Coaching sets a clear direction based on sound and informed insights.

It is the quality of your insight that drives the quality of your direction. If the inputs are poor then it is anybody’s guess where you might end up. A coach helps a client to uncover the personal blocks / insights that will support a client in developing a powerful and focussed personal plan. A coach helps the client to clarify the ‘why’ for personal transformation, after which the coach supports the client in a co-creative process which establishes a clear plan of action. 

It is such a privilege to have the support and benefit of a skilled third party who can play many supportive and provocative roles within the coaching relationship. The coach is a powerful questioner & observer, and it is through this observation of the client, that the coach becomes intimately aware of the clients reality & context (how they see themselves, the world, and their relationship to the world). The more the coach asks, listens, and observes, the more the coach gains deep insight into the worldview of the client. It is this depth of observation that provides the coach with the insight of what to ask next, how to challenge, what to consider etc. 

It is through this dialogue driven process that a client is guided in doing their own work. A coach does not give answers or tell people what to do. A coach asks ‘what do you want to do about it going forward? It is through asking the right questions that a coach provokes a client to think differently and without self imposed barriers of thought or assumption. We build these self imposed structures up over years, and then we unconsciously run our lives by them. It is difficult, if not impossible, to do this work effectively alone, because it requires an independent external party who can objectively and productively challenge your own thinking and doing. 

Who asks you the difficult questions? Who is willing and able to sit with you to do this critical personal work? Who observes you in action over time and gives you useful feedback and observation? Who pays close attention to the personal commitments you make to yourself and whether you keep them or not? Who raises the uncomfortable subjects that we don’t like to tackle?

Most of us will never have a person who is dedicated to perform this function in our lives. We will not be asked these important questions by our friends, bosses, or family members. So who will ask them? And who will walk along side you as you find your answers? It is a true privilege having access to a coach, and it is for this reason that a good coach is worth their weight in gold! 

You don’t have to be broken to need a coach either. Coaches can help both stragglers and strugglers, as well as the high performers among us. Coaching provides the structured and process driven conversation in which the most important conversations in our lives can happen. A powerful series of coaching sessions can radically change your life or work circumstances, if you let it. 

What conversations are you not having that you really ought to be having? What are the consequences of not having them? What do you want to do about it?

Powerful coaching changes lives.