Everyone needs a coach! If you are intentional about reaching your potential and getting better results, having the right coach will guarantee you will advance quicker (as Dr Gawande highlighted in his TED talk). Most of the time, we think that we don’t need help or hesitate to ask for it; by going down that path, we will be missing out; thus, we need to have the courage to seek the necessary support and guidance.
A professional coach will partner with you in identifying your strengths and opportunities, gaining clarity on your goals, developing plans and strategies, and bringing the unconscious to your conscious through insights and evoking awareness. The role of a coach is not to provide advice or an opinion; it is to facilitate the conversation so that you come up with the solutions yourself as professional coaches operate on the belief that you are resourceful and full of potential.
Areas in which coaching helps people include but are not limited to improving well-being, life/work balance, money management, leadership development, achieving the set goals, boosting self-confidence, overcoming impostor syndrome, managing stress, time management, finding purpose, building healthy habits and more.
How do you know which coach to choose and how to find one? Here are some tips that will guide you in finding the right one:
You must determine what you want to achieve and have clarity on what goals you are seeking. According to science, 92% of people don’t achieve their goals; one of the ways the other 8% reach them is by having an advisor and a mentor. Your coach will make sure your goals are set and documented. It is proven that writing down your goals and having them visually accessible increases the chances of achieving them.
Reach out to your network and ask the people with a similar path to yours who experienced coaching before and got results. Once you find some suitable matches, it is necessary to check their website, social media profile, and testimonials. Also, if possible, watch a webinar they delivered or join a future one. In other words, do your homework so you are ready when having the first contact, and no surprises will come along the way.
Now you have your goals set and have done your homework; the next step is to book a discovery call (whether online or in person); be sure to prepare some good questions to determine if the coach is a good fit or not (personality, why they coach, what’s their strengths, some success stories from their clients, their coaching philosophy and methods, etc.). The first interaction with a potential coach with a well thought preparation will paint a good picture for you whether it is the right coach. Trust your judgment and intuition in the process.
Engaging in a coaching journey will require commitment. Make sure to reflect and plan on how much time and money you can allocate and commit to it. Without following through, it would reverse affect you and your future. Finishing what you start is fundamental to success, and completing the coaching journey is no exception. You will sometimes be challenged and pushed outside your comfort zone, so be ready to invest the time and energy to guarantee personal and professional growth.
To share a bit of my personal experience with coaching, I am currently building my leadership coaching business; believe me, it is not a walk in the park with a full-time job. It was imperative that to avoid major mistakes and lose lots of time and money, seeking a coach was a wise decision. I have read many books, sought people’s advice, followed successful coaches, and learned from them. All that added lots of value, and I am grateful for everyone’s support, and the idea of getting help from someone professional kept growing.
Based on what I had learned, I started looking for a business coach to support me in reaching my vision; I set my goals, did my homework and proper research, landed a name, attended two of their webinars, had two discovery calls and followed my head and gut feeling after talking to them, and it turned out well. It is paying off big time! I am working with them on building my business plan and enjoying the growth and learning process. Thanks to the research and preparation I did to find the right coach, I can say that my investment into coaching was fully worth it.
All highly successful people attribute their success to having someone to guide and support them in their development journeys. So it does pay off to hire a coach, and doing it through a highly reputable platform with a group of accredited coaches, such as femme Palette, is a great place to start! 99% of individuals and companies who hire a coach are “satisfied or very satisfied”, and 96% say they would repeat the process, according to this article.
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