I recently wrote an article and was asked to stay within the 350-word count. It was hard. There was so much more I wanted to say, so I decided to write a blog to share a little about my own leadership journey, my ‘why’ for doing what I do and how I came to be running a coaching business.
My leadership journey:
I started my leadership journey in 2002. I have never started a role thinking about the next step up. I just focused on each job, did my very best and put everything into it. It resulted in me moving along the leadership ladder every 2 – 3 years.
My most significant leadership role was a huge step up from my previous one. I’d covered someone on maternity leave and they didn’t return. I was offered the permanent position. I knew it was a big step, but I knew I could do it. I was launched into a world of increased pressure, accountability and responsibility. Add to that, that I was managing one of only seven pilot schemes in the country launched by the government and it made for some high-level scrutiny and observation and a team that were feeling the pressure.
Outcomes are of course important, but my natural leadership style has always been about focusing on the people that do the jobs and making sure they are in the best place they can be to carry out their role.
Right from my pre-teen years I can trace an interest in people and behaviour and that can be tracked in every single job I have ever done.
From volunteering with young offenders at the age of 14, helping them engage in positive activities to my career in the charity sector there has been a theme. A deep interest in people and how to support them to move forward positively.
In my own leadership journey, I’ve always been about people and building relationships as a foundation for working together and meeting outcomes. Whenever I’ve observed numbers and profit overtaking people, if the way people are treated is compromised, I have become uncomfortable and disillusioned. It goes against what I believe.
Having said that I have learnt an enormous amount from both good and poor leaders around me. They have shaped my approach in equal measure.
How I was introduced to coaching:
Coaching came at a time in my life when I needed it. I didn’t know I needed it because I didn’t know what coaching was.
I was introduced to it in 2010 when I commenced my new leadership role. I was asked by one of the Directors if I’d like some coaching. Wanting to grow and learn and be the best I could at the role, I agreed. The work was relentless, I was going above and beyond and needed some support.
Coaching was a defining step for me, I loved it. It made a real difference to me and my ability to do my leadership role. It helped me see my own leadership style and how best to use it in challenging moments. To stay true to myself and to know what part of myself to call upon when I needed it.
I recall very clearly a time when a big decision needed to be made and everyone around me had an opinion of what I should do and how I should do it. It was me that needed to make the decision.
‘I remember thinking, whatever I do, I need to know that it felt right morally’, that I considered all the options and came to the conclusion that I would be able to stand by, firmly, if I was asked to explain my reasoning. A decision that is rooted in my true self and what I believe to be right and wrong.
Coaching helped me find that.
Over the years I have completed various leadership and management courses and gained qualifications but coaching was different. It felt so practical, instantly. It gave me the time to really think about how I wanted to do things, decisions I wanted to make. Being asked questions that get you thinking in depth about your views. Having someone to reflect things back on and make sure the decisions you make are right.
At that time there was no other person that I could have had that conversation with. Looking back and knowing what I know now, there is no other conversation like a coaching conversation.
Every other conversation was people providing their advice or telling me what I should do. This was different. It was about me considering everyone’s advice and my knowledge along with what I know about myself to find my own way of doing things. Having a qualified coach whose job was to focus on my agenda, to make sure it was the best possible thing for me and ask the right coaching questions was powerful and transformed my approach.
‘It’s not therapy but it’s certainly therapeutic’ I know that from my own experience and clients have said it to me.
Coaching is refreshing, liberating and empowering.
In a leadership position where you are expected to make decisions and people are looking at you to make them, I appreciated having someone to share things with once a month. That’s all it took. Those things have stayed with me 14 years on and shaped my decisions.
Coaching was my future:
One thing I knew very quickly is that the coaching approach fitted with my personality and I wanted to do it. I’m a people focused person; all personality profiles come back with that. I accommodate others, I collaborate with others and I am empathetic. I’m measured and like to listen to others.
I wanted to set up my own coaching business and work with leaders to provide the space to think and be the best they could be, to step out and take time for themselves, to keep themselves ‘topped up’ ready to deliver. Just like I had.
Supporting people to find their own authentic style of leadership and lead others. For me that authentic style was having a people focus, compassion, empathy, understanding, building relationships, trust and rapport. Anything other than that felt wrong to me.
‘After experiencing coaching I became laser focused’ on developing my coaching skills to move me towards having my own coaching business. I trained as a Workplace Coach with my employer and coached colleagues in a national charity. I continued to coach at the University of Lincoln and secured my first few clients whilst working full time.
In 2019 I threw myself into it full time, studying for my ILM 7 in Executive Coaching Post Grad qualification and my NLP Practitioner training. I was getting clear on what I wanted to do and what I wanted to offer others. I launched into the big wide world in December 2019.
I am passionate about the power of coaching and what it can do. I believe all leaders should have coaching at least once in their leadership journey to experience its value. I challenge any leader who thinks they don’t have the time to have coaching. A focused 90 minutes/half day etc. saves you time, it drives you forward and gives you the momentum to ‘go again’ and achieve more than you would do otherwise and sooner too.
I coach Executives and Leaders who want to invest in themselves, they want to be the best they can be to lead themselves, their teams and their organisations. They want to be their version of their best, what’s right for them.
‘My favourite day is a day of seeing clients’, working with people to find clarity and solutions. I love that clients describe feeling ‘lighter,’ knowing exactly what they want to do it and how they want to do it. I can physically see the difference. They’ve generated their own answers, they’ve considered all angles and land in a place where it feels right.
‘I wasn’t at all surprised to see that you’ve gone into coaching.’
Those were the words of a CEO I had worked for previously before I became a coach. ‘You’re authentic and open and challenge when necessary.’
I’ve always appreciated that comment.
If you would like to know more about how coaching could support you, feel free to book a complimentary 30 minute call with me. I would love to meet you.