Dear Plucky,
- I’m going to ask for a promotion in the new year… OR
- I had a baby last year and I feel like I’m constantly failing – at home and at work… OR
- I’m a rising superstar and I’m about to embark on a job search… I want help thinking through all the angles and options… OR
- I’ve just been hired as a VP and I don’t want to screw this up.
Do I need a coach?
Love,
Lots and lots of people
———
Dear people,
My son is in Elementary School, which means that, at drop-off every morning, I see many adults who are headed to work. Sometimes we chat, asking about the weekend or plans for the upcoming break. Sometimes we say something like “remind me what your day job is again?”
“I’m a coach,” I say. There’s a second of confusion; I see them weighing my soccer or middle school herding skills, until I follow it up with a clarification. “I’m a leadership coach. I talk to people about their careers.”
And then one of two things happen. Either the person nods slowly with recognition, eyebrows raised with some amusement, ending with an expression like “oh! interesting…”
Or they say something like this: “OH MY GOD, MY HUSBAND/MY BOSS/MY SISTER NEEDS YOU.”
These moments remind me of the notes I get via Plucky’s contact form. Though there are prospective clients who are deep in the search to find a coach, there are also those who are compelled to write because they have a circumstance:
- I’m going to ask for a promotion in the new year.
- I had a baby last year and I feel like I’m constantly failing – at home and at work.
- I’m a rising superstar and I’m about to embark on a job search… I want help thinking through all the angles and options.
- I’ve just been hired as a VP and I don’t want to screw this up.
This post is for those of you who are hovering in a circumstance and you’re not sure if it’s time to call in bigger guns. Or maybe 72% of you thinks that this coaching stuff is some bull… but maybe, maybe it is not and in that case, you need it badly.
WTF is coaching?
The answer to this depends on who you’re talking to, but here’s mine:
All humans are creative, resourceful and whole*… but sometimes they have a hard time moving forward. Coaching relationships with Plucky clients are designed to provide a supportive presence in clients’ work lives, a resource who will hold confidentiality and walk alongside a client through problems, conflicts, decisions and more.
So, in my eyes, it’s about moving someone forward.
(*I’ve taken a few coach courses with CTI; this idea of creative/resourceful/whole is part of their model.)
Why do people need coaching? Can’t they just buy a journal?
Yes. If you can move yourself forward via journaling, GO DO THAT. It’s gonna be way less money.
How long should a person have a coach?
Like everything I can imagine in life, there are seasons for things. You may be in a season where you need more support with your shenanigans at work – and a coach may the right support for that. But ideally, you’re moving forward… which means that one day the season has ended.
Any coach worth their salt is going to give you full permission to leave when you’re ready. If you sense they’re holding onto you because you are an income stream, ditch that shit. That’s unethical.
Why is coaching happening now? My grandparents never needed coaches.
Yeah, that’s weird, right? My take is that we’re in an era with less built-in community.
Religion has shot itself often enough in the foot that many people are turned off by communities of faith. Some folks live far from their families of origin because they’ve followed new career options. We’re having kids later and many of us don’t have grandparents who are still alive to weigh in on our damn sleep training options, let alone asking for promotions and beyond.
Our support networks are thinner than they have been before, but we’re humans and, from time to time, we still need people in our corners to help us unknot ourselves. That’s why I think coaching exists in 2020.
—
After Christmas is over, my husband takes our tree outside. He cuts two slices off the bottom of the stump, one for each of our sons to keep.
Trees, like humans, have better years than others. In good years, there is more water, good sunlight, less threats to the system. When you look at a tree’s stump, you can tell which years had better growing conditions and which years were really hard.
Coaching is one resource that you may leverage to amplify your growing conditions.
Next time I’ll write about how to choose a coach. In the meantime, think about what season you’re in… and what your growing conditions are looking like for the long year ahead.
That’s how you’ll know if you need a coach.
xo Jen
Check out more Plucky blog posts about coaching or shoot a note if you want to talk about coaching. We’re taking on new clients in 2020!