What stands between you and you achieving your goals?
Imagine having access to someone who dedicates time only to you to talk about your concerns and your dreams, your doubts and your hopes, your accomplishments and your goals. Imagine being able to collaborate with someone who listens with a professional ear and contributes effectively to the conversation. Imagine being able to ask questions and get straight answers. Imagine having someone there to cheer you on when you celebrate your successes. That’s what having a personal coach could do for you.
Why Hire a Coach?
If you were a member of a professional sports team, you would have ready access to individual coaching. You would have the benefit of valuable feedback to help you improve your skills.
Having a coach is serious business and it is in your best interests to be like a sponge, absorbing everything you can during your sessions. Being open to maximizing your opportunities to learn and grow is bound to make a difference.
What should you expect to gain as a result of having a coach? It matters not if you are an entrepreneur or a student . . . it matters not if you are a CEO of a large company or the leader of a team, these seven benefits within the coaching experience are seven good reasons to hire a coach. According to my clients, these are the most common and most important reasons they have cited for hiring a coach:
- Having private tutorials
You get to work in a safe environment with someone who is there to work with you in a confidential setting one-on-one. Why is that important? For one thing, it improves your accountability and for another, the privacy feature allows you to explore your ideas with the freedom of expression.
- Achieving clarity
Clarity of purpose and clarity of direction are key ingredients to making meaningful progress. Without clarity, the path toward success can be a meandering effort. And while there is nothing either good or bad about meandering, a more direct approach can be timesaving.
- Engaging with more courage to test the waters outside your proverbial comfort zone
If you are in a stream wading deeper and deeper into the water, you might feel more comfortable if someone is within arm’s reach in case you falter. The same is true when it comes to working with a coach.
- Improving communications skills
There are many kinds of communication that one might employ in any given day. Thinking about the day so far, you may have found yourself doing a little shameless self promotion, closing a client on one of your programs, collaborating with a colleague on building your agenda for the weekly team meeting, conducting a performance review on one of your staff and interviewing a prospective employee. It’s easy to take communication skills for granted. How would you rate your powers of communication?
- Building a competitive edge
No matter your position, your status, your business, or your line of work, it is important to remain mindful of the unique combination of skills and talents you bring. Another way of looking at building your edge is to sharpen your strengths and track your successes. What you contribute delivers benefit. Working with someone who can be objective and without bias might help you see yourself with a whole new perspective.
- Raising levels of confidence
When you have had the opportunity to work through such areas as the value you have in your own abilities and, as well, the value you bring to the workplace or the marketplace, that confidence is sure to show up in your voice. Confidence has a habit of building more confidence. When you have the benefit of positive personal feedback on the changes you are making, you are able to feel more self-empowered.
- Gaining in personal development according to individual values and goals
Being able to set your own agenda for growth may feel like a luxury but one-on-one coaching lets you try on new things, step into new habits and practice new skills according to your own timeline and according to your readiness or preparedness to proceed.
The magnifying glass, stopwatch, graphs, and other forms of measurement that appear in the graphic image above, are there to remind you that your performance is subject to evaluation and that your competitors serve to keep you focused and on track.
Hiring a coach is an investment in yourself. If you have never had a coach, I encourage you to find one that matches the skills you are after acquiring. Hiring a coach is not unlike hiring a trainer, a mentor, or a teacher. Think of your coach as someone who is going to sing your praises, push your buttons and stretch your practice. Will you have things to work on between coaching sessions? Why not? Your “assignments” should be in line with your goals. Your speed of achievement will be impacted by the pace at which you choose to move.
More than 90% of her clients have written testimonials or given her referrals. Donna Dahl, M. Ed., MNLP, is a leading executive strategist and catalyst for change. Through her neuroscience-based coaching, she is well-poised to disseminate skill development, empowerment, and engagement. As your chief coaching officer, she supports your leaders and your teams. Donna has an award-winning track record, and she is the author of Lessons I Learned from the Tortoise, a five-star rated book designed to challenge the reader to consider mindful change. She welcomes discovery calls to explore your coaching needs.
