Cathy Liska 
Coaching is a powerful tool for creating meaningful change. Of course as a client, this means investing in yourself in terms of time, money, and effort. (If a sponsor is paying for the coaching, then the investment is your time and effort.) Given the investment, it makes sense to maximize your opportunities for results. Start with defining goals, consider the obstacles, and then plan how to move past the obstacles.
Goals: What do you want from the coaching relationship and the process?
- An opportunity to think out loud and consider different possibilities
- Being challenged to expand thinking
- New perspective through exploration, reflection, and brainstorming
- Support for creating a plan
- Accountability for designing actions and following through
- Encouragement for progress and success
Obstacles: What could hold you back from maximizing a coaching relationship?
- Comfort Level with coaching – unsure if this relationship is really confidential and uncomfortable with sharing openly
- Buy-in to Process – unsure how coaching is going to be different then other tools
- Openness to Change – unsure of willingness to change and of the reasons to change
- Commitment – change takes work and doing the work takes time
- Fear – afraid of failure or afraid of success
- Ongoing Motivation – sometimes competing priorities, lack of confidence, or simply being too tired means making excuses and justifying a lack of progress
Continue the reflection with these questions:
- What else do you want from coaching?
- How will you measure the success of the coaching relationship?
- What could prevent you from fully engaging in the coaching relationship?
In the next blog post are ideas for moving forward past the obstacles.
