About Coaching
Coaching Basics
Coaching is a collaboration that differs from mentoring and therapy in important ways.
Mentoring is a more experienced person sharing their knowledge, insights, connections and advice with a less experienced person. It’s rooted in guidance and advice from the mentor to the mentee.
Therapy focus on psychopathology and emotions, looking backward at personal history, causes, etc. Coaching is a here and now, forward-thinking and acting approach.
Coach and coachee are equals. The coach’s job is to ask open-ended questions, brainstorm, share information (it’s why Training is in my business name) and provide resources when appropriate. The client’s job is to be present, honest, forthcoming, coachable and committed.
It’s a partnership guiding you toward your desired outcome. Sometimes going it alone just doesn’t work. I hire coaches for myself for that very reason.
Coaching Foundations
AXIOGENICS - VQ VALUES-BASED neuroscience)
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE - EQ
We have helpful ways of thinking and unhelpful ways of thinking. Research indicates that 95% of our thinking is habitual and we use our unhelpful ways of thinking about 85% of the time. Yikes.
The Self-Leadership program along with the VQ Profile, which identifies your ways of thinking, provides the insight and skills necessary for you to use more of your best thinking more of the time.
And the good news is that your helpful ways of thinking are habitual, too. And you learn to tap into them more often.
VQ is new to most people. Like EQ was in the 90’s. But EQ is mainstream now. and it’s important to know how many skills are under the EQ umbrella.
Using the EQ-i 2.0 assessments, we look at 15 different sub-skills in five different areas: Self-Perception, Self-Expression, Interpersonal, Decision Making and Stress Management. From there we focus on what changes in which areas will have the most important impact on your worklife.
Getting the Most from Coaching
Below are mindsets that bode well for the coaching engagement being a success. More detail about the actual coaching engagement framework is here.
be ready
Everyone isn’t ready for coaching at any time. You know when the time is right. It’s an investment of time and money – so dive in when you have a need and you know you can put your heart and head in the game.
Be prepared
In sessions, be in a quiet focus-friendly space. Take a couple of minutes prior to the session to shift your thinking to coaching mode. Ideally you’ll keep notes outside of sessions to track things you want to bring up.
do the work
Steps to take outside the sessions to advance your progress are kept specific and do-able for a reason. Trying to do too much too soon leads too doing to little forever. Not this time!
Let's Get Started...or Not
At this point, there are three ways to go.
One, you can continue thinking about it. Perhaps now isn’t the right time.
Two, perhaps it is the right time but you have more questions or concerns.
Three, you’re fired up and ready to get started.
For number one, you know where to find me if and when you’re ready. In the meantime, the Minute Shift, (Small but significant changes in 60 seconds or less) is a quick tip once a week to help improve your worklife and you can sign up here.
For numbers two and three, reach out and set up a call. An initial get-to-know-you call is standard to make certain we’re a fit.