What’s the point of coaching?

Everywhere we look now there is advice and information for living a fulfilling life. Magazines, podcasts, websites, books and courses are dedicated to helping us become empowered, achieve our goals and be “the best version of ourselves”.

If you’re disorganized and chaotic, plan and write to-do lists. Overweight? Eat less, move more. Maybe cut out sugar or fast intermittently. Unhappy and unmotivated at work? Find a new job. Struggling with a friendship? Eliminate negative influences in your life.

It’s the same at work. Improve your leadership by creating trust, practising empathy and being authentic. Stressed? Exercise and practice mindfulness. Lacking confidence? Recognise what you’re good at and be more assertive.

All of this advice is relevant and will probably make a difference for a short time. The problem is implementing it, so that it sticks in a meaningful and lasting way. Life is exhausting if you have to consciously examine your behaviour and it won’t work; you will always fall back to your default position eventually.

We are individuals and we think and behave individually. What works for me won’t necessarily work for you. Coaching gets to the root of the problem.

What does something mean to you personally? How are you behaving? What’s behind that reaction? What impact are you having? What do you need to do to shift that? How do you want to be defined? What do you want your life to look like? These are fundamental questions only you can answer.

The coaching process can sometimes appear to be convoluted and a waste of time. You’ll go off at a tangent and down some dead ends. Transformation is not direct. But you will learn more about yourself, why you do what you do, how you impact others, what you want.

And as you learn, your behaviour and your perspective will change. Not obviously; often it is very subtle. But this transformation will be natural and fundamental – not forced through discipline and will power – so it will last.

If you’d like to chat about coaching and how it can help you, please get in touch.