Ep 044 Coaching Mini Series Part 1- What is Coaching?

Nicola: [00:00:00] welcome to the female leaders on fire podcast. I’m your host. I am Nicola Buckley, and I am the coach work with women at the top of organization and aspiring future leaders, helping these incredible women to find their fire, that passion, that purpose Sykes statement. So they have more impact. More influence and a result, more income, but also be a real force for good driving, positive change in organizations, but also doing that without sacrificing family time, without feeling like they need to be someone else and without giving all of themselves.

So, yeah, but welcome to the podcast today. I am really happy to be here today. This is something I’ve been meaning to do a little while. Um, this is going to be part one of a mini series, uh, where I’m going to be talking all about coaching. So today’s podcast. [00:01:00] Really this came about because I’m a coach, I’m an ICF accredited coach.

That means that I I’m a member of the international coaching Federation. So that means that my coaching has been assessed against their standards. It means I’ve got a hundred. Hundreds of thousands of hours of coaching practice behind me, probably thousands now. And it also means that I’ve had ongoing coaching supervision.

So I, every month I joined a coaching call with a coaching supervisor and I bring to that questions to really help me develop as a coach. So this is my profession and this is my career. But I think coaching can be a tub. That’s a little bit misunderstood. So what I want you to do in today’s episode is just really just to share what is, what is actually coaching.

So what does it actually mean? How does it work and what are the boundaries around coaching? So this is a first of a three-part mini. Um, with these as well, these are going to be slightly shorter episodes. [00:02:00] So I want to be direct and to the point, and this is a real challenge for me. So let’s get started then.

So what is this mythical magical coaching? And I know for me, it seems like given lockdown, given everything that’s happened, there’s more people than ever now that are claiming. Labeling themselves as some sort of coach. And actually when you do that, there was just millions and millions of results. And actually the number that came up was eight to nine.

And then. Six zeros. That’s how many results came up when you Google the term coach? I don’t even know how to say that. I think, I don’t know if that’s trillions of millions or trillions. I don’t know, but just really just to reflect the, it’s such a, it’s a term that’s overused and it’s a label that might not be, might not actually be something that should be used by a particular person.

It might be that they are more of a mentor. It might be that they’re more of, um, a therapeutic coach for example, but really what is coaching? [00:03:00] Coaching is effective time and space. When a client has time and space to really go a bit deeper, to really start to understand themselves. So it’s using intuitive questions to help them find their own answers.

And the way that I’ve heard it described, which I really like from the lady who runs his CEO, the coaching academy that I was part of when I was training, it’s kind of like a dance. With a client leading. So imagine the clients leading the way the clients leading with the steps, but you’re moving together in time to that rhythm.

So it’s all very much led by the client. So coaching is really giving that giving your client a safe space. The it’s judgment free, where you’re not making assumptions where you’re not, you’re not attached to the outcome. And just really for you to be that as someone who is neutral, you’re just, you’re the cheerleader you’re supporter, but effectively don’t have an attachment to the outcome.

[00:04:00] So with that being a safe and judgment free space. And confidential. It’s really where the client has time and space to really think about the things they might be struggling with, to think about where they might be challenged at the moment to think about what they want their future to look like, to think about who they truly are.

So all the big things that don’t really. The recent time is space in daily life with things being so busy. So that’s essentially what coaching is. So coaching is a dance with a client with a client leading, but you’re both moving together in time Thurber even. So it’s very much led by the client. It’s what I call client is client led client focus.

So for example, in a coaching relationship, We would set a goal together and we would work together through the series of coaching calls through that coaching relationship to really set a framework for what we explore in those coaching sessions. And for me to help the client find that. So looking for, with [00:05:00] intuitive questions, with some things that at times might challenge them a little bit, just so they can explore things more deeply, or they can look at things in a different way, or they can reframe what’s going on.

And then we will check in as we progress through our sessions and adjusting that goal when needed. And sometimes those conversations are absolutely on track and sometimes they might take a tangent, but if it’s still relevant, it’s still in brilliantly helpful work. And what are the boundaries of coaching as well?

So the boundaries of coaching coaching is not being told, telling a client what to do and having all the answers and giving that client your answers that’s meant. Uh, many coaches I believe are actually mentally. And if I think about before I did my coach training, I was a mentor. I wasn’t really a coach coaching is also not revisiting and delving back into the past in a really deep, really therapeutic way that is counseling.

So that’s different again. And some of my clients at times, they go back and have counseling support that [00:06:00] work that we do, but it’s almost all work we might touch upon the past, make it relevant to now in the future. But we don’t deep dive into it. That’s counseling and coaching is not hiring an expert to tell you what to do.

And just to answer your questions, that is very much consulting. So coaching is really the coach and the client working together and coaching is that time and space for client using those intuitive questions, to help them to find that answers on what are the boundaries of coach. If coaching steps, since that more of a counseling role of going deeply into the past or more of a mentoring role, where you’re giving more of the answers that isn’t coaching.

And we might suggest that you work with someone else to help you in that area, but we will obviously that will be discussed and that would be a nudge of love. And if it’s right for you, we would fail you to someone that is going to be able to give you that support. So that’s a super short one today. So that’s really, what is coaching?

How does it. What are [00:07:00] the boundaries of coaching and I will be back next time with what to look for in a coach. If you’d like some more support, all of my details in the show notes, just drop me a message or an email to book a call with me. Thanks so much. Bye

The view and you love what I have to say. And you have moments and flashes of inspiration from the podcast. I would invite you to get in touch, to find out how I can help you. So individually, that can be through my coaching focus program for my VIP program, depending on how. Learn and what will suit you, or I can help you in your organization to really help the women that you work with across the organization at all different levels.

And at that very senior level to really feel empowered and to know that they can reach the very, the most senior [00:08:00] levels in that organization and to give them the. In who they are and the clarity, what they want to be able to get there. And we do that through workshops, do that through leadership programs, and we can do that.

Free consulting work. If you are looking for help with any of that, drop me an email nycla@nicholasschoolco.com. The spelling is not the easiest. So all the details are in the show notes results I get for clients. Clients have been promoted twice in the six months we’ve worked together. They’d been invited to join the board.

They’ve gone from redundancy to being offered three dreams. They’ve gone from being pushed out of an organization to going into bigger organization and a bigger role with a bigger pay rise and just a quote from a client that particular. I’ve gone from the pit of despair. When I started working with Nick to just being really happy and she is an incredibly empowered leader.

Now, if you’re not quite ready for that, you can download my overwhelmed on fire guide the details that are in the show notes, but that really helps you everyday to stay in your fire. So it helps you to clear your head, helps you to come back to what’s [00:09:00] important to you, and it helps you to have that most impact and influence every single day.

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