Travis Marsh

Courage Ambassador

[tpmarsh]

Everything stopping you from getting a professional coach

Do I really have the time to invest in a coach right now?  Things are going pretty well already.  I’ve just got that promotion, and my career is on the right path.  Besides I don’t even know where to start looking for a coach.  Even if I found one, I won’t know if they’re helping me.  I doubt The company will pay for it, and I can’t afford it if they don’t.

Any of these excuses sound familiar to you?  If you’ve thought about getting a professional or career coach at some point, I bet these reasons not to get a coach came in right behind them.  Your brain is wired to negate new ideas.  That’s what prevents you from making mistakes, so it’s useful.  This ‘feature’ of your brain is also what slows you down from finding the upside.  

Your brain is best at finding problems in a few situations. 1.  When ideas are nebulous 2.  When you don’t have previous experience 3.  When there are many steps in getting where you are to where you want to be.   Guess what.  Finding a coach is all 3.

One way I tackle this blockage is to break problems into pieces.  Let’s take a few of the most common objections.

I don’t have the time to invest in a coach right now Coaching feels like a big investment, and there’s no doubt it is.  Yet, it pays dividends like compound interest.  Every minute invested now will pay dividends for the rest of your life.  I thought the first 2-4 years of my career was my chance to learn.  After that, I needed to be delivering results with all my time.  Yet, at 34, 12 years into my career I still had 30+ years of productive work in front of me.  I was still learning vast amounts.  It was ridiculous to think that I should stop investing in myself.  

It was even more ridiculous to think that the company didn’t want me to invest time in improving myself as well.  If I could learn something that I could apply just once a month and save an hour, then an hour spent learning that would have an 1100% ROI for the company within a year.  Looking at it that way, it's obvious that if you can find something that helps you improve even an hour a month, then you need to take it seriously.

I just got a promotion, or I’m about to get a promotion, so this seems like a bad time for coaching This thought is similar to the above.  It’s the concept that ‘I need to be spending my time learning my new role/delivering results, not trying to improve'.   These transition times are dangerous times.  There are all sorts of new skills that are needed in a new role.  You need to focus time to figure out what is going and learn how to be successful.  Almost always though you’re not going to get all the support you need internally.  It might be because your boss is new, or there is a reorganization, or this is a new role.  The beginning period of a new role is also the most critical.  Getting some outside advice during these important times is actually more important than when things are calm.  

I don’t know where to start looking for a coach This is a great point and one that many people run into.  It’s also a challenging one that has a lot of answers.  We’re writing an entire blog post just about that here.  The short version is you should be able to sort this out in 20-30 min of work, but it will depend on your goals.  Focus on quick, specific actions instead of endless research and you can put this one to bed quickly.  

How can I tell if this is helping me? This is one of my favorite questions, maybe because it was one of my big questions when I got my first coach.  The secret is to do some thinking about this ahead of time.  Do you have goals you already know and are working on?  If so, are they SMART goals?  Then you’ve already got a way to measure those.  

More likely you don’t have goals, or they’re less measurable than you would like.  Would just defining goals or making them more measurable feel like solid progress?  You should be able to get to that in 1-2 coaching sessions, sometimes even during a free introductory session.  Once you have goals that are measurable, then determine how much progress you want to make.  Honest self-evaluation on your progress can often be enough of a barometer.  Set challenging but realistic amounts that you want to progress in order for you to feel like you’re getting a good ROI.  If you’re not getting the progress you want, be honest with your coach, and let her know you’re not OK continuing.  That’s fair.  You are also just as likely to find that you’re progressing far faster than you expected.  That means you’re getting far more value than you thought you would.

The company won’t pay for it This is one that you won’t know unless you ask.  Many coaches will help you have the (potentially challenging) conversation with your boss about this.  It’s in every coach’s best interest to make sure there is a support system internally to help you succeed.  Even if the company won’t pick up the entire tab for coaching, many bosses are so inspired by people taking development into their own hands that they’ll do whatever they can to help.  They can arrange work schedules, offer discretionary bonuses or do various other things to help make life easier for you.  Until you have the initial conversation though, you’ll never know where you stand.

Pulling it all together So which of these problems is your biggest barrier?  Were these ideas helpful for you?  Were there other problems that come up for you?  Please leave your comments about your own ideas below.

[tpmarsh]

Is it worth it getting a coach

This is a question I get all the time.  I’ve answered this on Quora with a very similar answer.

Will you get value out of getting a coach? Most likely.  

Will that value justify the cost of both time and money?   That is less obvious and will depend on other factors.  Here are the biggest factors in my experience.   1.  Are you the type of person that believes that you can change? You wouldn't hire a physical trainer if you thought that your body was going to stay the same afterwards.  Along those same lines, you shouldn't hire a coach if you don't believe that you can make dramatic change.   Carol Dweck has done some phenomenal research identifying that people often have 1 of two common mindsets.  One possibility is a 'fixed mindset' suggesting that people have a set amount of intelligence set at birth, and the rest of our life is an expression of that intelligence.  The other possibility is a growth mindset, which suggests that we can change and grow.  A grow mindset also suggests that Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives.  It's important to note that nobody is either all one or all the other.  I personally try and live in a 'Growth Mindset' to the best of my ability, but I constantly find areas where I unintentionally live in a 'Fixed Mindset' to this day.   2.  Are you willing to take the time and put in effort towards change Again, comparing a career coach to a personal trainer, you're not going to get the ROI out of the trainer unless you're willing to work hard when you're with the trainer and continue working hard when the trainer isn't there.  Will you get better results than working alone?  Probably, but certainly not the highest ROI you could get.  If you have other major priories in your life, for instance if you have just gotten married or had a child, then consider whether you have the personal bandwidth to dedicate to a career coach.  It's absolutely possible to have the bandwidth for both, or for it to be important enough in your life to prioritize both.  Just recognize the what you are getting yourself into. 3.  Are you the type of person that feels like change would be important to get to your goals, whatever those might be? Career Coaches are best at catalyzing change.  If you're not looking for change and you're feeling pretty happy with your current trajectory, you're more likely to be looking for incremental value.  It's possible to get enough incremental value to justify the ROI, but it's more likely to get good ROI when there is a big pivot in your values, beliefs, or actions.   4.  How effective is your relationship with your career coach? This could be in part due to how good of a coach you have, but it is also very personal.  You could have the best career coach on earth, but if you don't personally connect with her, then it might not be your best chance to get the ROI you need.  I highly recommend talking with your career coach ahead of time and judge if your styles mesh well before committing to a longer term engagement with them.