The ICF defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential”. “Maximising your personal and professional potential” sounds great, but it’s a bit of a mouthful. So how can we bring coaching outcomes to life?
I’m an avid sailor, so I use a lot of sailing metaphors. Imagine you’re off on a yacht for a day, sailing along, doing fine, when all of a sudden you realise you could hoist the spinnaker, trim the main and alter course slightly. Result: you’re sailing faster towards that sundowner, having twice as much fun, and feeling energised. Your hands may be a bit sore from hauling on the sheets, and muscles you haven’t used for a while ache, but hey your day went from enjoyable to memorable, and your performance moved up a notch.
Our coaching partnership gives you the opportunity to explore hoisting the spinnaker, to sharpen their skates before they go out on the ice, to decide which spices to add to fully enrich the flavour of who you bring to work and the home.
Clients use our coaching partnership to maximise their potential in unique meaningful ways. Some take the opportunity to fully extend their leadership wings, flying to hitherto unexplored places. Others take a good look at the landscape and realise that they’ve underestimated the energy required to fly everywhere, and choose to be more selective in their flight plans moving forward. Some explore the “what next?” question. Others think through how to handle a team member they find challenging, or how to navigate uncertain corporate waters, a popular goal is how to increase influence with the C-suite. No matter your desired outcome, you will grow. Not in inches or centimetres, but in self awareness and confidence.
For me, the purpose of our coaching partnership is to enable you to bring the future you want, into the present, starting immediately. It sounds ambitious, but it happens. Our coaching partnership inspires and enables you to take decisions with greater awareness, to act with greater awareness, making the future you want emerge, decision by decision.
And how does this help your organisation? Every senior leader I’ve spoken to this year is keen to strengthen leadership capability in their organisation. Self-awareness and a growth mindset are at the heart of leadership. Coaching enables both.
I’ll leave you with these questions:
What’s the equivalent of hoisting the spinnaker for you?
What would “sharpening your skates” mean for you at work?
Which spices would you add to enrich the flavour of who you are?