COACHING CAN CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Elsbeth Tate, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

Many clients discover coaching because they are looking for something more in their lives and don’t know where to find it. Many are already successful in the traditional sense; they just need help identifying what is missing and how they can make the changes necessary to make them happy.

Lessons leaned from Clients
Dutiful Daughter

This client did everything by the book; she was a dutiful daughter, an outstanding student, went on to get several degrees, settled into a very well paying position in the financial field and discovered she hated it all at the age of 30. She had no job satisfaction even though she was commanding a very impressive salary. Through various exercises, she discovered what was really important to her – helping others and making a lifelong impact on others. Through brainstorming, a number of solutions were identified so that she could perform better both in and out side of her work.

She is still at the same job, but she has begun to explore different avenues where her talents can be more utilized (volunteer work, outside interests, etc.). She now has more joy in her life because she has identified her goals and she’s following a plan that outlines the steps she wants to take to improve her life moving forward.

Maternity Leave Mom

A similar scenario happened with another young woman on maternity leave. She loved her life as a stay-at-home mom, but she started asking herself, is this all there is? She felt there was more and found her answer one afternoon while watching TV when she saw me describing what coaching can do. She called me the next day to begin coaching. Again, she was in a traditionally successful, high paying position, but dreaded the thought of going back to work.

After receiving coaching, she decided that she loved the idea of being a coach and helping others realize their dreams. She completed her coach training and is now coaching, giving presentations and workshops, and living her life more in line with her values.

Making Changes

Two important exercises that help clients get clarity in their lives focus on the concept of values clarification. It is important to identify what’s really important in life and develop a life purpose or mission statement around their values. In other words, outline what effect you want to have on the world and create a set of goals to make that happen. Clients use coaches as accountability partners and can report their progress, accomplishments along with any challenges and failures. Their achievements are celebrated along with what was learned from their perceived failures. A coach helps the client identify what career might be suitable for them, but does not come up with the answers. Clients do the talking and have the answers inside; the coach has the questions to access that knowledge within the client. It’s a matter of the client believing that they can do it and it’s for the coach to hold the client’s agenda. It’s a matter of perspective!