Lost. Wandering. Trapped. Stuck. Overwhelmed. Confused. Do any of those words currently describe how you feel about your career journey or life decisions? Perhaps all of them do. How would your life change if you were free from that feeling? Take a minute to think about it, I’ll wait. What would you say if I told you, I can help you make that change and attain that freedom? Through a simple coaching conversation or multiple conversations, I can help you discover new things about yourself and take action to reshape your life around that learning.
If you were to schedule a coaching conversation with me, I’d start by getting to know you and what you hope to accomplish during our time together. If we need to plan to meet for 3 or 4 conversations, I’d want to know where we’re headed, so I can make sure we get there. Once we have the goals established, I’d ask you, “What do you want to focus our conversation on today?” After helping you think about the importance of that topic and its significance for your current situation, we’d narrow further. And I’d ask, “What specific result do you want to take away from our conversation today?”
Once you do your job as the coachee to decide what we are going to talk about, I will do my job as the coach and take control of the process to ensure that we reach your desired outcome for the conversation. As you talk, I will listen and reflect to you what I hear you say, helping you to hear yourself. This kind of reflective dialogue would encourage discovery, insights, and shifts in your perspective. Coaching uses open-ended questions to stimulate your thinking and creativity, recognizing that you can create your best answers. As a Christian coach, I will encourage you to listen to and follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and direction.
During our conversation, you will gain clarity and awareness. I will ask you, “What are you learning about yourself or this situation?” And about halfway through, I will check in to see “How are we doing at getting to the result you wanted for this conversation today?” I will avoid assuming I understand what you mean and encourage you to answer my questions not as a means of explaining to me but to simply help you explore and think out loud.
Before we wrap up our conversation, I will ask you to identify what actions you can take to move forward and help you to set smart goals that you can reach before our next conversation. And we will conclude on a positive note, asking you to reflect on the entire conversation and share your biggest takeaway or highlight. So as this blog post concludes, what awareness about coaching do you have now that you didn’t have before?