Coaching Is Not for the Meek or Timid

Coaching is about results, and coaches are people who are desperately results-oriented. Moreover, coaching is aimed at eradicating the internal and external barriers that people encounter both in their personal and professional life. Managers and business leaders need to imbibe coaching to further enhance the level of commitment, satisfaction and overall performance of their employees. One common thing about coaches is that they all have a strong, uncompromising passion to see their client's life become transformed for the better. Coaches create a safe environment that helps clients to look at themselves in a much clearer unbiased way; and they do this by identifying gaps between where the client is and where the client needs or wants to be. They also identify the attendant obstacles in order to help client's develop a strong strategy and an action plan to close this gap. Through asking focused and thought-provoking questions and active listening, coaches are able to reflect back, challenge and acknowledge the client's strengths and weakness to be able to clarify goals and come up with feedback on how best the client can optimize their potential and performance. However, people who are easily frightened or upset about implementing the feedback provided by the coach are quite unlikely to make the best of coaching. An uncoachable person naturally cannot make things work! By hiring a coach, the client is making a decision to embark upon an intensely active period in developing his or her personal and business life. It is therefore expected of the client to reciprocate this vital role of the coach, by making active efforts towards achieving the goals set in coaching sessions and following through with all the in-session actions established by the coach. Through coaching, a client is more comfortable taking bigger strides towards getting things done and making the appropriate changes toward living a better life both personally and professionally. So in any coaching relationship, the needed results can only be achieved through a focused and committed actions from the coached. Many prospective coaching clients usually have misgivings about the coaching session they are about to embark on. This may be as a result of certain behavioural lethargy that keeps them thinking: Does this coach really care about me? Is he truly committed to my success? Can I trust him? Will he be open and honest with me when he give me feedback? Does he have something of value for me? Will he share his best to help me become my best? etc. All these account for a lack of self-confidence, meekness and timidity that hinder both the coach and the coachee from achieving the desired results. It is therefore recommended that a coaching client should: - Have confidence and personal conviction in the effectiveness of coaching. - Be adequately prepared for coaching sessions with questions and information to share. - Be open to the coach's questioning and feedback and ask questions to clarify anything that is confusing. - Stay organized and track progress between coaching sessions. - Report honestly to the coach any progress made or challenge(s) faced. - Communicate openly about issues found to be difficult.