I recently received these wonderfully encouraging words from Deepthi, a client I worked with as part of The University of Edinburgh‘s Coaching for University Managers and Leaders programme with Know You More earlier this year. I am sharing this with her permission.
I wanted to share it because it just seems to me such a simple but powerful illustration of what coaching can do for a person. And it also demonstrates the value of partnership.
It is also rather seasonally apt, coming at the end of the year when many of us are pausing to reflect on the year past.
Simplicity
The simplicity is simple: we coaches give people time and space in the midst of their busy lives to think and reflect afresh in partnership with us, always working with them in service of their goals.
Deepthi’s goal changed as we spent time together and this often happens as people are given space to reflect on what matters to them. It was the simplicity of time for her in reflective partnership with me that brought her to a realisation of a more successful path for our coaching focus. Here are her words:
“I found it refreshing to speak openly and without fear of any kind of judgement… Having what I said reflected back and highlighted made a big difference in helping me be far more aware of my strengths and how I could go forward. It highlighted that what I was focusing on – which was trying to be ready for the future – was actually holding me back. I should focus on the now as that has always been what I have done and has been successful”
Partnership
But to me, her kind endorsement also illustrates the importance of partnership: the coaching partnership between the two of us, but also the partnership between Know You More and The University of Edinburgh too. Four stakeholders – two givers and two receivers of coaching working in partnership with each other in different ways. We might like to think we can ‘do it alone’ but the the simple truth is that we need each other. Without partnership coaching just doesn’t work. It can’t actually happen.
Simplicity, power, and partnership. Three words at the heart of coaching.
Happy Christmas (nearly)🎄 🌟
And thank you Deepthi – and Know You More – and The University of Edinburgh. I’ve enjoyed being in partnership with you 🙂
Get in touch?
Together we can work out a plan