If your boss set you up with a coach to help you improve your results and impact, what would your reaction be? Would you feel proud that a significant investment is being made to help you develop and grow? Would you be thrilled to have someone to assist you in achieving your goals? Or, would you feel somehow as if using a coach were a sign of weakness or defeat, signaling a need for help outside of your own capabilities?
Times are changing fast. A couple decades ago, coaching used to be more typically reserved for troubled teammates who were not meeting performance standards and truly needed someone to intervene. In recent years coaching has made a dramatic shift to more of an investment mode; a resource used for highly successful people. We are more enlightened today to the fact that more self-aware leaders (who constantly look for ways to improve) see the best results.
A coach is a powerful resource that can support a leader’s journey and facilitate learning. The meaning of the word “facilitate” boils down to making things easier. Here are some ideas of how to best utilize a coach. You can consider these form both formal and informal coaching you may receive and even apply them to working with a mentor:
- You are in the driver’s seat – Take responsibility for what you want to accomplish and what outcomes you can achieve by working with a coach or mentor. As Franklin Covey stated, “Begin with the end in mind”. What do you want to improve upon? What would be different in 60-90 days if you successfully implemented that change in how you operate? Own those results. Truly no one else can do it for you.
- Use your sounding board – In today’s world of technology our thoughts are often out for public consumption in cyber space the moment we conceive them. Thanks to email, texting, blogs, social media and cell phones our communication is real-time and frequently not thought out. High stakes communication may not receive any forethought. A coach or mentor can help you consider the impact of your communication and think through those tough, but necessary conversations. When the stakes are high and outcomes are important, a sounding board found in a coach can help you consider your audience, tailor your message and be perceived in a way that aligns with what you intended.
- Do not think of your coach as a consultant or therapist – Effective coaching is empowering and assumes you are an expert in your role, perfectly capable of achieving the goals you set. A coach’s job is to support action and provide mechanisms for accountability over time. Consulting typically provides advice and solutions and leaves it at that. There is not necessarily the follow up or accountability involved in coaching when you work with a consultant. On the other hand therapy typically focuses on insight and resolution of emotional issues. Because these approaches are so different, you and your coach you should be clear about these distinctions.
So if you currently work with a coach or have the opportunity to do so in the future, embrace it. This is a chance to partner with someone who will be extremely focused on your success and help you see the bigger picture at times. Use these guidelines along with the skills of your coach to genuinely make things easier.