Cathy Liska by guest blogger Mikayla Phan
As I look forward to my new career path in coaching, I often reflect on the Core Competencies which are put in place for coaches to follow.
- Meeting ethical guidelines and standards is important to integrity as a person and professional, and to maximize the experience of clients.
- Establishing trust and intimacy means valuing others and expecting the same, creating a reciprocal trust in relationships.
- Creating a balanced and healthy coaching presence includes a “think outside the box” mentality and the awareness that there are many grey areas in the world. Because of this, it is important and necessary to dance in the moment, especially when it comes to exploring one’s inner soul and choosing the right path.
- Listening happens on many different levels of consciousness; coaches continue to heighten awareness of what others are saying.
- Identifying the most effective questions to ask clients in order to evoke thinking on a deep level for them is powerful.
- Creating awareness goes beyond what the client is saying to helping the client discover for him/herself what is important as well as see different perspectives.
- The ability to design actions and use effective coaching tools specific to each client’s needs from one session to the next ties into planning and goal-setting.
- Managing the client’s progress and accountability requires confidence as a coach to ask about adjusting a plan or to constructively confronting a client when s/he might not have taken the agreed upon action as previously discussed.
Through this coaching course, I see myself improving on skills as a coach, and also as a person who wears many different hats on my own quest for a higher quality of life.
