Decoding Coaching And What’s In It For You

Recently, Rita (name changed), a friend of ours was ready to quit her job, two months after returning from maternity leave. She couldn’t cope and was very stressed, felt hopeless and had low self-esteem. Instead of giving up, we suggested she could give coaching a chance. This helped her learn to focus on what was most important. Within a couple of months, she was back to her competent, collaborative self. Instead of becoming a poor case of retention, she was setting career development goals for her future.

There are so many others like Rita. No, I don’t mean women returning from maternity breaks. I’m referring to those who need a bit of handholding to meet their goals, struggle with self-confidence, let fear drive their decisions or are bogged down by a new transition, and for them coaching can be an effective solution to bring a fresh perspective.

But what exactly is coaching, and how effective is it in helping people achieve their goals?

In essence, coaching is a collaborative process where a coach, promotes self-discovery and self-reliance. Through guided reflection and exploration, and unwavering support, the coach empowers individuals to gain a deeper understanding of their values, motivations, and preferred working styles. This newfound self-awareness empowers them to make informed decisions, overcome obstacles, and navigate complex situations with greater confidence. Its effectiveness lies in its ability to cultivate self-awareness, build confidence, and equip individuals with the tools to navigate challenges and achieve success.

In the business world, there are lots of products and services out there that claim to change your life — and coaching might be the one thing that actually delivers on this promise. The benefits of coaching reach beyond the superficial and are as flexible as you need them to be. Research by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) indicates that 80% of coachees report increased self-confidence,

and over 70% experience improved work performance and communication skills after undergoing coaching.

Coaching brings that extra perspective to iron out the problem and enables the individual to move forward. Here are the top two benefits of coaching:

Knowing one’s self better:

Developing self-awareness is important because unless we know ourselves better, we continue to assume that the cause of our problem is outside of us. While at times it may certainly be so, often, the cause of our problem is in our self-limiting thinking or rusty beliefs.

Coaching helps you gain a deeper understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, values, and goals. With a good understanding of how we relate to others, we can adjust our behaviour so that we deal with them positively. By understanding what upsets us, we can improve our self-control.

Self-awareness leads to better relationships and a more fulfilling life, both in the workplace and at home. It can help you gain new perspectives and insights into yourself. Increased self-awareness can lead to better decision-making, more effective communication, and improved relationships.

Finally, and importantly it helps to develop listening skills to ensure the response is more effective in conversations.

What’s in it for you?

The ability to recognize one’s limitations and consequently working on them is key to great leadership, communication, and teamwork.

Improved Performance:

Once self-awareness is heightened, all aspects that drain your energy start to dissipate. For example: an individual who spent time sulking over feedback, through coaching, understood that the sulking was due to a rusty belief that all feedback is always negative. Through coaching this individual was able to process the information that feedback can also be positive, was able to identify instances where feedback was positive, so on and so forth. This led to a steep rise in self-awareness and the individual was able to move past feedback quickly, act on it effectively and in the process, was able to significantly improve work-related performance.

A coach provides constructive feedback and encourages reflection, helping you learn from your experiences and make adjustments to your strategies as needed. Coaches also help you identify and overcome obstacles, whether they are external barriers or internal limiting beliefs, helping you find effective solutions.

Through coaching you can get structured support to help you define clear, specific, and achievable goals, ensuring that they are aligned with your values and long-term aspirations. This creates a sense of accountability, encouraging you to stay committed to your goals and take consistent action towards achieving them.

Net-net, coaching empowers individuals to achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively than they might on their own.

What’s in it for you?

With clarity over goals and targets as well as the motivation to achieve personal and professional milestones, you will experience a greater sense of accomplishment.

For organisations:

Coaching can be a useful way to develop people skills and abilities, and boost performance. It can also help deal with issues and challenges before they become major problems. It can help improve job performance by monitoring progress and providing the employee with self-monitoring tools.

In some organisations, coaching is still seen as a corrective tool, used only when things have gone wrong. But in many companies, coaching is considered to be a positive and proven approach for helping employees explore their goals and ambitions, and achieve them.

The obvious question then arises – how?

• Through targeted conversations and actionable feedback, coaching nudges individuals toward continuous personal and professional growth.
• Coaches prompt meaningful dialogues and provide feedback that is both practical and personalised. This guidance and self-reflection help individuals set and achieve their goals, enriching their well-being and fulfilment.
• By instilling key interpersonal skills, coaching paves the way for stronger workplace relationships as well. Employees learn to engage in healthier, more constructive relationships, fostering a work environment where support and positive collaboration are the norms.
• Coaching enables the employee to take action to create real changes and develop personally. It increases confidence and builds the ability to adapt to change and overcome challenges.

Coaching equips individuals with the tools and strategies they need to become self-directed learners and problem-solvers, fostering a sense of ownership over their professional and personal growth.

However, it’s important to acknowledge that coaching is not a magic bullet. To be effective, it requires commitment from both the coach and the coachee. The coachee needs to be actively engaged in the coaching process, willing to be challenged, and hold themselves accountable for taking action. While coaching offers a wealth of benefits, it’s important to recognize its limitations. Coaching is not therapy. It is not designed to address deep-seated psychological issues.

Overall, coaching offers a powerful service that provides a supportive and structured environment to help you unlock your potential, achieve your goals, and lead a more fulfilling and successful life. By fostering self-awareness, building confidence, and equipping individuals with the tools for success, coaching empowers individuals and organisations to reach their full potential.

Feeling stuck? We can offer new insight and coach you through your problem. To know more write to us at contact@yellowspark.in

Author Profile: Deepam Yogi is an adventurer at heart, socially conscious in her gut and professionally a strategic consultant. She co-founded Yellow Spark to support organisations to build workplaces that people love being a part of. Deepam describes herself as a shy yet opinionated writer and firmly believes that most answers to complex issues lie in simple communication.