Tag Archives: Coaching

Rescue Worker Benefits From Certification Coaching

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When I first opted to go for certification coaching so that I could be a professional Life Coach and NLP practitioner I was not sure where to start. After all I had spent all of my thirties and part of my forties as a female paramedic until the stress of doing so much shift work compelled me to retire early. Although I knew just about everything about taking care of the human body in an emergency I was not as savvy when it came to dealing with human emotions. One thing I did know is that relying too much on your emotions to make decisions could lead to disaster in an emergency.

I am a person who likes to get things done. I am only interested in results that have a positive high impact. I was attracted to attending a transformational certification coaching weekend that by the end of three days would have us conducting our own supervised coaching session. One of the most important aspects of a certification coaching session is that it asks you to make an intensive investigation into what makes you tick. All of the attendees were put through simple exercises that helped us understand how we let negative beliefs define us, how we communicate those negative beliefs to others and how we often give permission to others to treat us with less respect than we deserve.

The certification coaching weekend was not like a regular classroom dirge filled with PowerPoint presentations and the endlessly droning voices of guest speakers. Instead it was very interactive with trainers giving us demonstrations of coaching skills through role playing and practice sessions. It was fun, informative and I learned a lot about myself, especially when it comes to the fine art of validating what other people are feeling. You see, as a rescue worker, I was trained to stuff my emotions in and not show empathy because it was part of the job. You had to tune a lot of anxiety, grief and shocked reactions out from the family or loved ones of the people being rescued or you could not complete your job. During my transformational weekend I learned that it was okay to validate another person’s feelings in a coaching session as often it is that acknowledgement that will help spur your client on to greater change.

I also learned that as daring as I always thought I was as an emergency worker, that I rarely stepped out of my comfort zone to take new risks. I was always telling other people what they wanted to hear to keep the peace. I learned how to ask “purpose” questions, reframe situations and accomplish the shifting of long-held beliefs that were holding me back emotionally in life. I still refer to the manuals that I received that weekend when dealing with the five to six clients that I currently deal with as a life coach every month.

An Executive Coach Benefits More Than the Executive

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A good executive coach is an asset to an organization. Her impact is not just on the executive she is coaching. The coaching she does benefits the owners, the executive team, the employees, the customers and the bottom line. When an executive improves his behavior, productivity and/or performance the impact is on everyone either directly or indirectly.

For example, Ned, VP of Strategy Development for a global company spent six months with a coach working on his own coaching and mentoring skills. He was able to impact his direct reports by coaching and mentoring them to take on more responsibility which in turn freed him up to do more high level work. That allowed him to improve his performance and productivity which led to the company taking steps to course correct their strategic direction. The correction impacted the bottom line to the tune of millions of dollars and thousands of happy customers.

Another example is Sally, the Executive Director of a small non-profit organization that helped the homeless. Sally engaged a coach to help her work better with her Board of Directors. Her coach was able to help her open lines of communication and create strategic programs that stretched their budget dollars to include more clients. The impact on client (customer) lives was tremendous. Sally was also able to encourage the Board to join her in new fundraising efforts which built the budget even more. Once Sally as able to create better working relationships with the Board members staff also became more excited and productive because the atmosphere in the office had lightened up.

A final example is Kim, a Purchasing executive who was coached on interpersonal and sales skills. Kim was having difficulties with both his vendors and his staff because of his brusque demeanor. Through coaching Kim was able to turn around his approach to people and repair many broken relationships. His staff not only bonded with him but with each other. The vendors became more reasonable because they had an ally instead of a foe to work with. It all meant that goods and supplies came in on time which helped product go out the door faster. Customer complaints about late deliveries dropped significantly. Did the ripples of this hit the bottom line – absolutely!

The ripple effect of coaching an executive is felt throughout the organization. It can even change departmental and corporate cultures. If you are on the fence about hiring an executive coach, I hope this article helps you make the decision to go forward. I would just caution you to screen your potential coaches very carefully. Be sure you hire one that has superior credentials and can prove they have had extensive training and experience.