Coaching & Mentoring

We are often busy at work and we don’t have enough time to stop and think about what we are doing and why, or it can be that important information is outside of our awareness, limiting our thinking and holding us back. Creating space to think with a coach can help you develop increased awareness of yourself, a situation or other people, become more focused, identify new perspectives, make decisions that you can drive forwards, improve your well-being and increase effectiveness at work.

Sometimes people seek coaching at a time of development or transition or when there is a time of increased pressure or stress.

Everyone is capable of better results and coaching can focus on areas such as: improving specific skills (e.g. influencing, leadership and/or management skills), developing new ways of being in situations, managing organisational issues and/or change initiatives, work-life balance, preventing or managing stress, and overall effectiveness at work. Sometimes people seek coaching at a time when they are considering making changes in their life or when they are transitioning to a new role.

Life coaching is coaching focussed on something specific in your life such as to rediscover your own strength and abilities: this can include excelling in the workplace, becoming happy and fulfilled at home, managing work-life balance, improved health and well-being, exploring your potential, managing health issues.

Don’t worry if these descriptions don’t fit for you, coaching is for everyone and is adapted to suit you to develop further awareness in an area you want to focus on, in order to help you decide, what the right positive changes are for you.

I am impressed by the changes that I see when people make use of coaching to focus on the areas that are important to them. I notice that many people experience benefits over a relatively short space of time such as 6 sessions over 4-6 months. I am really motivated when I hear people describing their experience of coaching as “life changing” or “I am now a better version of me” and “The insight and tools transformed my life”. Coaching provides a framework and this structured approach seems to benefit people and enable them to make progress.

Outcomes from coaching vary depending on what you focus on, and how motivated you are. Outcomes typically include: increased confidence and effectiveness, increased self-awareness, better people skills, improved leadership and management skills, successfully making specific decisions and driving these forward, readiness for promotion or change, adapting to something difficult or a transition, having a more balanced life and lower stress levels.

Mentoring is coaching where the mentor has some relevant life experience to bring to the work with the mentee. This can be an obvious explicit experience such as being the same professional background, a change focus such as transitioning from working in the NHS to Independent practice, working in leadership positions or implicitly being an experienced human being. Mentoring typically includes sharing some of the mentor’s experiences as part of the process, in a way designed to help the mentee.