As a learning professional, coaching journey has been a Dejavu journey for me. Every little milestone in terms of moving the clients closer to their dreams is one of the biggest accomplishments of life. Every human existence wants to be a service to others; as social beings of the animal kingdom that’s our deepest calling. Every coach also needs to be in complete command of his/her life. Living as a role model with all the poise and finesse is all work of high EQ and SQ. Emotional Quotient and Social Quotient are two major areas of excellence for any coach; and play a critical role in championing the art of coaching.
My biggest learning from my coaching experience has been my commitment in living a superior quality of life and to facilitate the same for others. This journey has given me a lot personal gratification and also constant opportunities of improving my level of ownership in creating a WOW experience in my environment. As a coach we are constantly giving visibility to fresh pastures of every individual’s life…
Some of the important attributes of coach are following:1. Exquisite self-awareness.
2. High emotional intelligence.
3. Broad vision with focus on important details.
4. Nuanced, crisp, superb communication.
5. Highest regard, caring and respect for clients.
6. Creative, innovative learner and developer of custom coaching methodologies.
7. Perceptive, intuitive, curious and inquiring.
8. Quick study with capacity for deep and wide learning.
9. Student of coaching and other disciplines that support helping others.
10. Sincere interest in clients and desire to help.
11. Continuous learner of themselves and their experiences.
12. See coaching as a two way interchange of energies and learning.
13. Humble, open, nurturing and grateful to the world.
14. View coaching as a calling, an art and a discipline.
15. Walking the talk and modeling a good life for their clients.
It gives me a great pride to be a coach. In my coaching practicum, peer coaching and also supervised coaching , I have always practiced the ICA and ICF guidelines in skills. The essentials skills and competencies of a coach as per the ICF guidelines are following:
1. Setting the Foundation: Maintaining confidentiality of client: this ensures complete contracting, trusting and long lasting professional relationship. Like a lawyer, doctor the coach also needs to be a professional in conducting the discussion with the client’s progress in mind. Following the ethical and professional guidelines. Also suggesting other means of professional help if the discussion goes beyond the realms of coaching. Also agreeing on the professional contracting.
2. Co-creating Relationship: establishing trust and rapport with the client to get the best outcomes for the client. Also having a strong coaching presence through open, flexible and confident approach and communication. Demonstrates confidence in working with strong emotions, and can self-manage and not be overpowered or enmeshed by client’s emotions.
3. Communicating effectively: ability to focus completely on what the client is saying and is not saying to understand. Active listening, powerful questioning, paraphrasing and direct communication can all add tremendously to the progress in the coaching mission.
4. Facilitating Learning and Results: Being a catalyst to the client learning experience. To make interpretations that, help the client to gain awareness and thereby achieve agreed-upon results. Helps clients to see the different, interrelated factors that affect them and their behaviours. Help the client design actions around the goals. Encourages client to constantly discover inner potential and work towards stretched goals. Planning and goal setting is also critical aspect of this competency.
5. Managing Evaluation, Progress and Accountability: Ability to hold attention on what is important for the client, and to leave responsibility with the client to take action. Effectively progresses the client towards the destination and goals.
6. Use Intuition and appropriate tools to the best interests of the client. Supporting the clients through effective usage of tools and encouragement. Acknowledgments and constant positive stroking can facilitate great progress in the coaching journey.
My journey as a peer coach, external executive and life coach has been wonderful. ICA certification process, Ram’s coaching along with our coaching sessions has given me a wealth of knowledge. The latent potential and capabilities have taken wings with this humongous learning. I had done my NLP master Practioner certification in past, however as a coach I have used my prior learning of other techniques successfully. Peer coaching practices has helped me tremendously to progress myself.Different clients and their needs etc has always honed my skills and competencies as a coach. The ability to listen and also facilitate actions around deliverables is through the client ownership and client focus. The usage of intuition in various situations of coaching, various other coaching tools, wheel of life and Nlp tools have all progressed me towards the direction of making things happen.
Also the feed-forward of other coaches observing sessions have also been a great moral booster. I think coaching has also got me in touch with a community of human beings who know how to see the brighter side of life. They stroke the best in you to see the best getting unraveled. The influence of others around us is very powerful, and this coaching fraternity is great company to keep. They say an individual’s personality and character can be judged by the company he/she keeps; and is really proud to associate with each of the great coaches that ICA has given me. Exposure to different cultures and geographies has been a very powerful as well. Though I have travelled extensively; have many friends and family from different geos, this involvement in learning a practice/domain together has really helped me to see things in the world with a new vision…
Whether its geo, culture or gender the learning has been intriguing; every individual is so unique and come with different expectations. As a coach, being open to exploration and discovery is critical for the best results from the coaching endeavor.Last but not the least I think getting more involved in the coaching practice, I have also started using the philosophy and mechanism in my day to day life –both in professional and personal. From a genie, that has answers to everything I am evolving to be a scientist who engages in discovery, expedition and exploration to unravel the best potential and talent in others in the environment!!The journey for a change is looking better than destination… the joy of seeing others successful is truly remarkable. The coach gets much more than what meets the eye.The coaches ability to empower the individual to jump out of the comfort zone and realize new dreams and zones of life is what stands out and thrills me… quite like the fish in the picture here. It’s all a matter of the right strokes and powerful presence of the coach that can make a world of geniuses.
drsonaliduttabaanerjee 