Being coachable & the making the most of your coaching programme

Ok, so you’re interested in coaching.  The next question I get is what a coaching programme actually consists of and what I can expect to do in a coaching session.

This is completely understandable after all, coaching is an investment in time, money and energy. It’s important to understand what you’ll get back from your investment, either for you personally or, if your CPD budget is footing the bill, for your employer. After all, unless you’ve just sold your practice to one of the corporate consolidators, money is often tight and there are lots of responsibilities to balance or activities to fund.

Two things will help you maximise the return on investment when you buy coaching from me. The first is your approach to coaching and how it affects the outcome and second is understanding the coaching process. 

Any success following coaching remains your own responsibility. You are accountable for your own actions and that means being in a coachable mindset. You must want to make some form of change in your life and be open to being coached.

What does being coachable mean? In simple terms, it means being open to growth, self-improvement and being challenged by your coach. I will help you find a growth mindset; however, you have to be ready to do what it takes to change, transform, improve or excel, whatever that means for you and your situation.  

Being coachable also means that you have a challenge to address. You might feel stuck or recognise there is something that needs fixing. It might a specific issue like career change or getting that next promotion. It could be a feeling of ‘stuck in a rut with no way out’. This becomes your goal; the thing you want your coach to help you work towards. Focusing on a goal, whatever it is, is a core premise of coaching. 

One of the most rewarding parts of coaching for me is seeing a client develop, build confidence, overcome roadblocks and flourish as they build new parts of their lives or careers. Unlocking your resourcefulness or unsticking your thought process is a key coaching skill and a joy to watch when it happens.

Once you have your coachable mindset and a topic you’d like to address, then my job as your coach is to apply tried and tested coaching techniques to help you make progress. The process is deceptively simple with the skill lying in finding the right questions to help you gain insights and perspectives around your topic and then developing actions towards your goal. 

I can’t attain your goal for you; at the end of the day, you remain responsible for your own successes and there are no guarantees of success. What I can do though, is set you up for a successful programme. 

The starting point is a free coaching taster session where we start to explore your goals, get to know each other and discuss in finer details what’s involved. Knowing that we have good rapport with each other is essential to allow open and honest conversations and for me to challenge you in an appropriate manner. 

Once we’ve agreed that coaching is the right support for you, we ‘ll schedule six one-to-one sessions. I love video calling but the phone works almost as well and where geography allows, face to face meetings too. 

The coaching sessions then follow like this

• Session 1 – intake. A detailed ‘get to know you’ session where we refine the topic you want to work on, explore your values and motivations, how you liked to be challenged and ways to get the best out of the coaching relationship. I’ll also demonstrate how the coaching model works. 
• Session 2 – DISC profile and interpretation. DISC profiling is one way to help you understand your preferences in work, communication, team situations and leadership style. It’s highly valuable for both the coach and client to raise self-awareness and develop personal insights.
• Session 3-5 – Deep coaching. Using the progress so far and the rapport we’ve developed, this is where the real progress starts to be made. By now you’ll understand the coaching model in depth and, coupled with the insights from DISC, you’ll be starting to work towards your goal or even finding early successes with the smaller goals that build towards the final objective.
• Session 6 – Final coaching session and review. This is your opportunity to make the final touches or steps towards your goal. At this point, most clients are able to self-coach to a degree, having learned and applied the techniques or insights gained so far. By reviewing and reflecting on the progress made during the programme, you’ll have the chance to cement any learnings or identify what remains to be done and how you plan to achieve it. 

Longer term, once someone has been through a coaching programme, is familiar with the processes and has a trusted coach, then seeking sporadic coaching support on particular topics can be quite normal. 

Being coachable and understanding the coaching process are two central pillars of coaching. If you’d like to have a test drive, get to know me and talk about how we unlock your potential, then book your free coaching exploration session now.