Do You Need Permanent Coaching?
Andrea: I don’t think that a coach, just because they’re a coach, must have their own coach every single minute of every single day. Generally speaking, yes but at the same time, Robyn, I would say that it’s okay for a coach to have a break from having a coach.
Robyn: Yes, definitely. It’s definitely okay to have a break but I don’t know—I might have told this story before on Coach Street about the conferences I went to and Christine McDougall, a Master Certified Coach from Australia, Brisbane, asked coaches in the room to put up their hand if they had a coach and it was alarming. Hardly anyone had a coach.
I reckon that’s okay but the thing is, particularly if you’re a new coach starting out, one of the big reasons people cite is money. It costs money to get a coach and what sort of value would it be?
There are two things I would say to that and the first is the great thing about coaching is that you don’t have to sign up for a twelve-month contract. Some coaches may make you do that but you can find coaches where you don’t need to do that. So if you’re not getting better you just stop the coaching. Of course you need to be getting value for the money.
The second thing is that what I’ve found for me as a coach is that being a client is some of the best education I’ve ever had on how to coach. I learnt so much about the coaching process and so much value learnt from being a client that you can then transfer to your own coaching. Have you found that as well?
Andrea: Definitely. The one informs the other is what you mean, yeah?
Robyn: Yeah.
Andrea: I think that if you are a coach and you’re just beginning, what you said, Robyn. And then if you’re a coach who has been coaching for a while and you feel like your coaching tools and skills are getting a little dull, it’s time to sharpen them. Get out there with a coach who’s going to give you that feeling of awakeness, whether you’re a coachee or a coach. If it starts to be a sleepiness then it’s time to put some horseradish on the thing and change it up a bit.
Robyn: And then the other thing is I think there are certain times people should always have a coach. Like if you’re running a small business, I can’t see why you wouldn’t have one because a business coach is just gold when you’re running a business. Mine is, for sure.
I was moaning and groaning about something and my coach said, “Well, what do you do all day, Robyn?” And I thought, okay, that’s actually quite an interesting question. What do I do all day? Just that one question stopped me in my tracks. I’d been looking at what it is that I’m doing and was everything that I’m doing of the most value that I can get.
And is there someone else who can do it? If there’s someone else who can do it, I should be getting someone else to do it and concentrating only on the things I can do. Just that one single thing was a big challenge for me. I find coaching really useful for that sort of thing.
Andrea: Yeah, I love that. I’m a bit of a stickler. I think everyone knows by now that the episode that we’re on on the Coach Street podcast absolutely makes me nervous. I do think there are exceptions…
Robyn: I’m forcing you into it, aren’t I? I’m going, “Come on, Andrea, come on. Everybody needs a coach, don’t they? You know it.”
Andrea: Since it’s her birthday she thinks she can boss me around. No, I do think the danger is that from a marketing perspective I think people can think that’s giving us permission to say everyone should always have a coach and it’s just not true. In business even, for example, if you have a good plan and if you feel like you’re capable, I like for clients to go on ahead and have a break and be without training wheels and gain confidence.
I don’t think either of us would say that someone should have a coach for the rest of their lives every day of the week. So I do think it’s healthy. It’s like with physical training. After a little while you get to a place where you’ve run some races, let’s say, and you’re without a coach for a while. Until you want to do the next big goal you might go without a coach. It’s okay.
Robyn: That’s true, too. I agree with that. But I don’t know about your life but generally speaking, when I’m out in the world—not in the coaching world but down at the school talking with parents, or at parties—I meet people who are running small businesses all the time and they don’t have a coach. The majority of them would not have a coach. I just think it’s crazy.
Andrea: That’s very true. To be clear, Robyn, thank you because I’m talking about people who have had one or two coaches for a good chunk of time. It’s okay to have a break. But if you are a business and you’ve never had a coach, absolutely you will benefit from having a coach.
If you’re doing perfectly great, with lots of money and an easy life and all that, then fine. Don’t get a coach. But that’s highly unlikely if you’re in business and you’ve never had a coach.
Robyn: I wonder why they don’t. I think sometimes it’s because they just don’t know what coaching is. They’ve never heard of it. They don’t think of it. That’s a segueway and going off into something else but that’s why we tell our coaches not to sell coaching as a solution to a problem.
If you’re at a party and you’re talking to someone and it’s clear they could use a coach but they’ve never heard of coaching, particularly if you’re in Australia where sometimes if it’s life coaching it might be scorned or treated with cynicism, you’re better off just talking about, “Oh, okay. I know someone who works with parents with teenaged kids on that sort of thing,” rather than “You need a coach.”
It’s unfortunate, isn’t it? I’d like to go up to everyone and tell them to get a coach. That’s really where I’m heading with this.
Andrea: I get it, and I support you.
Robyn: You’re just being nice because it’s my birthday.
Andrea: No, no. I’d forgotten that it was your birthday, so no.
Robyn: How could you forget? I’ve been reminding you.
Andrea: If you’re in a new country or a brand new citizen in the land of building a business and you have no clue what to do, you don’t speak the language, you don’t know anybody, you don’t know where to start, and you’re feeling emotional and confused and overwhelmed, those are definitely symptoms of a coach being a great answer.
Write In With Your Coaching Experiences
Robyn: I think in this episode we need to ramp up our user comments. We really haven’t put a lot of emphasis on that in the past. In this one, why don’t we get people to write in and tell us why they think it’s important to get a coach?
I’d be interested to hear what people are saying. Even listening to people’s stories about when they first got a coach.
Andrea: I would love that.
Robyn: I’m going to invite everybody to do that.
Andrea: What was the most beautiful moment of coaching you’ve ever received?
Robyn: That would be great. The most beautiful moment of coaching you’ve ever received. We would love to hear about it. We could start sharing a few of them in future episodes. That would be great.
Andrea: Are we going to share our Spot the Coaching this time?
Robyn: Yes. I was just about to go into it.
SPOT THE COACHING
Robyn: This week for Spot the Coaching I have one straight from the mouth of babes, from my children. Because it’s my birthday they decided I’m getting old and so I should retire. They were telling me I should retire and blah, blah, blah.
My son, who’s 10, said, “So mom, when you retire can I run your business?”
I said, “Well, sure, but what role would you have?”
He said, “I’d get that website up for starters.”
The thing is if you’ve been in my life for the last few months we have been doing the Coach Campus website and the first iteration didn’t work. The traffic was coming but it wasn’t converting leads. I won’t go into it but we had to scrap it. We had to completely start again. It has taken a lot longer than it should have taken.
That was pretty funny. Then my daughter, who’s eight, said, “No, I want to run your business.”
I went, “Okay. There’s plenty of room. What goal would you have?”
She said, “Well, I would just make sure that everybody in the business was doing the job they were supposed to be doing.”
Anyway, the funny thing about both of those comments is that they both completely hit the nail on the head. Where I am right now in the business and what I need to be doing, I need to get the website up and stop working on it so much so I can move my attention to other things. And I really need to be looking at who’s doing what and whether they are actually sitting in the right seat in the bus and doing the right things.
What it showed me is coaching can come from all places. If you listen for it and particularly the people around you who are close to you and you listen to them reflecting your life back to you, or you listen to the things they say to you, you can actually get some gems there.
Andrea: I think that children are naturally great coaches. It sounds like you have a couple of good ones. Way to go on telling your mum what to do, you know? Did they hold you accountable? That’s the part they missed. They should hold you accountable to a deadline.
Robyn: Oh, great. They should give me a by-when. I’ll be looking forward to that next week.
I think we’re nearly at half an hour. It’s a bit of a short one today but really, I can’t hang around. I’ve got to go and drink champagne and eat oysters.
CONCLUSION
Andrea: I think we should celebrate with a final clink of the glasses. I want to thank you so much, Robyn, for being in all of our lives. The difference you make in the world is palpable and I hope you appreciate yourself.
Robyn: What I should have told you and I’m going to share it later on Facebook this afternoon, but my staff did an amazing thing. They made a surprise video for my birthday. One of them had this idea to do it and there’s about 30 or 40 staff at International Coach Academy at the moment. They live all around the world, so to do something like that is quite a logistical nightmare.
They collected birthday wishes from people everywhere, even in China. One of my staff members, Echo, whose son sang Happy Birthday, it’s so cute on the video. They edited it all together and then gave it to my sister who presented it to me at my party on Saturday night. It was just extraordinary. It was quite amazing.
Andrea: That’s a special staff that you’re leading there.
Robyn: It made me realize that I felt very acknowledged and appreciated. That was wonderful. But I also realized what an unbelievable global company it is. I sort of forget because when I speak to each person individually I don’t get that sense of the whole. We’re never in one room at the same time. You don’t really get that full sense of the diversity.
I’ll put it on Facebook. Have a look at it; it’s very cute.
Andrea: I definitely want to see it. You know, there are lots of good things for this next year. I’m imagining there might be one or two extra adventures that you and I might come up to. So everyone stay tuned for our next episode. We’re looking forward to your comments. Wish Robyn a happy birthday if you do nothing else because you know we’ll hear no end of it if you don’t.
Meanwhile, have a great lunch. I will be there in spirit, Robyn. Thank you so much.