Actually, Coaching Isn’t Just for Athletes

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What the heck is a coach?

What do coaches do?

Why do people work with them?  

How do you know if you’d benefit from a coach?

I’m betting you might have asked yourself at least one of these questions before and I want to share some answers.

• What the heck is a coach? What do coaches do?

Well, Merriam-Webster defines it as “a private tutor” or “one who instructs or trains”.

But, it’s more than that.

A coach is a guide who empowers you to achieve your goals by providing personalized strategies, tools, and support and by helping you see inward.

• Why do people work with coaches?  How do you know if you’d benefit from a coach?

There are all sorts of reasons to work with a coach, but chief among them is that you’re not making progress on your own, or as quickly as you’d like, or you make progress, but then backslide and give up.

With a coach, you’re giving yourself the support and guidance you need to move from where you are right now, to where you want to be.

And you’re insulating yourself from giving up.

Coaches provide accountability, support, guidance and can help you get perspective, without judgement.

Some people don’t want, or need, that.

And those people shouldn’t hire a coach.

But some do.

• And what kind of coach am I?

Well, the short answer is that there are ALL sorts of coaches.

And coaching exists on a spectrum, where on one end the coach asks lots of self-reflective questions and leads you to your own answers, and on the other end is “sports coach”, which I I won’t explain in detail, because you’ve either had one, or seen one on TV.

But, just in case you haven’t, a sports coach looks at what you’re doing, and helps you identify tweaks you can take to improve, all the while, guiding you towards your goals.

Neither of these ends of the spectrum are better than the other.

But, when you’re hiring a coach, I think you want to know where they are on the spectrum, and, more importantly, what you want.

Me? 

I’m about ⅔ of the way to sports coach. (But not the yell-y kind! The supportive kind.)

Yes, I ask questions and we dig deep.

(Because often, the reason you’re not doing what you want to be doing isn’t simply because you don’t know how.)

But, I also show you how to tweak what you’re doing to improve your results.

I’m not expecting you to answer the question “Well, how do YOU think you should manage your inbox?”.  

Heck, I'm not even going to ask you that question. 

Because I know it won’t help.

I’m here to actually show you what I’ve seen working for myself, and for others (because we are NOT all the same), and support you while we tweak strategies until they work, sustainably, for you.

In the long run.

My client, Lynn, once said “I didn’t want to talk about my childhood — I needed someone who would dig deep and nerd out, helping me (re)evaluate pretty much everything through the lens of my natural personal style.”

(Now, of course we can talk about your childhood if that’s helpful to you. Again, everyone is different. And coaching is about YOU.)

But that second half of what Lynn said? That’s where the rubber meets the road

I’m a guide, a troubleshooter, a cheerleader, an experimenter and your biggest supporter.

And I want you to remember that I’m here when you need me.

In your inbox every week.

And one click away if you want more support, if you think you’re the type of person who would benefit from working with a coach, and if my style seems like it might fit your needs.