What to expect from coaching

In its simplest terms, coaching gives you space and time to think and talk things through with someone independent and non-judgmental, who listens carefully and doesn't have any agenda other than to support you in your thinking. But under the surface it is a little more complex than that.

Coaching is a collaborative process - it is not about having an agenda set for you and being given the answers to your questions or told what to do. The aim of coaching is to provide a safe environment in which you can explore options for change or improvement of whatever it is you are working on, and make your own decisions about how to move forward..

Your coach will respect the fact that you know you - you lead the process by sharing what is important to you and making the decisions.

At the start of the first session, your coach will ask questions that help you identify what your coaching goals are. Having clarity on these will help your coach ensure that you get the most out of the coaching sessions. The coaching goals are checked in against as you go through your sessions, and reviewed in the last session.

Your coach will professionally guide you through each coaching session, providing structure by asking questions, listening to what you say and picking up on themes, reflecting them back, possibly providing a different perspective and challenging assumptions.

It is important to understand that coaching does not provide a quick fix. It may be that you want to explore a fairly simple "what should I do with these two options" scenario - in which case the coach can guide you through your thinking with the result that you may be able to reach a decision in a session or two.

Often, however, we identify behavioural habits that have built up over many years and that are not easy to shift. Coaching can help you identify those habits and explore how to go about changing them, but the effectiveness of this also requires conscious effort on your part outside of the coaching sessions.

What does your coach expect from you?

Because coaching is focused on what you want to work on, it is essential that you prepare for each session with your coach. Although you will have worked with your coach in the first session to establish your coaching goals, it is still important to spend time preparing for each session after that.

This doesn't need to be an onerous task, requiring a structured agenda - although if that's how you like to work, that's ok too!

Your coach will be skilled at helping you distill jumbled thoughts into a clearer idea of what you want to get out of the coaching but spending a little time in advance thinking through these 3 questions will all help your coach help you get the most out of it:

• what is the key challenge or issue that you'd like to work on?

• do you have an idea of what you want to get out of the coaching session?

• what do you want from your coach during the session?

For example, would you like to clarify your thinking on a particular sticky issue? Would you like to think through some options and develop and plan for next steps?

Do you want your coach to be a sounding-board, listening and reflecting back? Would you like more challenge around your thinking, with the coach providing a different perspective and noticing any assumptions you might be making?

What you need may change from session to session, so your coach should always check in with you at the start of each session to see what it is you want to get out of that session, within the context of the broader coaching goals set at the start of the coaching programme.

What to do and what not to do...

Given the above, if you want to get the most out of the coaching then there are two key things that it is best not to do:

• Do not ask the coach what people normally cover (although if you do they will probably say there is no normal, it is very much up to you what you'd like to work through)

• Do not ask the coach for advice on what you should do (although if you do they will probably turn this into a question back to you)

Most importantly, what you should do is to enjoy the process - turn up with an open mind, a willingness to talk (your coach is not a mind-reader!) and prepared to engage in self-reflection. In this way you will hopefully discover the power of coaching!