What You Can Expect From Coaching

 As a coach, my role is to help facilitate your growth as well as act as a sounding board. I am essentially a catalyst for change.  As we all know, change is simple but not always easy. Change is an emotionally, intellectually and relationally challenging process. While much of the challenge of change is psychological in nature, support from others can be highly beneficial. As a coach, my role is to provide this support and to do so I will often need to rely on the emotional and relational bonds you and I build to help us along the process.  Relationship strength is determined by many factors – mutual trust is among the most important of these. Mutual trust is strengthened by conversation, and the more meaningful and authentic the conversation, the more likely trust will be developed between us.  It is likely HR will want to support your coaching and track your development and we will typically ask do following:  We document progress in two major areas— development goals and skills.  • Development goals would include things like emotional intelligence, executive presence, achieving work-life balance, ability to think strategically, etc.  • Skills would include things like presentation skills, influencing skills, time management skills, meeting management skills etc.  For each development goal, I will ask you to your progress on a 1-10 scale; 1 being no progress and 10 being the highest possible degree of success.  I will also rate you myself on the same scale and share both sets of numbers with HR.  As a coachee, you can expect… • A 24/7 one-on-one, confidential, professional relationship that motivates inspires confidence and encourages intentional action • A coaching relationship that is confidential and where only information that is agreed upon between you and me will be seen by or discussed with anyone else in the organization • Feedback on current behavior and leadership practices. Together, we will choose a data collection and feedback process that makes sense for you in order to provide additional information regarding your impact on your direct reports, peers and leader(s); as a coach, it may be beneficial for me to “shadow” you or directly observe you going about your daily work in order to obtain information for coaching • Practice in dealing with difficult work challenges and relationships using the safety of the coaching environment, which will ultimately lead to improvement • Opportunity to reflect about work and life balance and to re-connect or discover your passion in work/life; a better sense of your life purpose and core values • A collaborative process of learning, sharing information and setting goals - the decision and choice of what to work on remains with you • Insights gained through coaching that will improve your work relationships and behaviors • Ability to make better decisions through increased clarity and awareness • Behavior and attitude adjustments that lead to more effective performance at work and has positive impact on the team/organization • Development of emotional intelligence competencies and skills that enhance your resonance as a leader • Ability to link the learning to actual interactions in the workplace and important work behaviors • Others you might like to add  As your coach what I expect from you • An openness to exploring new ways of thinking and behaving • A willingness to do the work needed to reach your goals • Commitment to your development or learning plan • Energy to help you do the additional development work – above and beyond your job • Honesty in how you’re feeling about coaching, our relationship, your position, your team, your leader, your strategy and the key challenges you face • Courage to take the action and the risks necessary to try new ways of thinking and behaving • Full ownership of your life: you set the tone and make the choices that will take you where you desire • Discipline to keep appointments and honour commitments