A common question I get asked by people inquiring about coaching is whether they need life coaching or business coaching. Just the other day someone asked me on the phone, “Does this sound like a professional issue or do I need help on a more personal level?” My answer (spoiler alert):
It’s all personal.
In almost every case, once I hear what their challenges are and what they want to work on I will almost always answer with ‘both’. This is mainly because no matter what they’ve got going on – whether they’re a business owner wanting more time freedom and less stress or a senior manager looking for a career change – how they’re feeling and what they’re thinking about themselves is playing a key role in what’s happening for them at work. There is always a personal component, and to be quite honest 90% of what we have going on in our working lives is personal. It’s about how we are doing on the inside.
If you’d like to find out how this approach would fit your goals, feel free to reach out for a free call with me.
Coaching for the business or for the person in business?
One distinction I would make when we’re talking about business coaching is whether the focus is on the person in the business and their mindset or on business strategy and systems. And sometimes it’s a mix. For instance, if you want a succession plan for your business you may require expert advice about your options and legalities, or if you want to start exporting you’re going to want to reach out to various advisors and perhaps a business coach or mentor with experience in exporting. Maybe you’re a start-up needing guidance around business systems, sales or marketing. Many traditional business coaches will focus on these areas. Clay Clark of the business coaching platform Thrive15 offers a concise take on this in this Forbes article.
However, if it’s about how you’re leading or coping at work or you’re feeling stuck around taking the next big step, that’s when a coach who works with the person in business can be ideal. And yes, I’m talking about me in one sense because I’m finding that there aren’t too many people out there who actually do what I do!
So, let’s say you’ve been procrastinating about that succession plan for years or have fears around handing over control or of your financial future. Or the thought of up-scaling the business is keeping you up at night. That’s where a more ‘whole self’ coaching approach comes in. It becomes just as much about how you’re running yourself as it does about how you’re running your business.
It would be very typical for me in a coaching session to one minute be talking about the nuts and bolts of running team meetings more effectively and the next minute helping the client shift an old pattern of holding back their opinions or losing their cool. We duck and dive wherever we need to go, all in service to helping them be their best self – at work and in life.
Do you need to get your head straight? Do you need to get your stress levels down so you can see the wood for the trees? Do you need to get out of your own way to make things happen?
Who do you need to be being in order to make your goals a reality?
Working with the Whole Self
Whatever you feel stuck around or want to breakthrough, it inevitably starts with what you have going on on the inside.
Plus, more than 98% of what’s going on in our mind, body and emotions in any given moment is running unconsciously. It’s so easy to forget this but most of what we’re doing throughout the day is auto pilot stuff. We really are at the mercy of our programming and conditioning. That is until we spot the bits that are not working for us anymore and start to shift and clear them.
That’s why success is an inside job.
That’s why resilience is an inside job.
That’s why it’s all personal: it’s about changing those stress triggers, getting out of our own way so we can delegate more fully and empower others, or digging deep to understand what we really want to contribute in our working lives and what our true life purpose is.
It’s all personal.
So, um, where does that leave me in terms of choosing life coaching or business coaching?
Well, it probably depends on the coach and it’s a good idea to ask enough questions to be clear what they are offering you. In my world the question is almost irrelevant because I work with the whole person – the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The whole self.
Not every coach will see it like that, but it makes no sense to me at all to separate it out.
Apart from the obvious differences like what we wear to work (and sometimes even then there’s not much diff!), there are no lines between the professional you or the business owner you and your personal self.
When you’re in a coaching process your whole self is present.
When you’re at work your whole self is present.
When you go to the supermarket your whole self is present.
When you are bashing your way around a squash court or lying on your yoga mat your whole self is present.
It’s all personal.
Any time you’re not working with your whole self in a coaching process there’s always a chance you’re missing a vital piece of the puzzle.
Every part of you plays a role in how you lead.
Every part of you plays a role in connecting with your passion and what lights you up.
We can’t separate ourselves into boxes.
And we shouldn’t try to.
(Although society certainly does its best to try and keep us in boxes, and lord knows we were probably brought up trying to fit into one or several!)
What’s more, when you really get that being your whole self at work connects you more fully to your intuition, your creativity and insight, and transforms how you connect with others, you start firing on cylinders you didn’t even know you had.
The level of awareness and wider intelligence we can connect into when we are being our whole self is virtually infinite.
You are even more than you think you are.
Karen x
PS. Book a free call with me if you’d like to talk about your goals and how you want to up-level your life or business.
The level of awareness and wider intelligence we can connect into when we are being our whole self is virtually infinite.
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