You have achieved a lot in your life and in the workplace but you feel you have reached a plateau and are seeking new ways to grow
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You have devoted yourself into building your business or advancing at work and now you feel the need for a more balanced life and work
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You have set a brand new growth target at your job and you need to feel the support and encouragement from someone who cares and understands but is not involved in your workplace, business circle, friends or family
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You have a brand new team and you seek ways to build trust and maximize the team’s dynamics to achieve your targets
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You feel the need to express your self to clear your thoughts, structure your next steps and move forward
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You feel the need to have by your side someone who truly cares and understands you in what you are planning to do and offers support for your behavior, actions and risk taking
A professional coach may be the answer in what you are looking for. A coach will partner with you in a thought-provoking, challenging and creative process to inspire you to maximize your personal and professional potential.
Your coach has the ability to create a safe and supportive environment that produces ongoing mutual respect and trust. Your coach will demonstrate genuine concern about your present and future welfare and will respect your perceptions, your learning style and your personality. Your coach will champion your new behaviors, targets and actions and will support you when you take risks and are afraid of failure.
Your coach has the ability to be fully present and conscious and to create a spontaneous relationship by being flexible, open and confident. During the coaching process, your coach will use her intuition and inner knowing to understand you and encourage you. At the same time, your coach will be honest and open to not knowing and will take risks, which will benefit you and enable you to reach further and maximize your potential. Your coach will chooses the most effective way to work with you and the most effective moment to do so. Your coach will use humor and will create lightness and energy. Your coach is confident and will be able to work with strong emotions while maintaining calm and clarity.
Your coach has the ability to listen to you effectively. Your coach will focus completely on what you are saying and what you are not saying and will encourage your self-expression. Your coach will listen to your concerns, goals, values and beliefs and your assessment about what is possible and what is not. Your coach will distinguish between your words, your tone of voice and your body language and will summarize, paraphrase, reiterate and reflect back what you say to ensure clarity and understanding. Your coach will encourage and accept, explore and reinforce your expression of feelings, concerns, doubts, beliefs, perceptions and suggestions and will build on your ideas. Your coach will understand the essence of your communication and will allow you to move on without judgment or attachment.
Your coach has the ability to ask powerful questions that reveal the information and clarity needed for your maximum benefit. Your coach will ask questions that reflect her understanding of your perspectives and will focus on your desired outcomes. Your coach will challenge your assumptions to evoke discovery, insight, commitment or action.
Your coach has the ability to communicate effectively using language that has the greatest positive impact on you. Your coach will be clear, articulate and direct in sharing and providing feedback. Your coach will present other perspectives of what you want and will use tools and techniques to help you gain clarity and focus and achieve your objectives.
Your coach has the ability facilitate learning and results. Your coach will integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information and share interpretations that will help you gain awareness and achieve your desired results. Your coach will identify your underlying concerns: how you perceive your self and the world, differences between facts and your interpretation and disparities between your thoughts, your feelings and your action. Your coach will help you discover for yourself new thoughts, feelings and beliefs, which will strengthen your ability to take action to achieve what is important to you. Your coach will communicate broader perspectives and viewpoints and will inspire commitment to find new possibilities for action. Your coach will identify major strengths and major areas for learning and growth and will help you distinguish between what you say and what you do.
Your coach has the ability to help you design actions that will most effectively lead to your desired outcomes. Your coach will brainstorm new ideas and will assist you to define actions that will enable you to demonstrate, practice and strengthen new learning. Your coach will help you focus and systematically explore specific concerns and opportunities central to your coaching objectives. Your coach will present different viewpoints and will engage you to explore alternative ideas and solutions, evaluate different options and make decisions. Your coach will promote your journey of self-discovery at a comfortable pace suitable for you and will encourage you to actively experiment and immediately apply learning in your sessions together and in your work and life. Your coach will encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and achieve growth in new areas that you did not think it was possible. Your coach will celebrate your successes and potential for future growth.
Your coach has the ability to develop and maintain an effective coaching plan through which you will set and achieve your goals. Your coach will consolidate information and together with you will set development goals for major areas of growth. Your coach will help you develop a plan with targets that are specific, measurable, attainable and realistic and time bound. Your coach will suggest different sources of learning, such as books and seminars. Your coach will identify and help you set early success targets that are important to you.
Your coach has the ability to manage progress and hold you accountable while leaving the responsibility of action to you. Your coach will promote your self-discipline, keep you on track between sessions by holding attention on the coaching plan and agreed upon courses of action and outcomes and will follow through on your committed actions. Your coach will focus on the coaching plan but will demonstrate flexibility for shifting directions and changes in the desired outcomes.
Your coach is your partner in growth, your accomplice in life-changing decisions, your supporter, your advocate, your cheerleader, the person who listens to your inner voice and gut feeling. Your coach is your ship to Ithaca!
(Adapted from International Coach Federation Core Competencies)