Growing as a Coach
Another week of learning for me with the EduroLearning #CoachBetter program. There is so much new material and so many ideas rattling around my brain, the problem will be how to implement them.
This week we are looking at how we coach. Who are we?
One of the biggest revelations, for me, is that I suffer from “Imposters Syndrome”. I have never really thought about this, and I am profoundly grateful to Jessica Bennett for writing such an excellent article on this. Meet me and you will think “no way!”. I am confident, approachable and competent. I am often complimented on my work and I seem to be proactive and have my self together. However, I know this is a facade and I also know that something is holding me back in most aspects of my life (if I am honest). When I read Jessica Bennett’s article in the New Your Times (see link above), it was a light blub moment. I recognised myself immediately.
Next step is to implement some of her wonderful tips and see if I can improve the way I embrace the challenges of my work. The main aspects I will be working on are:
Affirmations - this is VERY NEW to me. This is something that I just don’t do. Something that I may have laughed at in the past (terrible to admit but probably true). My aim is to write a few and seeing how they feel. I have already added some ideas onto the private coaches course page - now I just need to practice using them! This might the biggest learning curve of all for me!
Visualise Success - this is harder than it sounds, as I have no idea what this looks like for me. My mission, before the start of the next school year, is to have an idea to work with (no matter how large or small) and see how I can develop my practice inline with this. I am hoping that through this I can try and REDUCE self-doubt. I do not expect to eradicate it, but a reduction would be great!
Remember, I am good at what I do - People tell me this all the time, but it never sticks. I let these wonderful complements, praise and support float away. I need to find a way to “tie them down” and not allow them to drift like petals on the wind. The only solution I can currently think of is to try and keep a praise folder - but MORE IMPORTANTLY take some time to read this and recognise it is true, and I do deserve it.
The other article that inspired me this week was “Cultivate coachability with the 5 mindsets” by Julie Winkle Giulioni
Whilst reading this article, I thought about experiences where I was coached and the aspects of those experience that helped me. I found that the coach in these experiences had used all of these mindsets at some point. The mindsets are: Relational, Listening, Growth, Accountability, and Support.
An example is the wonderful Deborah Ivey, who coached a group of us in an Art class (after school). She was always keen to listen to your ideas and gave us space to experiment and reach our own ideas. Nothing was ever seen as a failure, just a point to experiment further, guiding us through many techniques to do this. It was a tremendously supportive environment where she shared material and ideas that enhanced our experience, but did not force us onto set and pre-determined paths. I found the whole exercise very liberating and left feeling a sense of accomplishment. On a side note as someone who felt they had the artistic ability of a brick, I left feeling with a joy of painting. To be honest still felt I lacked the ability, but loved the space to be creative!
As I type this, it makes me think, this is what I would like anyone who I have coached to feel, even if at the being we are discussing something that they may find challenging to work on.
So these are my current musing!
