Reflections!!

This is my first attempt at publishing my experience during the journey of Coaching!

Coaching as a formal professional journey began a couple of years ago when I was introduced to the GROW model of Coaching. During the pandemic, with a lot of changes, Coaching became part of my core role. From there and the need to make a difference to those around me and the constant inner voice asking me to make it happen made me formally start on the coaching journey...

Learning 1: Specialization in Coaching is a myth when you are learning the nuances of Coaching. During the first few weeks of being on Coach Training understanding the nuances of Coaching in an experiential manner, I was asked to think about "What is the identity I want to create for myself as a coach?" After spending a month or more understanding the basics, I realised that the specialisation/ the areas of coaching doesn't matter as the underlying approach is all the same. Its all about the journey of moving from Present State to Desired state (gain an awareness on where one is to be able to chart the course of action).

Note: I'm not saying here that there is no specialization in Coaching, Coaches do make a niche for themselves and are passionate about specific areas. All am saying here is that the journey of learning the nuances of coaching is not dependent on specialization and remains the same.

Learning 2: Never forget Listening to Self. During the initial few weeks/ hours of Coach training, I realised that in the process of Listening to others and in the interest of being perfect in the role that I get to play in several areas of life, I had somehow moved away from Listening to Self. I started paying more attention not just to my thoughts but also learnt to listen to what are my feelings telling me, how to associate those and acknowlege them?

As I learnt about the nuances of Contracting in Coaching, I understood the various dimensions involved... its never just administrative/ professionally driven, there is a Psychological aspect that one needs to be aware of.

Learning 3: Effective Partnering: Coaching as a journey for me became a very reflective practice. As I learnt about Effective partnering. I realised that its all about Coaching Consciousness, I learnt more about myself. I made a lot of minor tweaks in my day-day vocabulary as well. Learning about the differences of operating from the state of knowing to a state of knowledge. The relevance of Sensing and an exploration around those areas started making a huge difference and an impact. Verbalizing those emotions, minor shifts in the energy levels, started making a huge difference. The conversations suddenly became more meaningful. Listening to Self started making a huge difference. Being Mindfully Aware made a huge difference to the quality of life.

Important Learning : Self Acceptance - not being hard on self was the first successful result I got out of my own self exploration. From then on the coaching journey has helped me uncover and learn a lot from every conversation. Journaling these learnings are now a way of life :)

The relevance of the pic to this post: Like how the sun is hidden by the clouds, one's own true self is masked behind the clouds we create for ourselves (either because we are conditioned to think that way/ we have started believing that about ourselves forgetting the true self).

As stated by John Whitmore - “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn, rather than teaching them.”?

This applies for the Coach in their Coaching journey too..!!