“Raising individual and team performance while improving well-being, through facilitating personal and professional growth and goal attainment faster.”

That’s my definition in nutshell, from my experience of coaching hundreds of successful Coaches and Leaders internationally over the past couple of decades.

Coaching is client focused – you the client chooses/decides the goals and challenges to work on and create your own action steps. When you are in a coaching relationship you take responsibility, accountability and ownership for your development, growth and actions.

Coaching generates new learning.
Supports change.
Unlocks critical thinking and problem solving skills that improve good judgment and decision-making.
Offers the opportunity to practice and develop new skills and test your assumptions in a safe environment, during those awkward times at the beginning before you’ve mastered them. *The biggest reason people don’t develop new skills is, because they don’t want to look stupid or incompetent. When we’re learning a new skill we feel like we’re bumbling along and with no fluency of flow, so we stick with what we know. It may be a blind spot we’re unaware of where underlying issues are impacting the team negatively or we know we need help and we’re slow to commit, waiting until situations escalate!

“Acquisition of skills requires a regular environment, an adequate opportunity to practice and rapid unequivocal feedback about correctness of thought and action.” ~ Daniel Kahneman – Thinking Fast and SlowCoaching can create a significant positive variance in the performance of individuals and their team, which contributes to overall personal and business growth.

Personally I love working with leaders because they have the ability to directly impact and make a significant difference to all of the peoples lives they lead. When a leader makes the decision and commits to raising their individual performance, for example mastering giving and receiving feedback that cultivates growth. The person receiving or giving feedback feels valued and this raises their contribution and level of engagement in the task. I’ve found they will also speak well of the leader, which opens channels for other team members to be receptive to giving and feedback creating a culture of growth. I’ve seen this culture of growth and open dialogue permeate beyond the confines of the company and attract top talent into the organisation.

Here’s what a CEO sent in a note to me after a few months of coaching.

“ Your support has been immeasurable both personally and professionally and has also been a great help to all of those who we ordinarily would have driven completely and utterly insane.” I’m constantly blown away by similar feedback from leaders.

Coaching runs deep in my core and became part of my wedding vows, where I committed to support Bob to be the best person that he could be. We visit that theme often in our daily lives. We became each other “lighthouse” as we call it, because there are times when we need the other to be our guiding light and know that we have each other’s back.

*Note: An ICF professional coach is trained in coaching behaviours’ and competencies, bound by the professional standards and ethics of their professional independent body. They are also required to consistently gain education credits to sustain their credential status.

Gael Bevan is an experienced, ICF Credentialed, Certified Leadership and Executive Coach. After decades of leading talent and coaching senior directors and executive coaches, she works with CE0s leaders and executives to communicte with impact.