Previously, Spencer Stuart debunked myths about coaching and found out when to seek professional help. Below are some tips on how to use your time effectively with a coach.
This short recommendation from Yulia Sadovnikova, Head of Retail practice, Spencer Stuart, will help you get the most out of your coaching session.
1. Start communication with a specific request
“I don’t know what I want, but I don’t want what I know” is difficult material to work with, and it’s not a fact that you and him should go to a coach, and not to a psychotherapist. It will be useful to formulate a specific problem or task, which you don’t have a solution for and don’t know how to approach.
2. Be prepared for the non-linear response of the coach to your request
Almost never he will tell you what to do – this is not his task. And the questions that he / she will ask you may sound quite unexpected and even put you in a stupor. The first reaction may be bewilderment: “I have problem A, why are you asking me about B?” Asking questions about non-obvious parts of the puzzle gives more important details to the coach and expands your perspective. Your brain builds new neural connections, and you, imperceptibly for yourself, begin to think about the situation differently and become one step closer to solving the problem.
3. Write down your aha! moments, don’t rely on memory
You will find that thinking about and answering some of the coaching questions will open doors in your head that you never knew existed. This feeling can be illustrated by a light bulb that lights up above the head of cartoon characters. Unfortunately, these bulbs tend to go out quickly: insights dissolve in the flow of routine, and brilliant guesses are forgotten. Keep a notebook for meetings with the coach and write down all the good thoughts and ideas that come to you. This exercise is especially important when you are working on a very specific request: in this case, the recorded insights will help you move towards solving it.
4. Reflect
You will most likely be talking to a coach about once a month or two. Dedicate a significant amount of time to reflection and other “homework” after meetings with a coach: You need to come back to this weekly, making time in your calendar. This may be part of the weekend at first, but over time it is desirable to find time during the week as the weekend is the time to recharge and spend time with loved ones and this is very important to progress in any coaching request.
5. Finally: in matters of self-development, self-discipline and regularity are more important than anywhere else.
No miracle will happen to you in one session, no matter how conscious your request is and no matter how good a specialist your coach is. Actualization, reformulation of the request / task / focus, constant discussions with the coach, fixing new insights and opening additional perspectives of the old ones, reflection and exercises – only repeating this cycle several times can give a systematic result. Recent studies show that habits are truly ingrained in three months, which is the minimum time required to start the flywheel of changes that you expect from working with a coach.
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