Get the most out of your executive coaching experiences.
Hey there!
Coaching is so hot right now. In every industry, at every intersection of professional growth, there is a coach for it.
As a coach myself, I love seeing people embracing the 1:1 guidance, direction, and grounding that comes part and parcel with a coaching relationship.
If I had a magic wand, I’d bestow anyone on a journey with a trusted Change Management Mentor and Educator the ability and understanding of knowing the best way to actually be the “coachee.” In other words, how do you, the person on the “crawling through the glass” end of transformation, approach the work in a way that will maximize the outcomes?
Well, dear reader, I’m here to tell you. <tips 10-gallon hat> Raise the levels on your inherent “coachability” with a 30k’ perspective of the playing field.
Understand the kind of coach that you’re working with.
At 304, our coaches are here to help leaders at any place in their career who desire to elevate in their position (or are working towards a new one), under the umbrella of “Executive Leadership Coaching”. There are as many different kinds of coaches in this niche as there are in a box of Crayola crayons.
In your world, you could be working with a Performance Coach, an Innovation Integration Coach, or a Transformational Leadership Coach and Organizational Advocate. Or a health coach. Or a business coach. Or…or…or.
Do a little research and make sure that you understand your coach’s own specialty. When you better understand the end game, it’s easier to play along.
Understand what coaching is here to do.
Whether you’re laser-focused on one particular goal or expanding your acumen and accuracy over the long-haul, coaching itself has some big cowboy boots to fill. When it works—and I mean really works—you will have achieved three things:
🔎 discovered confidence in decisions
🖇 built quality working relationships
🛠focused on sustainable strategies
Let this happy triad serve as your flight-plan for take-off. When you get overwhelmed or become unmoored in the process of coaching, ask yourself if what you are doing actually strengthens your fortitude…or is just a distraction.
Understand this human truth: growth is uncomfortable for everybody.
We’ve all heard the analogy about the lobster who must shed a hard, too-small exterior shell and grow a larger, more self-actualized hardbody. The time in-between old shell and new shell can be uncomfortable. The vulnerability anxiety can be no joke.
A good coach is the kind of person who can “hold space” for the coachee to thrash about in that discomfort. Think pushback, stonewalling, and not-so-covert eye rolls.
This work is deep.
On the other side of that emotional roller coaster is the triumphant jubilation of transformation. With our clients specifically, it’s that brass-ring snatching moment when they actualize an elevation in their own position or one they were working towards.
Coaches aren’t immune to that challenging human experience. We feel it deeply, too.
Understand why you started.
A total cliche, I know; also, a universal truth. If ever it feels like you don’t have the time or the bandwidth to really participate in coaching experience.
For 304 clients*, our raison d’être for coaching is this:
When all eyes are on you for direction, it is better to know where you’re headed than stay stuck where you’ve been.
For you and your coach, your “why” may be something totally different. Get on the same page about what that is and your coaching experience will be transformative. It just can’t not.
If you’re working with a coach currently and you’re not sure where they’re coming from—or where you’re going together—I implore you to have a quality conversation. Aligned expectations can make or break the experience for both of you.
And if you’d like to have a deeper conversation about the coaching experience and what to expect, at least from a “Change Management Mentor and Educator for leaders at any place in their career who desire to elevate” perspective, reply back to this email. I love to talk shop; in fact, it’s one of my favorite subjects.
Yours in work that is worth it,
Jen
*Shout out to those 304 clients, you make showing up for work an absolute joy. 🥰