The PATHWAY Coaching Model

A Coaching Model By Michele Steele-Jordan, Leadership/Life Coach, UNITED STATES

PATHWAY as a Resilience Coach

Early in my leadership career, I experienced a myriad of life challenges including abuse, divorce, single parenting, financial hardships, and anxiety. The road was winding, sometimes steep, and difficult to navigate. I realized I needed to develop resilience to balance my career aspirations with my current life experiences to stay on the path to achieving my goals. Looking back, I wish I had a Coach.

Today as an executive leader, I have come to learn that the road to success, comes with great sacrifice, hard work, and determination, sometimes at the risk of losing personal happiness and fulfillment.  However, Success without happiness is never satisfying, leaving many CEOs, executives, and business owners feeling hopeless and depressed. I present a coaching practice for emerging leaders seeking to find a PATHWAY to develop resilience and navigate the winding road of professional and personal life to achieve success and happiness.

As a Resilience Coach: I support individuals to adapt well to challenging situations and overcome obstacles to stay on the path. Regardless of the status or level of leadership the C-suite executive, corporate leader, junior leader, and business owner are simply humans. As such one area of their life can affect the other either positively or negatively.

A quote from idlehearts.com reads

The road to success is not straight, there is a curve called failure, a loop called confusion, speed bumps called friends, red lights called enemies, caution lights called family, you will have flat tires called jobs, but if you have a spare called determination, an engine called perseverance, a driver called will power, you will make it to a place called success!” Source idlehearts.com/Author unknown.

PATHWAY: “Travel the Road to Success”

My coaching model PATHWAY support clients to develop and practice resilience. It presents a duality applied to their professional/career aspirations and personal life goals.

I invite you to explore PATHWAY; “Travel the Road to Success”

Illustration Background

The Nkyinkim “(n-chin-chim) Symbol originated in West Africa and represents Life’s twists and turns. Nkyinkyim translates to mean ‘twisted,’ and relates to the proverb that says, “Life’s journey is twisted.’The symbol itself twists and turns to reflect this wisdom.

Mantra: Travel the Road to Success “Aspire with Grit, Thrive on Purpose, Bloom into Success”

Definitions:

ASPIRE: To direct one’s hopes or ambitions toward achieving something

GRIT: Courage and resolve, the strength of character, indomitable spirit & determination

THRIVE: Grow or develop well. To flourish or prosper vigorously. Progress towards or realizing a goal despite circumstances

PURPOSE: The reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists. The “Why”

BLOOM: When a flower blooms it opens or is open, and when a plant blooms it produces a flower. It’s the openness or willingness that produces desired results

SUCCESS: The accomplishment of an aim or purpose. The achievements and rewards of working hard. The progressive realization of a worthy ideal.

The Pathway to Resilience Coaching is for clients who are on the leadership and personal growth journey with a desire to solve the following:

Professional Pathway Seeks to help clients solve the following and more

• Discover Professional Self Awareness
• Identify career aspirations
• Improve Morale
• Manage Conflict
• Leadership development
• Improve Communication

Personal Pathway “Let happiness Bloom on your road to success”

Seeks to help clients solve the following and more through

• Evoking self-confidence & inner courage
• Building emotional intelligence
• Developing Wellness & Mindfulness
• Fostering Healthy Family Life; marriage, parenting & friendships
• Stress Management

PATHWAY – Safe Space to Explore the Path

My clients come to the coaching process seeking to find a safe space to explore the path they want to take to achieve their goals and aspirations. The coach helps to support the client along their journey to success.

The Pathway model provides a clear and exciting guide for clients to navigate the winding road of life or career journey by developing resilience through awareness, accountability, and reflection.

The model will be used in Executive, Leadership, and Life Coaching sessions

• Professional: Emerging Leaders, Executives, CEOs
• Personal: (Life Coaching)

The client enters the pathway of their choosing; whether it is a business endeavor, a relationship, a career aspiration, or whatever problem they want to address.

The client is invited to ASPIRE, dream and imagine the outcome they want. The client defines and sets their goals and the agreement is made here. The WHAT of the session is established.

The client must equip themselves with GRIT, a necessary resilience tool to travel on the pathway to move towards their goals amidst challenges or setbacks that may arise. Having the strength of character, courage, resolve, and determination is important to a successful outcome. The coach helps the client dig deep into self-awareness. The client begins to THRIVE when a commitment to the process is made and the client is ready to explore available options and resources at their disposal. They consider the PURPOSE and how they will stay focused and grounded by identifying their core values and the “Why” of their goal. Assumptions are questioned here. The client is free to reevaluate and change paths if they so choose or stay the course. As the client stays open to learning and embraces a growth mindset, they BLOOM and evolve into greater self-awareness and self-actualization. The result will be SUCCESS if the client stays on the Path that serves their goals and aspirations. Here they can celebrate success and show gratitude to themselves and others.

Professional Process & Visual Concepts

The PATHWAY model applied to personal aspirations presents the opportunity for clients to BLOOM happily on the road to success. The elements of BLOOM are predominantly used in life coaching.

Beliefs are what we hold to be true, the convictions we have about ourselves, others, and the world. Beliefs can be limiting or empowering. As a coach, I will help clients identify the limiting beliefs they are holding about the issues they bring to the coaching journey. This belief is what brings them to coaching in the first place.

Learn: Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, skills, and abilities. The coach will help clients learn more about themselves by exploring their beliefs, values, and attitudes

Own It: Clients will take account of themselves, their choices, and their actions. The coach helps the client identify excuses and encourages the client’s empowerment to overcome them.

Options: The client explores options and chooses the one most suited for them and their personal goals. The client then

Moves: toward taking action to accomplish their goals.

While the emphasis is placed on Bloom in personal life coaching, it does not deviate from the Pathway.

Personal Life Process & Visual Concepts

PATHWAY Exploration

The model provides a guided process that is flexible and adaptable to each client. The aim is to align the model with the coaching process and competencies in an authentic way. Establishing an agreement is one of the first steps in the coaching relationship. When clients aspire to their goals, they are defining what they want to focus on and accomplish in the coaching session. The exploration of these ideas allows the coach to establish trust and safety with the client. By allowing clients to develop grit and thrive, the coach maintains presence by supporting the clients and demonstrating curiosity to know the client on a deeper level. The act of listening actively and evoking awareness is a key component of discovering purpose and what the client is saying. As the client Blooms, greater awareness is evoked, and the Coach partners with the client to facilitate growth and achieve success. I am excited about using my model in a real-world coaching environment.

Some Pathway Coaching Sample Questions:

ASPIRE

• What dream or aspirations would you like to explore?
• What does your final destination look like?
• What are your goals for the session?
• What journey would you like to take?
• What excites you about this goal?

GRIT

• How important is this to you?
• What agreements will you make to get this done?
• What challenges or obstacles do you anticipate?
• What are you willing to sacrifice to achieve this goal?
• What are you willing to change/ not willing to change?

THRIVE

• What will help keep you focused and grounded?
• What support/resources might be helpful to you?
• How will you keep yourself on track?

PURPOSE

• How does this align with your core values?
• What is important about this?
• What motivates you and keeps you going?

BLOOM

• What is necessary to stay open to the process?
• In what areas do you need to be more open?
• What are you learning about yourself?
• How are you feeling about the progress you have made?

SUCCESS

• What does success look like for you?
• How will you know you have met the goal
• How will you celebrate and show gratitude?

References

Success Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com https://www.dictionary.com
What’s Your Definition of Success? – Dan Lok https://danlok.com
https://www.idlehearts.com/1440/The-Road-Of-Life-Is-Never-Straight
https://symbolsage.com/Nkyinkyim-Symbol