Coaching can be beneficial at almost any time, but you will find it particularly beneficial when:
- You are looking to take on a new job role, or have just done so
- You keep putting off action or decisions that you know you need to get on with
- You need help with your personal development plan (either creating it, or implementing it)
- You need to improve a specific skill
- You need to change a specific behaviour
- You regularly find that you aren’t achieving what you want from meetings or conversations with others
- You are struggling to set and keep to priorities
- You are trying to manage conflict
- You have doubts in your ability to achieve what is asked of you
- You want to make significant changes in how you manage yourself and/or other people.
In all of these situations, you will get more out of coaching, if you:
- Spend quality time thinking about the issue and how you are going to present it to your coach. (Ask yourself: “Where has my thinking got me to so far?”)
- Consider the questions:
- Why is this issue important now?
- What do I know and simply assume about this issue?
- What has stopped me sorting it already?
- Rehearse in your mind how you will present the issue, so that the coach understands it quickly
- You come with an open mind, prepared to be challenged and self-honest
- Take time before the coaching conversation to settle your mind into a state of creative calm – so put away your i-phone at least five minutes beforehand!
© David Clutterbuck. All rights reserved