Coaching – Does it Add Value?

Posted on March 23, 2022 by Azmina Mulji, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

So many clients who have never experienced the wonder of coaching ask this one pertinent question, what is the value addition in engaging a coach?. Let us look at the benefits of getting career coaching as an example.
I once had a client who was looking for help in his professional life and came across an article on professional coaching. However, he was unable to put it into his personal context and decided to reach out to me to understand how engaging a Career Coach would help him. It was a very interesting dialogue we had that day. We had to start from the beginning as he had no idea what coaching was all about.
Even though coaching is a rapidly growing phenomenon around the globe, there are many misconceptions on what coaching is and what it is not. In simple terms, coaching is a partnership between a coach and the client where deep engaging thought-provoking conversations take place in a creative process to inspire their personal and professional potential to the maximum. It is a path of self-discovery and transformation in any and all facets of life. So in essence, a coach will not give advice or suggestions (which is more like a mentorship) or teach the client (which is a role of trainer) or dwell on past matters to work them through (which is therapy) but will guide the client to realize their own potential in their context of personal beliefs, environments, values and experiences, and commit to realistic actions that the client believes and has faith they can take to move towards their desired goals.
Having understood the concept of coaching, my client was still unsure of how this would add value to his objective. What was the use of engaging a coach when all the answers would come from him was what he was trying to comprehend. He wanted tangible results in terms of having a revamped resume, an attractive professional profile on his social media accounts and new job offers. And that is what we agreed would be delivered at the end of the coaching engagement.
He embarked on the coaching engagement though skeptical at first and as the sessions commenced he was a little unsure of where he was heading with the entire process. But his patience paid off and at the end of the engagement, he had been able to rework his resume which was more authentic and owned by him 100%. He began to understand that having a generic resume which almost everyone has was not being true to self. His resume was a reflection of what he truly was professionally.
Working with him further, he was able to come up with a personal brand statement which resonated with his personal and professional outlook. He discovered how important it was to dress the brand, walk the brand and talk the brand at all times.
With the new tools he had developed, he reviewed and edited his social media accounts and with the new confidence, he reached out and connected with new networks with ease. The end product surprised him. For the first time in 18 years of his professional life, he was attracting requests for consulting jobs, not just in his country but beyond. He was being approached by renowned global institutions. He was engaging in work beyond his expectations. He was happy and felt fulfilled.
And at the end of the engagement, he had understood the true value of engaging with a professional coach. In his words “I would have never understood the benefits of coaching without having practically done it. It has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life”.
Indeed, the words that make my work more meaningful as a coach.

Authored by Azmina Mulji a Certified Professional Career Coach with the International Coaching Federation with over 20 years Executive experience in the corporate space.