You Don’t Need to Be Broken to Benefit From Coaching

There is a misconception about coaching that I would love to put to rest.

You don’t need to be struggling, failing, or broken to benefit from having a coach.

In fact, some of the most powerful coaching work I’ve experienced happens with people who are already successful.

They are executives, entrepreneurs, physicians, emerging leaders, and people responsible for teams, organizations, families, and important decisions.

From the outside, they may appear to have it all together.But they understand something important. Success doesn’t eliminate blind spots.

Coaching Isn’t About Fixing You

I’ve been coaching leaders for more than 20 years, and I have never looked at my clients as problems that need to be solved.

You don’t come to me because I have all the answers. Quite frankly, I don’t.

My role is to create the kind of conversation where you can slow down long enough to hear yourself think. To become curious about what you believe. To challenge the assumptions, stories, habits, and fears that may be influencing how you show up.

Sometimes you need someone who will ask you the question no one else is asking.

Sometimes you need someone who will challenge you when everyone around you is agreeing with you.

And sometimes you simply need a space where you don’t have to have all the answers.

That is coaching.

It isn’t about correction. It is about awareness, perspective, intentionality, and choice.

And there is research behind its value.

Studies examining workplace coaching have found positive effects on areas including performance, skills, well being, attitudes, goal achievement, and self regulation. In other words, coaching isn’t simply about addressing what isn’t working. It can help us strengthen what already is.

Sometimes You’re Simply Too Close to the Picture

I often tell my clients there is a difference between looking and seeing.

When you are living inside a situation every day, it can be incredibly difficult to see it from another perspective.

You see the difficult employee.

The demanding board.

The relationship that isn’t working.

The career decision you can’t seem to make.

The goal you keep postponing.

But underneath what is happening around you, there is often another conversation taking place within you.

What story am I telling myself about this?

What am I assuming to be true?

What am I avoiding?

What am I tolerating?

Who am I being in this situation?

And one of my favorite questions:

What would become possible if I looked at this differently?

That is where coaching can become transformational.

Not because someone gives you the answer, but because you begin seeing choices you couldn’t see before.

Growth Requires Intention

At the heart of my coaching work is a framework I developed called the G.R.I.P. Method:Greatness Requires Intention + Purpose.

G.R.I.P. is built around a simple belief. We don’t create meaningful change by accident. We create it by becoming more intentional about who we are, how we show up, what we choose, and what we are ultimately working toward.

Growth requires us to stop occasionally and ask ourselves some important questions.

Who am I being?

Is the way I’m showing up aligned with who I say I want to be?

What am I creating through my choices?

And what is the purpose behind where I’m going?

There comes a point when achieving more isn’t necessarily the answer.

Sometimes the next level requires seeing differently.

Responding differently.

Communicating differently.

Or simply having the courage to question a story you have been carrying for a very long time.

That is why I don’t believe coaching should be reserved for moments when something has gone wrong.

Coaching can be incredibly powerful when things are going right and you find yourself asking:

What else is possible for me?

Maybe it is more awareness.

More courage.

More alignment.

More intentionality.

Or simply becoming more of the person and leader you know you are capable of being.

So perhaps the question isn’t:

“Do I need a coach?”

Maybe the better question is:

“What might I see if I had someone willing to challenge me to look differently?”

You don’t need to be broken to benefit from coaching.

You simply need to be willing to grow.

Simply put, I’m in the transformation business.

Coach Elix is an executive coach and leadership development professional with more than 20 years of experience working with leaders and organizations. His work integrates neuroscience, Conversational Intelligence®, trust, accountability, and intentional leadership.

References

1. Jones, R. J., Woods, S. A., & Guillaume, Y. R. F. (2016). The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(2), 249–277.

2. Theeboom, T., Beersma, B., & van Vianen, A. E. M. (2014). Does coaching work? A meta analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(1), 1–18.