“With Hannah’s help, I successfully renegotiated and renovated my working environment. The organisation has restructured my job, which means I’ve moved teams within the company. This allows me to use my knowledge, gifting, and talent, and makes me feel far more productive and valued!”
Sharon and I worked together for eight months, meeting monthly. A big question for her was whether to stay with her current organisation or look for other jobs and move on. During our coaching, we used the Love It or List It television programme as a metaphor to generate awareness around this.
In this programme, with Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp’s help, homeowners renovate their house, and, at the same time consider other properties fitting their needs, deciding ultimately, whether to love it or list it. Using this metaphor worked well as both Sharon and I both enjoyed the programme and could easily explore the comparisons.
Sharon’s Endorsement:
“I decided to invest in coaching because I felt stuck in a rut with work. My job had morphed over the last few years until I was doing the things I wasn’t really enjoying. I was feeling quite demotivated and demoralised.
“Hannah worked with my initial knee jerk reaction to my difficulty, which was thinking that the only way out of my feelings of work unhappiness would be to change jobs”
The experience was a little like Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It television programme. Hannah worked with my initial knee jerk reaction to my difficulty, which was thinking that the only way out of my feelings of work unhappiness would be to change jobs. And I had started looking for another job. I hadn’t actually thought of approaching my employer, discussing my feelings and negotiating to restructure my job to suit me and my skills more.
With Hannah’s help, I successfully renegotiated and renovated my working environment. The organisation has restructured my job, which means I’ve moved teams within the company. This allows me to use my knowledge, gifting, and talent, and makes me feel more productive and valued!
“Coaching helps you to think outside parameters you’d normally think of”
Coaching helps you to think outside parameters you’d normally think of. It’s a little like standing in front of a mirror and having your reflection; the questions you’re asking; posed back to you. Hannah makes this a fulfilling and empowering experience.
I have decided to love it (for now).”
Sharon, Communications and Content Professional / Salesforce CRM Coordinator
Team Sharon
Unlike any good coach, in Love It or List It, Kirstie and Phil each have a personal agenda—Kirstie is on Team Love It and Phil is on Team List It—but the analogy to coaching is still a good one. As Sharon’s coach, my only agenda was Sharon’s agenda, and it was important that she made that informed decision herself. It was my privilege to use my skills and tools to equip and empower her thinking in ways that enabled her to do just that.
“As Sharon’s coach, my only agenda was Sharon’s agenda”
Use of metaphor in coaching
Figurative imagery and language can be really helpful in coaching because of the creative way it uses the imagination. In their simple and much-used definition, Lakoff and Johnson (Metaphors We Live By, 1980), bring this out: “the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one thing in terms of another.”
“Figurative imagery and language can be really helpful in coaching because of the creative way it uses the imagination”
Get in touch?
For those reading this who may be thinking of working with me here at HM Coaching and Development, I hope this has been helpful to read. Please feel free to get in touch if you would like to talk further. The first step is to have a conversation and together we will work out a plan!
Photo credit: Burst