The power of a good coach 📋

This is the 16th Petaled snapshot of spring 2024 and today I want to talk about coaching. So on Saturday, my beloved football team, Deibre county, got promoted back into the championship after quite a few difficult seasons. Let's say it made me realise what a great coach Paul Warne has been for the team, got some stability, some support, some encouragement, and it also made me realise coaching is a fine art as well. On Friday, I was very lucky to have a bit of a coaching session with a good friend that I've got, Adrian Lansdowne. He knows me really well, but he's also recently graduated as a professional coach. So, you know, I jumped the opportunity to work with him and get some advice and sort of use his skills to self identify. The conversation is really quite useful for me. It's a great opportunity for me to reflect on some of my learnings, more recent learnings. It allows me to think about what my overall goals are, what my visions are, what my career aspirations might be, what my life aspirations might be as well, and how it all aligns. A good coach asks really good questions to make you realize and think about yourself, but there is that fine balance as well. As I've worked with Adrian for a long time, he knows me really well. We've got very similar interests and beliefs and there are times when we're having those conversations when I switch it around and say, what do you think? As well? And there's no harm in that. As a line manager, I have as many conversations with all my direct reports about their careers, about their life goals, about what they want to achieve. And I do try to keep the questions very coach oriented, like allowing them to realize. But there are moments when I will switch it and turn it to mentor mode and sort of say, can I provide some advice or some can I give you my thoughts? It's really hard to get right, but it's something to think about as you are learning about yourself, about what you want to achieve and trying to find out what you need to learn next. I really recommend finding a coach, even if it's a one off, a career coach, a life coach, whatever it might be, and get in some time with them to think about what you want to achieve and how you might achieve that. That's it from today and I'll be back tomorrow with more petals, snapshots.