The Successfull Coaching Session
Do you know what the "active" ingredient in a successful coaching session is? Do you know what needs to happen to you when you are being coached, to ensure that real change happens?
As an example the active ingredient in a Vitamin C tablet is ascorbic acid, without that the Vitamin C tablet will taste nice but won't increase your Vitamin C levels.
In coaching the goal of the coach is to mainly to help their coachee:
- come to their own conclusion
- be focussed on solutions
- increase their self-awareness
- gain insights
- be encouraged to decide upon tangible actions and fulfill them
These will generally constitute a good coaching session. However how often have you been coached and it felt nice/ good/ enjoyable etc. but nothing really changed?
I've met many people who tell me they've had lots of coaching/ mentoring/ consulting/ therapy etc. but things have still remained the same for them.
They key thing (the "active" ingredient) is that the brain's internal structure needs to change. If it remains the same then the brain will continue doing what it has done in the past, therefore you will achieve the same results that you have in the past.
In neuroscience terms this is called "self-directed neuroplasticity".
When you are next being coached ensure that the following happens if you want your brain structure to change...
- have you increased your awareness by stopping and focussing?
- have you reflected sufficiently so that your perspective on the issue you were facing has now changed?
- do you now see your situation in another way? have you gained some insight?
- have you agreed with your coach some actions you will take that will enable you to embed these new neural connections that you've made by 1) increasing your awareness, 2) reflecting to change your perspective and 3) gaining new insights?
To really achieve success make sure you are working WITH your brain and not against it!