I met a lady one day through a phone conversation, and because she sounds so oriented and seems to be having that gentle charisma, I asked her, “What do you do?” She replied happily, “I’m doing life coaching.” And I said to her, “Ah ok! That sounds great, working out on your body and keeping yourself.” Then I heard a sarcastic laugh through the phone, and she responded in a calm voice, “Well, go and do some reading about it, dear. It took me years to reach where I’m now.” And in my mind, I was thinking about Coaching. Life coaching. What could such profession possibly mean? Previously, those were the questions that occupied my mind for several weeks. I searched through Google about it, and I found out that it is way beyond words. In a nutshell, being a coach to me was a transformational lifestyle, an understanding of everything around you. Developing a whole new, evolved mindset. I believe that is how the name came of Coach Transformation Academy.
Coaching is a way to direct/rewire the client’s mind in achieving goals and overcome obstacles and difficulties in their lives by actively listen and by asking powerful questions. Understanding foundational coaching skills are very essential for building a successful coach. Coaching can be many types of life/personal coaching, executive coaching, career coaching, business coaching, group coaching, team coaching, or performance coaching. A coach must understand that in coaching, he is not mentoring, consulting, training, or giving any therapeutic actions or guidelines.
The client is the expert of their situation, and the leader of the coaching session, not the coach is the leader. So the client gives his/her life-changing answers, provides the network of the solutions and problem-solving process, and is held accountable for it. Making the client aware of what she/he is doing in her/his life by raising awareness, allowing the client to dig deeper inside and draw her/his own map of success. By answering the coach’s powerful questions asked, the client will look at things from different perspectives, creating a map to find ways to make it through and concur what was thought to in mind to be impossible.
Moments of gratitude and powerful learnings…
I have learned a lot through this wonderful course (Coach Transformation Academy) CTA-CPC/ACC conducted by Mr. Haris Syed. I better refer it as a journey of self-transformational process and eye-opening to me, which made me see the world and understand it from a different angle. It made me think and analyze, and the more I think, the more I get more clarity of the outer world and my inner self. I feel that I became more self-reliant, goal-oriented. I built a good level of self-awareness, and I communicate more effectively with others. I get to realize how people could be so different yet alike in many ways. Carrying this thought allows me to hold positive regard for everyone and accept everybody’s differences, opinions, and points of view in life.
I got to realize some valuable key points throughout my learnings: We are all learning, and there is no failure in any situation we face in our lives, yet always there is a solution to every problem. Nothing is complicated, we are complicating it. We all have this unconscious good intention that we carry deep inside behind all behaviors, and that’s why we must keep unconditional positive regard towards one another. Believing that all people are whole and resourceful. The Law of attraction is real, and it’s happening every time as we think we react. Learning and giving back to society what you’ve learned is important.
I will apply this learning by following the coaching process. I learned in the course of transformational coaching, which goes in consequence:
Planning – Being able to establish a coach/coachee relationship by using planning tools. The coachee making an introductory conversation and see if they picked up the right coach.
Contracting – Establishing an agreed foundation in which it includes roles and approach to coaching, confidentiality arrangements, goals, and desired outcomes. A timeframe to reflect on and evaluate the client’s progress – to develop a successful and trusted relationship.
Coaching – As previously stated but to put it in a nutshell, it is a set of action plan consist of a conversation made between the coach and the client in which the coach supports the client throughout the coaching conversation by using a variety of questioning techniques that help in defining goals and needs and exploring more solutions and options for the client to reach the desired outcome.
Evaluation – Comes at the end of the coaching cycle. The coach and client will agree on how to transition the relationship and if any follow up is required. It involves reflection on the coaching relationship, reviewing progress against goals and desired outcomes, and acknowledging the progress and gains.
Long-term returns from learning that I learned a lot about myself and coaching are that you do not have to listen and get involved with distracting thoughts about self-doubt or insecurities.
I remember when I first started the coaching program, the second day that I had all these distracting thoughts running through my head.
It was unusual to realize that I was paying attention to my limiting beliefs and negative thoughts in my head telling me that “Am I good enough?”, “How am I going to do this? It sounds very hard” or “I’ll never going to make this and coach others. I need coaching myself.” Then, I got to shut off all the voices in my head telling you cannot do it and focused on the learning, and I have to realize that coaching was not about me, it was all about the client who will be sitting in front of me, which made the difference for me. Having all the coaching knowledge in the world is not going to make a difference to clients unless you are using them by actually coaching people.
The first stage can be confusing, and you will have moments where you wonder why coaching is so tricky or hard to make as a career. However, this does not last long. As your self-awareness will expand and gain a high level of emotional intelligence. Embracing a sense of experimentation shows you the kind of coach you can be.
