Reflections of my journey into the world of coaching

I have often heard of professional coaching in personality and leadership development . I was already an advisor/mentor to some leaders in startups and felt coaching would be a natural progression. As I started understanding the finer aspects of coaching , with CTT, I found my earlier notions , about coaching being not too dissimilar to mentoring and advising, both right and wrong. This blog is a reflection of my learning, the myths that were shattered and the beliefs that were strengthened, as also my understanding of its impact on leadership As I embarked on my journey to become a coach, I also experienced a profound transformation in my own understanding of myself and discovered several nooks and corners which were out of my comfort zone.

Curiosity is King: At the core of a good coaching conversation is the art of being curious and asking powerful questions that provoke thinking and self discovery. This inturn helps the coachee discover solutions to problems themselves and thereby making the solutions powerful. When one finds a solution on their own rather than on prescription or instruction, there is more conviction and hence more likelihood of being implemented. I figured out the power of helping people self discover solutions and felt satisfied in helping create the mental environment to do that for a coachee.

Effective Communication and presence

As a coach, one needs to be a very active listener and very observant and aware of shifting energies , identifying anchors and reflections in the conversations. Reiterating, reframing, reconfirming clients view points and expressed thoughts are critical tools to ensure that the conversation enables clients to get clarity in their thought process and understand what is needed to resolve their situations.

No expertise and showing vulnerability

I understood that a coach is not expected to be an expert in the area that a client is wanting to be coached on. Rather, a fresh perspective works better. This is pretty much contrary to that of an advisor or mentor where expertise is probably more important. A coach is expected to help create an environment where the coachee explores thoughts and feelings towards a situation or a problem being encountered and bring out hitherto unaware strengths and perspectives and not be a solution provider .Being vulnerable and expressing it remains key to bringing out the unfettered thoughts in the coachee.

Thinking forward

I learnt the power of thinking forward. Looking at the problem as an opportunity to develop further is an important tenet to betterment . Bringing this perspective to coaching conversations and asking profound questions that helped the coachee see situations in a forward-positive mode led to uncovering paths that hitherto stayed covered.

Impacting transformative Change

The impact of coaching is helping obtain clarity on situations and implement changes by uncovering strengths and perspectives through the conversations. It is also critically important that the changes or pathways identified and the accountability system is built to enable implementation of these transformative changes. The changes that typically open up in these conversations are transformative and long term in nature. Each of these points above are powerful for good leadership.

A leader works by helping a team develop and elevate themselves to be the best versions of themselves, solving seemingly unsolvable problems through discovery of new pathways and innovation. A good leader is empathetic, inquisitive and asks powerful questions that instigate team members to uncover their hidden strengths and new perspectives. I bow deeply in gratitude to my mentor, my own self as well as to my clients for enabling this transformation in me.

Author - Rajeev Menon