The new year is just about here! Are you ready to hit the ground running with a powerful start to 2020? Do you have a list of goals you would like to accomplish but maybe you’re not quite sure about the action steps to accomplish them in a timely manner? Have you considered hiring a coach to help you develop a plan? Here are some things about coaching to help you decide if working with a coach may be beneficial to you...

A coach can be very helpful to someone in a leadership position as the coaching arrangement can be customized to the leader’s wants, needs, and abilities as they go through the process. Here are some ways coaches can help leaders: 

• They can help leaders gain more self-awareness and assess their impact on others.

• They assist with creating clarity in goals and crafting action plans.

• Coaches work over a period of time on the leader’s development needs as they go through the coaching process to determine the steps to reach their goals.

• Lastly, coaches provide leaders with a safe place to think out loud, serve as a sounding board and support them as they manage change.

There are many benefits to coaching, and those benefits vary with people as coaching is a very individual process. In fact, sometimes the benefits can only be seen by the individual who is working with the coach. It is a confidential relationship that is just between the two of you. Another benefit is that leaders also get stuck thinking over things. However, a coach can help you get out of your own head and see various sides to a situation. It is very helpful to be able to talk out loud about issues with someone who is not a coworker. The coach will help the leader gain clarity and may also challenge assumptions that they see as no longer valid. They may also administer various feedback tools to help the leader gain insight into how they appear and how they work with others in the organization. So, the benefits of working with a coach are varied and valuable.

Individuals have various expectations when it comes to working with a coach. However, there are some basic elements to the coaching process that represent the structure of the relationship. A coaching relationship begins with a call to determine the chemistry between you and the coach and to determine if you are ready for coaching. Since this is a one-to-one relationship, there must be good chemistry between the two people. Then there may be an assessment by the coach of the leader to see how others, such as your leaders or peers, view you. The next step would be to perform a goal-setting session followed by the creation of development plans for the expected time of the engagement. Then there are periodic sessions to review progress or check on new points of importance. After time, another feedback assessment would be done to see what has changed and if others in your organization can recognize that you are working on something different. Finally, when a particular set of goals is reached, you would close the coaching engagement.

Are you ready to consider coaching? This is just a handful of the benefits and elements involved with coaching. If you are committed to your goals for 2020 and need some guidance, you may want to consider hiring a coach to help you achieve them! Do what you need to do to make 2020 a powerful year for you!