It’s been a busy few weeks, I have started university and volunteer coaching with Yes Futures. So how is it all going?
My course is being held online for this term, we had an introductory meeting in our first week, where we all said how we were feeling about doing the course. The overall emotion was excited but wary of the work involved. I have never been to university, I did attend college at 16 and 25 but didn’t complete either course, so this is a big adventure for me. Thankfully I have 3 daughters who have all been at university and know how to make notes and reference. I think that is the area I am most worried about.
The second week lecture was an introduction to coaching, we had a lecture followed by being put into our groups and practicing coaching. As I was the only coach in our group, I stepped back and let the other group members coach and be coached. I was the observer. We had our lecturer watching our session and her feedback and observations of the coaching were a lot more involved than my own. It made me realise that I have a lot to learn about observing coaching and giving feedback. Whenever I do any strengths profiles one of my most dominant strengths is humility, which shows up as ‘who am I to give feedback’ when I’m the observer. This is something I will need to work on.
I’ve already left my reading to the last minute, so I think I’m falling into the student role quite easily!
I’ve also had my first day of coaching young people with Yes Futures, a charity that takes coaching into schools. The coaching follows a workbook, so it takes away any ‘what should I do now’ moments. I felt quite confident coaching the young people as we had spent a day meeting each of them in a speed introduction day and this made them more relaxed too.
It was really good to hear their thoughts and aspirations for their futures and I’m looking forward to hearing how they are getting on with their first steps in November.
I was fortunate to be observed in a couple of my sessions and it was good to get some positive feedback on my coaching style. It was noticed that I was confident in not speaking and allowing the student to think and that I could also drill down to help them make their goal specific and achievable.
I’ve also had several coaching sessions with clients. It’s been great to experience coaching the different personalities and working out how to alter my coaching to help each client individually. When I have felt challenged, I have to remind myself to trust the process and the client, they know what they need and can let me know how they want to be coached.