The Power Of Coaching
Whether you’re new to strengths or have been on board for some time, you might be wondering whether strengths coaching is useful or just another gimmick.
A colleague of mine once pointed out ‘There’s a reason elite athletes have coaches; they are essential to success’. Coaching is perfect for anyone wanting to improve a skill or capability. In my book, I talk about how coaching can help take someone from naming their strengths to using them as superpowers. Here’s an edited bit from the last chapter of my book.
I came late to snow skiing. I started when I was 40, so the natural confidence and ease that come with youth had deserted me. To begin with, I was extremely wobbly and pretty clueless. The first thing I did was book a lesson with an instructor who taught me the fundamental skills. I have taken lessons every year since then – usually more than one. I figured out very quickly that if my confidence and skills were going to improve, I needed coaching.
As a result, my skiing has improved exponentially, and I fall over less than I would have if I had struggled alone. Ski coaching gives me more quality time doing something I love and doing it better and better. It helps me develop my skiing superpowers (still intermediate but improving constantly!).
If you read my book, you may have initially wondered what your superpowers were and if you even had any. Self-doubt might have been a more familiar feeling than ‘I’ve got this!’. I hope that by reading the book you are feeling energised, inspired and empowered with the knowledge that your strengths are your superpowers.
The Powered Up model shows you how to work on self-awareness as a starting point. Knowing ourselves and our superpowers is critical foundation work. Once we have done this, we can build self-management. No longer ping-ponging through life, we can chart our course, using our strengths as levers to get the best impact from our energy. Once your self-management strategies are sorted, you can leap to self-mastery. That is where you use your superpowers for good, not evil. Here, you can partner with others, help them know and use their superpowers and create winning combinations.
Once you have read my book and have new strategies and tools, I hope you have tested some and turned them into habits. (If you haven’t read the book, check it out here LINK). In the book I have shown you how to power up your work and relationships and thrive with strengths. The beauty of your superpowers is that they have limitless applications. Use them anywhere and everywhere!
You have now had a taste of how to think more deeply about your strengths and apply them, so what happens next? I am here to help you get Powered Up. Working with a strengths coach will supercharge your efforts to achieve self-mastery. Coaching is a fast track to suiting up and putting your superpowers to work.
‘The power of the strengths tool came from having a personalised understanding of how to use it, and coaching was incredibly valuable. I was walking through a particular challenge and building the strengths language into my work. It’s the deliberateness I like.’ – Kate Webber.
From the get-go, coaching helps you make sense of your strengths report and how to apply them to get the best from them. It is about making the most of the information in your strengths report. A good coach can help you unpack the report and understand how the language of strengths applies to you. A great coach will help you find those light-bulb moments of self-discovery where you truly see and appreciate who you are. Coaching and self-mastery go hand in hand.
‘Strengths coaching should be mandatory and something everyone gets to do at some point. It’s really powerful to sit down with someone and have your strengths validated and reality checked.’ – Peggy Webb.
And finally, quite plainly and possibly most eloquently:
‘Mentoring and coaching should be part of every work schedule constantly, not as a once-off when things are bad.’ – Kerry Grace.
When you are ready to get Powered Up, come and find me! We can work together individually, with your work team or other group, or even to create change in your community.
You can check out my book here. For coaching and development programs, find out more here.
