How can Coaching help you?
Posted on July 03, 2019 by Shalini Neelakantan, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
Ever wondered what coaching is all about? How does it make a difference? Here is a short story that bring out the significance of coaching.
About 3 months into having learnt to drive, I took my car for its scheduled servicing. The supervisor there told me that the clutch had to be changed. It cost seemed a bomb to me on the meagre salary that I was earning. I had no other choice but to go in for that change and bear the cost that came along with it.
A few days later I was in conversation with a colleague and in course was bemoaning this cost that I had incurred. Listening to me, my colleague asked me, " Are you driving with one feet on the clutch and the other on the brake frequently?". I just gave him a blank expression. He went on to tell me, " In Bangalore traffic, since you so often have to stop and drive there is tendency for novice drivers to constantly have their feet on the clutch and the brake simultaneously which is damages the clutch. If you avoid this, you would be saving on that cost you are cribbing about."
As often happens, work had taken precedence over all other little conversations and this conversation was tucked safely somewhere at the back of my head. As I was driving back from work that evening, I suddenly remembered what my colleague had said and I realised that I did infact have one foot on each pedal! I was determined to save my new clutch. I caught myself many many times after that with my feet on both pedals when not required and consciously began to place my foot on the accelerator with the other foot ready to hit the clutch pedal when required but not placed on it all the time. I did this for quite a while, this changing the very way I drove. And yes I recall changing my clutch just once again in those eight years that I drove that particular car.
One question to ask is what would have happened if I didn’t have this conversation? Very likely, I would have been incurring far more costs with frequent changes of clutch. How many areas of our life would have been better dealt with if we spoke to someone about it?
How did this conversation help me?
• Having this conversation made me realize that there was a problem
• The problem in this case had more to do with self-realization than with skill or ability. I was doing something that was causing damage. It made me realize my role in stopping that damage.
• The choice to take note and improve was entirely mine. At no point in time did my colleague say “Ok, let me show you how to drive.” or “You drive and I will continue to observe.” The choice of action was completely mine.
• I also realized that whether I did something about the way I drove or not had implications, there were costs involved.
What did my colleague do?
He presented me with two things:
1. A Fact – The clutch is damaged when you frequently use it
2. A Perspective – I think you might be doing this…
A coaching engagement is similar. In this incident that I narrated I was the coachee and my colleague was the coach. Each of us have experienced coaching in some way or another. But as we look to consciously develop personally and professionally, professional coaching makes all the difference.
Who is a coach? And of what help is the coaching process?
1. Your coach is your sounding board.
2. Your coach offers insightful perspectives that they perceive are working for or against your goal
3. The choice to be more self-aware and take action is completely yours.
The coach does not partner with you in the action. But he or she partners with you in the thought process. Because that thought process can make or break things for you.
