Coaching Graduation Part 1
Remember that blog post about starting a coaching program? Well this is the post to tell you I finished, have graduated, and am completed my essentials program in coaching! How exciting!
This has been a 20 week journey from the orientation to graduation where I learned a lot from credentialed teachers and from my insightful peers. It was a practice of time management, developing more confidence, and dedication to craft. I got to know some of my peers well and work with them to develop and grow personally together and hone our skills.
As much as I learned what coaching is, I learned what it is not. Coaching is not advice, it is not therapy, and it is not telling someone what to do. What a relief to not have to be an expert! Coaching is all about helping the client discover the truth inside themselves to get the transformation they are looking for. The client is the expert in their own lived experience, and as a coach I help the client bring out their insights and desires.
During this program I developed a bit of a perspective on what coaching means to me. I view coaching as a collaborative, creative process between the coach and client to explore where the client wants to grow and even transform. We use questions to dig deep to what really matters to the client to take forward looking action on a future focus or state of being. The goal is at the end to be in a better place than when we started together at the beginning of the session.
I am thankful to my peers and the friends who helped me get my practice coaching hours outside of my peers in the program - and I am also grateful to those peers who provided valuable feedback as part of the process. You don’t improve if you don’t have awareness of what is going well and where you are lagging in skill or practice development. Feedback is important!
It feels SO GOOD to be able to help someone gain clarity, experience greater confidence, or develop an effective game plan toward a goal. Each person needs something different, so the process is unique each time I come into a coaching session. Each person needs something different in each session, so even the experience from time to time together will not look exactly the same. But you can expect that I will listen intently, that I may challenge you, and I will work with you to help you create the future outcome worth working toward.
Going forward I will be working to assemble 100 hours of coaching time toward ICF credentialing, so if you are interested in learning more about it, feel free to reach out! I am in the process of starting my business to support the coaching venture and feel hopeful and excited. I’ve always wanted to start a business, so this is a dream come true for me. It is a long way from selling stickers and things from around the house in my “summer shop” in the front yard as a kid. I’m trained now as a coach and look toward helping people develop and grow into the versions of themselves they wish to be.
And as the business begins, the learning journey continues. I’ll start a 15-week advanced program called “Signature,” complete with mentoring and more coaching practice and lots of opportunity for feedback from experts. I can only imagine how much more my skills will develop in this setting, surrounded by peers who also want to grow in their abilities to coach.
I hope you will stay tuned into my journey of coaching. If you’re interested in learning more about what it is, feel free to contact me! The growth I’ve had from receiving coaching from peers has been transformative in ways big and small and I’ve gotten to know myself better in the process. Wouldn’t you want that for yourself, too?