it may be easy.
But during those difficult times when we simply want to give up, a coach can be your biggest support and motivation. A good coach will support you and not let you slump, cause we know that once we go into a slump, it’s even easier to dwindle down and get further and further away from our goals.
Find a Coach Online or Locally?
Online Coaching-
With so many coaches across the globe and the pandemic making doing everything online the norm, coaching online works brilliantly under these situations-
1. You’ve found a coach via social media who you truly connect with.
2. You have found someone whose time zone aligns with yours for the non- recorded session.
Local Coaching
However, there are reasons why the local coach in your area might be the best fit for you.
1. Easier to Connect to a Local Coach.
Your local Coach will speak your language- Yes, you get each other’s humour, you share common history like you both having friends who went to the same school, and so the complete experience is a lot more comfortable which makes it easier to open up.
2. Same working hours
When you’re both working at the same time zone, it’s easier to attend their live sessions as well as set up appointments for 1:1 sessions.
3. Physically catch up.
Although most coaches, even locally offer sessions online, it’s great to meet them physically at networking events or even go out for coffee. And let’s admit, with seasons of lockdowns and isolations, coffee and meetup sounds like a great idea.
How to Choose the Right Coach for your needs
So now you are ready to work with a coach, but how do you know which coach to choose to work with?
Some Coaches have a great social media presence, a great vibe and a big following. It may seem obvious that this person might be the right coach for you. However, your needs and situation is unique and so who you might need is a completely different coach, who perhaps has a smaller following but has more experience with the goals you are trying to achieve.
Most coaches will offer a 30-60 minute discovery session, so it’s really important that you take the time to interview your shortlisted coaches, and take this opportunity to ask them a lot of questions on what it’s going to look like working with them before you invest in them.
If you are not sure of what questions to ask, just look at these 15 questions to ask a Coach before investing in one.
Once you are in a space when you have to think and act much bigger- like taking up a new role at a job, transitioning into parenthood, starting a business, deciding to be a leaser in the community- it can be daunting. If we simply listened to the voice inside our head, many times it would tell us that we couldn’t do it.
This is when it becomes so essential to have someone else that you can commit to and transform yourself into the best version of yourself.
At GetCoached, we want you to win- in all those goals you’re trying to achieve and we believe that getting the right help is crucial to your success. GetCoached lists NZ Life Coaches, Business Coaches and Wellness Coaches in one place so that you save time in finding the right coach for you.
How to use GetCoached to find your Ideal Coach
Browse the Coaches listed
Message them via the Contact Form
Start your journey towards success.
So, again, Imagine, it’s 10 years later from today.
Where are you? Who are you?
How did you get there?
Did you have a coach who helped you get to where you are?
Which coach will help you get to that dream life?
I hope to see you living your best life soon!