What Is Coaching?
The role of a coach is to help people find solutions to their workplace challenges, rather than being the problem-solving hero and doing it for them. Coaching requires active listening and asking meaningful questions that get the other person thinking about their obstacles and their respective solutions.
Essentially, coaches ask good questions to help the coachee see things from new perspectives and determine the best path forward through their issues. A coach will simply provide the coachee with the guidance necessary to distinguish and accomplish goals on their own.
What Is Self-Coaching?
When you play the role of both the coach and the coachee, you guide yourself through your workplace challenges or times of transition. When self-coaching, you tend to follow the core elements of self-coaching:
- Follow a coaching model
- Create time and space for self-reflection and inner dialogue
- Answer powerful and thought-provoking coaching questions
- Engage in constructive thinking
- Develop an action plan and strategies to implement it
So, why is self-coaching so much more complex than coaching someone else?
The truth is that self-coaching involves a lot of reflection and confidence. It requires a lot of internal work of your whole self and all areas of your life. You have to play both roles and try to get yourself to see things from different perspectives and challenge old ways of thinking.
How Do I Start?
The first step to being successful in self-coaching is to identify why it’s necessary to start. Ask yourself, “what is the driving force behind coaching myself?”.
Life brings many obstacles, and the likelihood of having a coach nearby every time something comes up is not always feasible. While it would be great to have someone available at your fingertips to support you through every complication, it is just not realistic.
The impact self-coaching can have on your life will empower you to achieve your personal development independently.
The 4 Core Concepts of Self-Coaching
1. Pinpoint your focus
We cannot proceed with the self-coaching process without defining our end goal. The first step is to clarify what is important to you. What are you trying to achieve, and why?
Take this step as your chance to visualize your success. Envisioning the desired outcome can help you eliminate any sort of limitations. Having a clear vision of your success will strengthen the likelihood of it becoming your reality and thus, become a great source of motivation.
This practice starts with imagining what success looks like but, most importantly, how achieving success will make you feel. Picture how your future self will be fulfilled. Daily positive affirmations are also a great way to assist the power of visualization and are excellent reminders of your ultimate goal.
2. Do the inner work
Focusing on setting aside time to reflect and practice self-awareness is essential. Analyze your starting point, what obstacles are interfering with your goal, and how you will eliminate those barriers.
For this to be effective, you will need to have a clear mind. Going on a walk or meditating are a couple of things you can do to help you get in the right mindset. Once done, find a quiet place with no distractions to start your inner work.
Most importantly, you will need to be completely honest with yourself. Doing so will help you identify if there are any particular actions you need to start or stop. Most of all, this is a fantastic opportunity to acknowledge your efforts to improve.
3. Ready, plan, go
You’ve done the most demanding part — being honest with yourself; now, you need to craft your strategy. Do you have resources? Have you thought about what hindrances could get in your way? Put everything that could or could not go according to plan down on paper, and ensure you have a course of action for it.
Life is unexpected, and though we may want things to steer in a particular way, the reality is that they may not. You need to prepare yourself in advance for such instances. Remember what Benjamin Franklin said, “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
Setting up a plan that acknowledges various outcomes may happen will not only set you up for success but will also strengthen your tolerance and increase your adaptability. Progress isn’t always a straight line. Sometimes it’s two steps forward, one step back. Having a plan, including when you relapse, is critical for your ongoing success.
4. Recognize your accomplishments
Take a moment to acknowledge your self-coaching efforts. It’s no easy task, and you deserve to celebrate how far you’ve come!
Did you achieve your objective? Was it hard to follow your initial plan?
Some reflective time will help you understand what worked best and what didn’t. Above all, you did it, which deserves a celebration. Don’t forget to recognize your accomplishments because, whether big or small, they are equally important.
We are confident that these four core concepts of self-coaching will start you on your journey of becoming a great coach for yourself. Remember, it’s all within your power. As John Wooden wisely said, “a great coach can change a life.”
Do you want to start coaching others? Book a coaching workshop with us!
Have you heard of our 6-step self-coaching model? To become familiar with it, you can pre-order our book, The Emotionally Strong Leader: An Inside-Out Journey to Transformational Leadership, available on September 13th.
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