Why a Coach may be More Important than You Think!
I have been very lucky to have some great mentors during my career. It has been quite a journey from my early days as a mechanical engineer enjoying work but feeling like there was so much more I could do, to my current role as a product manager at a rocketship SaaS company. It was the guidance of some genuine friends and mentors that steered me down the path to a career that I genuinely love.
As I have had more experience with startups and executive teams, I have seen a significant shift towards a new type of mentor, the professional coach. Professional coaching was not something I ever saw myself signing up for. I have always had good mentors and honestly felt that a coach would be less personal and somehow less effective for me. Some of that feeling I now know was a bit of fear and insecurity in having a stranger identify my weaknesses and hold me accountable to change.
Fear of the unknown is an awesome buzz kill. Fortunately sometimes life finds ways of making us grow despite our best efforts to avoid it.
This year, my executive team is trying a new corporate experiment, to be one of the first company’s to provide personal coaches for ALL 500+ of their employees. They started rolling it out to managers first, and for the past four months, I have had the opportunity to work with a coach for the first time in my life.
I was a little unsure of what I would get out of having a coach. Other managers at work have said that their coaching experiences have been great. They have been very upfront about the pain and success they have experienced during the process, but universally, they have all felt that their coaches are helping them achieve more than they could on their own.
In theory, a personal coach can help with improving performance and success by identifying objectives, holding you accountable to an action plan, providing unbiased feedback, and generally just helping you get out of your own way by identifying key behaviors that limit your success. All good things… right? In the long run, yes, but growth never comes without a little uncomfortable stretching along the way.
Choose Your Own Adventure
My initial assumption was that my coach would focus on my weaknesses and would jump in by tailoring a plan to work on improving them. To my surprise, my coach did not come in guns blazing, a correction plan ready in hand. If fact, it was nothing like that. Her rhetoric was not that of a negative, corrective, know-it-all out on a mission to change me. She instead did an excellent job of leading me through the feedback and of helping me see how my vision of myself aligned with how others “experienced me.” She explained that it was her job to help me understand how my words and actions are perceived and understood. Only if you know what others want and expect from you can you effectively understand how to improve.
My coach was not there to make me into anything! She was there to help me become the best version of the person I wanted to be. When I gave up on the notion of being molded and began to pay attention to where I wanted to go, things began to change. This required me to open up, to expose things I had initially been hiding, to get a little uncomfortable.
What a coach is not: A coach is not a sculptor trying to force a ball of clay into the object of their desire.
What a coach is: A trained coach is an extremely talented listener who will help guide your personal journey. They are an extremely valuable utility belt that can be used to get you out of tight situations.
I began to open up about where I needed help in managing my team, on the conversations that were hard for me to have, and on where I wanted my career to go. Strangely though, it was the day that I opened up about my desire to be a better dad and how to communicate more effectively with my son that another light bulb came on.
Coaching is about more than just my professional career. It is the total sum of who I want to become as a person.
The person I want to become covers all my relationships and behaviors. It’s personal not just professional. By being open and forthcoming about my needs, my coach had the vital information they needed to guide my journey. That single realization changed my entire coaching experience. It was never about what my coach wanted, it was about achieving what I wanted. I was always the one really in control. I get to choose my adventure, but now I get to have a totally awesome utility belt to help me out of any tight spots.
5 Key Coaching Takeaways
Weave is providing personal coaches for all of its employees. Why? Simply said, we feel that providing our employees with the tools they need to be successful both at work and home will lead to greater happiness and success. Ultimately, investing in people and helping them become the best version of themselves will lead to greater company success.
As our coaching initiative continues to roll out to the rest of our company, I have had the opportunity to share my experience with others who are just beginning. Here are five things that I have learned about coaching and how it has helped me on my journey.
- Achieve what you want. Coaches are there to help you become the best version of the person you want to be. The more they know about where you want to go, the more they can do to help. They will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. They will be honest with you about how you are doing, remind you of your goals and objectives. They will let you know what you are doing that is working — or getting in your way. But focusing on more than just your personal career can lead to a better overall you.
- Leverage your existing strengths. One of the most backward approaches to self-improvement is focusing on your weaknesses. It takes way longer to turn a weakness into a strength than it does to make significant progress by focusing on something you are already good at. An effective coach can help you recognize and leverage strengths that you already excel at or one that you may be underestimating. Playing to your strengths and improving on them is one of the most effective ways of making significant improvements in short periods of time.
- Build more productive relationships. Success at any level will require you to be able to foster good relationships. Your coach will help you recognize where your relationships need improvement and will offer you the tools and support you need to create strong working relationships with both peers, employees, and executives.
- Increased Accountability. There is no question that one of the biggest obstacles in our personal and professional progress is ourselves. Our nature makes us extremely capable of justifying our way out of almost anything that requires work. Having a coach act as an accountability check can help us make and keep our commitments. The simple act of reporting back to someone will drive you to action. Helping you achieve your goals is one of the most valuable reasons to have a coach.
- Increased Confidence.
Good coaches will help you picture success — help you put in place a plan or strategy that will help build confidence, and eliminate doubts. Confidence is critical to success, but it can be difficult to build our self-confidence. Your coach can teach you new ways of thinking and operating. The new skills you gain will allow you to better reach your goals and create the career you want, ultimately helping you become the person you want to be.
Conclusion
For some, coaching has been a pivoting point in their careers. I am not quite there yet, but my last four months have given me a glimpse into the power of the opportunity I have been given. If you ever have the opportunity to work with a coach, take it! I mean, who wouldn’t want a totally awesome utility belt that can improve your focus, hold you accountable, build your confidence, help shape your ideas, and generally just help you get out of your own way.
