COACHING FOR YOU

Gillian Wright explains her approach:

‘Coaching, for me, is about getting to the ‘real’ person (not just what I see on the outside), to find the root cause of a person’s difficulties and challenges. Only then can we work together on a solution for positive progress. Coaching is about helping someone make progress to get them to a place they couldn’t get to without coaching help’

Why coaching is important

‘In my experience, people are not evil and don’t come into work each day intent on sabotaging the success of the company. If they foul up, or create negativity and misery around the coffee machine, or if they’re aggressive and uncooperative, etc., there’s almost always an underlying reason causing these attitudes. A good coach will recognise this and want to get to the bottom of it and help the person create a path for positive change’

‘Just saying ‘change your attitude’ or ‘change your behaviour, or else!’ doesn’t cut it unless it’s a last resort when a coaching approach hasn’t worked. A coaching approach will seek to understand ‘why’ and get the person to see a way forward’

When a good coaching relationship is established through mutual trust and respect, it’s easy to be extremely candid with people. I have been known to tell clients to ‘quit bellyaching and get on with it’ when their excuses frustrate me. Paradoxically, they accept this strong ‘coaching’ and make breakthroughs. It’s great to see that.

What kind of Coach am I?

‘Sometimes, my heart goes out to people when I see them struggling with themselves. As a coach, all I want to do initially, is to help them think and feel better about themselves. Once they’re at that point, we can get to the nitty-gritty of how they can improve their situation through building on their strengths and skills’

‘Very often, I have to put my head on my own chopping block and ask the really direct, difficult question sooner, rather than later. No point dancing around issues – that doesn’t get anyone anywhere. But, guess what…. when I do that, there’s a ‘clunk’ in the air that tells both of us we’ve hit the nail on the head. What follows?….. breakthrough, breakthrough, breakthrough’

Is coaching a bit soft and intangible therefore difficult to measure in terms of effectiveness?

‘A lot of people think coaching is a ‘touchy-feely’ thing. Far from it. It’s ‘emotional’, yes, but it’s not soppy and wishy-washy. When you actually dig down to what we’re dealing with in business every day, it’s governed by people’s emotions – our own, our team members, clients, suppliers, stakeholders etc – they’re all there! Having the capability to manage those emotions is just as much a skill as any other business or technical skill. Research studies do show that having high emotional intelligence can significantly and measurably increase performance and results. So, if managers/leaders can improve their own emotional intelligence, the results will show in team performance and bottom line results’

For more information on coaching with Mentor Corporate Coaching contact us today on
0844 412 8105