My discovery of coaching wasn’t intentional. I fell into it by accident if I am honest but soon realised it was right up my street.
At the time I was fortunate to be working for a company that invested a great deal in the development of their employees at all levels.
So, I went on this residential course for an entire week (not everyone’s cup of tea but heaven for me) which included a 2-hr session with a coach. As an introvert and a good listener I was petrified at the thought of having to talk to someone for 2 hrs in person, who I would only meet for the first time during this appointment and the subject being ME!
Fortunately, that discomfort soon subsided because my coach was very intuitive and made me feel at ease, very early into the session.
During these 2 hours we did some deep work.
I laughed, I cried and felt every emotion in between.
I shared things with her that I had not told another soul before, knowing that everything I said would be treated with 100% confidentiality and I would never have to see her again unless I chose to.
I experienced many great break throughs at a personal and professional level which will be subject of another blog. Point being, the experience was transformational and I could only dream that one day I might be a coach myself facilitating this transformative work for others…
For now I just wanted to add these valuable coaching skills to my toolkit as a senior manager knowing that this would allow me to support my team members even more and ultimately help to bring the best out of them whilst also having a positive impact on the bottom line of the business.
Little did I know at the time, that this initial interest in coaching back in 2014 would grow into so much more.
