What does coaching mean? How is it relevant today ?
Anuradha Sant
A Master Certified Coach (MCC) by the International Coach Federation (ICF)
A Life & Executive Coach, Leadership & OD initiatives facilitator, HR professional
Coaching may mean different things to different people, but coaching to me is a very reflective learning journey, where you partner with different travelers, travel the unknown, go where you may have never gone before and discover new things about yourself in return.
Coaching can also be about understanding the spoken and unspoken words. And as one fellow traveler said, “It’s about moving though words, beyond words to the zone of silence where all is clear.” Then do words really matter?
In our normal daily lives, we get so caught up with who said what and why. We threadbare analyze it all. And then what? By focusing on others, we somewhere forget ourselves, our thoughts, our feelings and in the bargain, miss out on our moments.
Coaching helps focus us back on us and our world. Focus back on what’s important, what’s real and what really matters.
None of this is easy. Being a Coach, I deal with these issues myself. It’s easier said than done. But time and practice teaches us a lot. I had to unlearn and relearn a lot of things during my coaching journey. It’s been a very humbling experience for me. We feel we are the center of it all and start living in the illusion that we are irreplaceable or invincible. But coming to think of it, are we? Nothing is more permanent and constant than change and those who have the tenacity to adapt to this ever changing scenario actually survive and even thrive.
One can go back to the basics of the fundamental existential question – who am I and what is my purpose? As we think about it, all the mist starts to clear. It’s like when you step out of an AC car, your glasses fog up. And then when you wipe them, you are able to see though them clearly, again. One can compare coaching to the cloth which helps you clean your glasses, so that you are able to see things with greater clarity. You are then able to see and value yourself, your beliefs, capabilities – draw upon your positivism – influence your environment appropriately and create a win for yourself.
Coaching should not be seen as a crutch or a fall back option for easy solutions. Coaching is a process which facilitates self-discovery and leads us to the answers, we may not have paid attention to earlier. Surprisingly we are naturally very resourceful, if we want to feel that way. Many a times, we deplete our reserves and find ourselves at cross roads not knowing where to go or which path to take. We may decide to go down the rabbit hole and bury ourselves there or chart out a new direction for ourselves – the choice is always ours. The more we depend on others to make us feel good, the more we give up on ourselves, our present, our future.
As I write this today, during this large-scale global pandemic; it is a very unprecedented situation. And it is here that a little introspection and going back to basics as to what really matters to us will help.
Keep safe, stay at home. We are all in this together.