Coaching, Mentoring, Masterminds - The Why, What and When Of Investing In Yourself

Maybe you’ve already considered working with a coach because you’ve heard others raving about it, or you have already worked with a coach and wonder which type of coaching is best for your next step in your career. Wherever you are in your journey, this episode is for you, as I give you the lay of the land when it comes to coaching. Yes, there are a lot of cowboys in the industry, and not all types of coaching will get you the results you want. I will also discuss what the different coaching types and engagements look like and where mentoring or masterminds may be better so that you can make the best decision when it comes to your next investment in your personal and professional development.

Ok, let’s dive in:

What does a typical coaching engagement look like, no matter the actual topic or focus of the program?

A typical coaching engagement involves a coach working with a client to help them achieve specific goals or develop new skills, typically soft skills rather than technical hard skills This is where formal education incl online training, workshops and micro-credentials come in.

Working with a coach is very collaborative and a co-creation design rather than a teacher/ student relationship. To be a highly effective coach, you don’t need to know all the ins and outs of their clients’ profession or industry. I’d argue that it often is better to not have the background - so as a coach - you can’t get in the engagement with a preconceived idea on what the outcome should look like rather than focusing on the coachee and co-creating the best solution for them that is tailored and takes personal and professional circumstances in consideration.

And this is a big part of the coaching engagement – getting a really clear picture of the coachee in terms of strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. I’d say the biggest advantages working with a coach, ideally an external coach – is the objectivity and the lack of bias / agenda. Not saying that this isn’t the case working with an internal coach but often the sponsor is the direct manager and sometimes there are conflicting interests. Not saying that internal coaching doesn’t work, but I haven’t seen it yet where the client actually got out what they expected. If you have a different experience, please let me know, as I’m always keen to get new case studies and identify why something worked or didn’t.

Anyway – back to the actual process: At the beginning, it’s all about leveraging specific tools and techniques to get a good understanding of the status quo, map out the ideal outcome and developing a strategy to bridge the gap which is then broken into a plan of action with specific milestones and deliverables so that the coach can not only measure the progress but also the coachee can track the success of the engagement whilst being held accountable for their deliverables. This is what the junk of the engagement usually looks like because it moves the needle and gets you the result.

However, remember that a coach guides you to the water, but we can’t make our clients drink so don’t expect you throw money at a problem, and it magically disappears. You very much have to do your part and it’s not done for you, but this is exactly what builds the skill muscle that you can use and leverage for future situations and roles to come. And this is what makes coaching so valuable.

I always like to use the analogy of teaching my clients to fish rather giving them the fish because in the engagement, the client also learns a lot of coaching tools and approaches that they can apply themselves for their team or a project they work on.

This is what weekly, fortnightly or monthly coaching sessions are for, to check in on the progress by reflecting on actions taken, the data they gathered and depending on the outcome, agree on next steps. This could be pivoting from the initial plan, or it can be going in further on those actions. What’s important though is to actually get some results and data because one of the biggest reasons why people don’t make the progress they want to make is because they don’t actually take the action (often despite knowing what to do).

There is so much mindset work involved and also identifying those barriers that clients often don’t even know. It can be the result of a previous event, often even a childhood experience that the client never worked through but what keeps creeping in and with that, holds them back from actually progressing.  I’m not a counsellor or psych though so I’m not working with people who have mental health conditions as I’m not qualified for that. Coaching is focused on the future rather than on the past which counselling and psych sessions are focused on. However, addressing previous experience is part of the process to work through it to get to the next stage.

The coach’s role is to ask clarifying questions that move clients from here to there which means that sometimes the answers are hard and holding space for this uncomfortable stage is exactly what gets clients unstuck and that often includes reflecting on past behaviour and how it impacted the situation so we can learn from that for future scenarios. A psychologist is more focused and suited to diagnose and treat mental health disorders using evidence-based techniques.

Often, it’s a fine line and I’ve only had it once that a client wasn’t completely honest with me at the start and claimed he has no mental conditions but turned out he had dissociative identity disorder (DID). In all fairness, he didn’t know exactly what he had as he wasn’t diagnosed prior to us working and did a test after our 2ndsession after my recommendation as I could pick up some patterns that rang my alarm bells. But again, this is not the area I play in.

As a coach, my role is to provide guidance to move from A to B, ask questions that go beyond the surface and that includes feeling uncomfortable, often also ashamed or embarrassed which is why you need to trust and respect a coach. It goes beyond liking. You like a friend but a coach is not a friend for a reason.

As a friend, we tend to feel sorry for the person and often support the negative thoughts about something or someone. However, a coach is there to dig deeper and ask those uncomfortable questions and also tell the clients that their baby is ugly if that’s the reason why they’re where they’re. The reason coaches can do it is because there is no agenda. If a peer or a superior would say the exact same thing, we often either don’t take them seriously or the tension has ripple effects on the relationship because we always wonder what their intent was to say that whereas working with a coach, you want to know the exact blind spots that could hinder you from progressing. Plus- it takes out the emotion because that adds another layer of complexity.

Now when is coaching a good investment?

Coaching can be useful in a variety of situations, such as when an individual wants to make a career change, improve their performance at work, or achieve personal goals. Coaching can also be helpful for individuals who want to improve their communication or leadership skills, manage stress, or increase their confidence.

The stages of coaching can vary depending on the coach and the specific needs of the client, but they generally include the following:

Assessment: In the first stage, the coach and the client work together to identify the client's strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. The coach may use a variety of assessment tools, such as personality tests or 360-degree feedback, to gather information about the client.

Goal setting: In the second stage, the coach and the client work together to identify specific goals that the client wants to achieve. The coach helps the client clarify their goals and develop a plan of action to achieve them.

Action planning: In the third stage, the coach and the client work together to develop a plan of action to achieve the client's goals. The coach helps the client identify the steps they need to take and the resources they need to access to achieve their goals.

Implementation: In the fourth stage, the client begins to implement the action plan. The coach provides support, encouragement, and feedback as the client takes steps to achieve their goals.

Evaluation: In the final stage, the coach and the client evaluate the progress the client has made and the effectiveness of the coaching engagement. The coach and the client may identify areas for further development and create a plan for ongoing growth and development.

What are the different forms of coaching engagement?

1:1 Coaching

1:1 coaching is a personalised approach to professional development. It is a one-on-one relationship between a coach and a client, where the coach helps the client achieve specific goals. The coach provides personalised guidance, feedback, and support. The pros of 1:1 coaching are that it is personalised, and the coach can provide customized feedback and support. The cons of 1:1 coaching are that it can be expensive, and the progress may depend on the coach's availability.

Group Coaching Program

A group coaching program is similar to 1:1 coaching, but with multiple participants. The coach leads a group of individuals, and they work towards a common goal. The pros of a group coaching program are that it is more affordable than 1:1 coaching, and the participants can learn from each other. The cons of a group coaching program are that it may not be as personalized as 1:1 coaching, and the progress may depend on the group dynamics.

Mentoring

Mentoring is a relationship between a more experienced individual and a less experienced individual. The mentor provides guidance, feedback, and support to the mentee. The pros of mentoring are that it is a great way to gain knowledge and expertise from someone who has been there, and it can be a long-term relationship. The cons of mentoring are that it may not be as structured as other options, and the progress may depend on the availability of the mentor.

Masterminds

Masterminds can be formal or informal, depending on the group you join. Usually, it’s a smaller groups of individuals with a connecting topic/ challenge or situation to work through.

It’s about curating knowledge that addresses questions or challenge on this particular topic and a coach or facilitator is guiding the conversation. It’s less of a formal educational program that follows like a curriculum but it’s more an adhoc discussion on pressing questions, challenges, and events that the group addresses and everyone can bring in their own experience or expertise. It’s not focused on the facilitator’s knowledge or experience as such, but their role is more so to move the conversation in the right direction, give everyone the time and space to bring in their questions, ideas and input and not get off track with what should actually be discussed.

What are the different types of coaching?

Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is typically geared towards C-suite level executives and focuses on addressing specific business goals and objectives. It's often used to develop the skills needed to lead and manage large organisations but could also be big ideas (in my books anyway) as in the end, a thought leader or as a solopreneur, you’re also in an executive function but just not in an executing role as such but more act as someone who leads without the title and inspires actions through content and thought leadership rather than by title and allocated function.

Executive coaches work with clients to identify their strengths and weaknesses, as well as any areas that need improvement, and help them to develop strategies for achieving their goals.

Executive coaching helps executives improve their decision-making skills, communication skills, and leadership abilities. The goal of executive coaching is to help executives become more effective leaders and drive business results. Executive coaching is often used by CEOs, CFOs, and other top-level executives who want to improve their leadership skills and take their organizations to the next level.

Leadership Coaching

Leadership coaching is a type of coaching that focuses on developing the leadership skills of an individual and can be applied to leaders at any level of the organisation. It helps individuals become better leaders, and it is usually provided by experienced leaders or coaches who have expertise in leadership development. The goal of leadership coaching is to help individuals understand their leadership style, improve their communication skills, and enhance their decision-making abilities.

It always starts by understanding oneself better because in the end, you need to first be a leader for yourself, knowing what energises and what drains you, what are your drivers and responses for certain situations so you can then develop tailored strategies around managing your actions.

Leaders at different levels face different levels of decision making, complexity and ripple effects so the questions or focuses in the sessions differ.

Of course, it also comes down to the level of previous experience of the leader as well as the situation they’re in now. They may be very experienced but have never faced this challenge before like having massively negative press coverage or being taken to court etc.

Personal Brand Coaching

Personal brand coaching is a type of coaching that focuses on developing an individual's personal brand beyond their current title, level of seniority and even industry and profession. The focus in personal brand coaching programs is to help individuals clarify the unique set of strengths, values, credentials, differentiators, and passions so they can then communicate them effectively to a certain target audience and commercialise their value proportion in one or many ways like by building a portfolio career and/or pivot from what they were doing prior. Clients engage in personal brand coaching to either help them build a strong personal brand and reputation in their industry that sets them apart from their competition, but it can also be used when professionals aren’t quite sure what’s next for them and their career. They may consider a change but often get stuck not knowing what else they could do based on their background.

The content and focus is very different compared to leadership coaching as it’s not so much honing in on certain skills that make you better in your role and function but often paints a new picture and opens new opportunities that the client didn’t see or consider before.

Communications Coaching

Communications coaching aims to help professionals improve their communication skills, including public speaking, interpersonal communication, and other forms of communication, to enhance their effectiveness in the workplace.

Other corporate professional coaching offers may focus on specific areas, such as team building, change management, conflict resolution, and more.