Why you should hire a coach

When I decided to become a coach I went through a quite extensive study program - over hundred in person hours and about the same remotely, plus hundreds of hours logged coaching people.  What all these hours do, beyond tools, activities and honing your own style - which there are plenty.  It teaches you the most important tool to becoming a coach: How to stop telling people how to live their lives.

I know, it seems like an oxymoron, a coach not telling you what to do.  But that's the truth.  

A coach, can give you advice, give you tips, give you ideas, but the main goal of your coach is to help you find your confidence in YOURSELF.

GOOGLE VS. YOU

I recently had a client ask me how to run a board room meeting.  I told him to google it after our call, as I'm sure there will be great tips on "logistics of running a board meeting", but what concerned me most was how did HE want to show up in that board room meeting?  How did he want to be perceived, what information did he want to get across, what was the tone in the room that he wanted to set and how did he want his team to feel leaving the room?

These things you can't find on google and they are innately who he is.  These are the things that make him a great leader and what inspires his team to follow him, not whether or not he follows some set guidelines during the meeting.

And THAT is what a good coach does.  Allows you to see the traits that make up the core of who you are , some of them so deep you might not even be able to see them.  Sometimes it's to find the missing traits that you'd like more of and then create action and accountability around how to incorporate them into your life.  And also shows you how to trust yourself enough, to show up as you are.

Once you are clear about these things and how you want to BE, it's a lot easier to SHOW UP.   Because when we ask questions like how do we do something - it's really saying how DO I DO SOMETHING.  Because new things are scary and out of our comfort zone and requires us to stretch.

HOW OUR WORDS SHAPE US

Another thing a coach does is listen to your words -- mind you, your words, not your story -- and from your words create a jumping off place.  One that you might not have even known existed.  

It's so strange when you actually say the words that are running in circles around in your head. How saying those things changes the meaning of them and creates space to explore a new reality or perception.

That is what coaching should do. Change the story that you tell yourself over and over, in order to step into the strengths of the person you are.