A practice for coaches; Your Story

I am currently designing an online community for agile coaching; it is going to be part of the launch of my upcoming book “Responsive Agile Coaching”. Part of the community design process is “telling your own story”. So I put pen to paper and what you read below is my raw and real professional story... it is an awesome practice and recommended.

I have been helping people to change my whole career. Being an agent of change means provoking others, disrupting their normal routines, challenging them to be more, better every day. I started off my career as an exercise scientist helping clients with their physical health, fitness and sports performance. As a young person the physical self was a large part of my life; looking good and being seen to be ‘fit’ was a big deal for young Niall. As I moved into my thirties I started to explore how to be an agent of change in the workplace; learning, development and an MBA saw me move into the business world as a consultant. I had a focus on managing change and helping people learn new ways to work. During all this time I was seeking something. Upon reflection it was meaning I was after; what exactly is the point of going to work everyday? During this time I started to practice meditation and became a Buddhist. My work and personal life seemed to be coming together somewhat.

Then I had a major life shock; my wife left me and my marriage dissolved. This led to a year away from my typical formal role as a change manager. I spent the year learning about and building a business in professional coaching. I worked both as a life coach and leadership coach; deepening my skills and practice and found great meaning in this work during a difficult time in my life.

It was then I came across agile as a way to work; I was blown away with its values and principles and the potential to “make the business world as better place”. I naively set off on a crusade to do my bit to make the lives of others better as an agile coach.

After some trials and challenges I started to see that the promise of agile and the results on the ground did not match. I looked at the current models of delivering “coaching” as an agile consultant and soon discovered what they were calling coaching was nothing like what I had learned in my training. 

But then what I had learned as a professional coach did not fit into what was required of an agile coach; so I set about writing a book that would enable me to continue on in my journey to make the world a better place through agile coaching. I wrote “Responsive Agile Coaching” to capture my thoughts, then I started this community to give these thoughts and ideas to the world.

My hope is that together we can make the world a better place whilst getting our work done and making meaning for ourselves and our clients.

p.s. Stay tuned for more details on both the book and the community!