Coach of the Month – January Coaching Q & A

We are surrounded by amazing people. We strive to support growth and always appreciate quality, especially in coaching. Our intention is to maintain an environment in which wisdom is shared, ideas spread and there is an opportunity for professionals to connect and collaborate for the benefit of coaching.

We are proud of our coaching community at PSG and it will be our pleasure this year to create a platform for the professional coaches to introduce themselves, their work, purpose, approach and a view of coaching as a profession.

To achieve this, every month we will invite one coach from our community to become our Featured Coach for that month.

So who is our Featured Coach in January?

Here is our Coach of the Month – January Coaching Q & A

PSG: Since qualifying, what are the top 3 lessons you have learnt that support your growth as a coach:

Jean:

1. Never to take for granted the art and skill of deep listening. Listening at the deepest level is always required if I am to be truly present in a co-active relationship with my client. This requires personal preparation before the session including managing my focus; active listening in the session avoiding distractions; and personal examination after the session acknowledging what went well and what could have gone better.

2. Pacing in a session is very much connected to the point above because depending on the level of engagement with my client, I am more likely to be in touch with the pace that allows great work to happen and that facilitates change to occur for my clients. Pace can pose subtle challenges as going too fast I can miss the core issues while going too slowly can lead a client to feel they are achieving little or nothing.

3. The need for great questions can’t be over-stated and this comes from really listening. It is so easy to jump to conclusions and make assumptions when coaching, often to do with my own prejudices, agendas or preferences. By asking great questions I can check out assumptions while at the same time I can confirm my intuition which is hugely useful in coaching. Avoiding my own agenda or assumptions in relation to my clients is of paramount importance and is a challenge as the tendency to want to know exactly where a session is going is always present. Yet in co-active coaching the agenda and direction belong to the client and as a coach i have learnt to trust the process which allows real progress to be made.

PSG: To -date, as a coach, what has brought you the most fulfilment? 

Jean: What has brought me most fulfilment is seeing people come alive through the process of coaching; regaining their energy when they recognise what it is they really want, what’s really important to them; and when they find their own solutions to what may have felt like insurmountable obstacles. It never ceases to amaze me how resourceful people are and how effective the coaching process is when it is truly co-active with both engaged in what can be a life changing process. That life changing process works both ways because both coach and client are actively ‘dancing in the moment’ and therefore both can share in the rewards albeit somewhat differently. I cannot, for example, pose a challenge to a client or ask a question which I would not pose or ask myself and that has had some interesting and exciting consequences.

PSG: What do you foresee as the main reasons for clients to look for coaching in 2015? 

Jean: Most of my clients come for work related coaching – to improve performance, to change direction, to salvage a career, to deal with conflict and so on – but inevitably their personal lives become part of the coaching process and in some cases turn out to be the real reason why they came for coaching. Given my management background, I think most of my coaching will be work or business related in 2015 as people strive to find fulfilment or to be more effective in their work, live a more balanced life and cope with the pressures of debt. The issue of ‘values’ is high on many people’s agendas as the recent economic recession has pushed people to question what is really important in their lives. This presents an exciting opportunity to support people to transform their lives and their work.

Contact Jean: Linkedin or Email