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I am frequently surprised when I meet coaches who don’t receive coaching themselves – coaches who don’t regularly jump into the passenger seat of coaching and engage as a client in the very process that they would normally facilitate for others.
To me, this is like a naturopath who eats McDonald’s, a stressed-out massage therapist or a fireman whose house just burnt down. Flashing lights that say, “WARNING! Big mismatch!”
Then my compassionate self pipes up and I remember that there was once a time when finances prevented coaches engaging in coaching themselves regularly. A time when you couldn’t get coaching unless you had at least a thousand dollars available and when you certainly couldn’t do several bouts of this in a year, unless you were making lots of money from coaching already, which, let’s face it, you really need lots of coaching to actually do!
It was a vicious circle. My compassionate self reminds me that many coaches just don’t know that that frustrating cycle ended years ago.
If you’re a coach who hasn’t had your own coach at least once in the last year, because you had other things to do with your $1000+, now there’s nothing stopping you having your own coach again. Because The Coaching Commons has partnered with ReciproCoach, an international community for reciprocal coaching, you can receive free ReciproCoach coins when you add your voice to the Coaching Commons conversations by positing comments.
You can get up to 1 free coin a month and up to 6 free coins a year and can use your ReciproCoach coins to join a ReciproCoach round, which involves giving and receiving a certain number of hour of coaching within a specific period of time.
To help you along the way building up your ReciproCoach coin stocks, I’ve got a question for you.
Why should coaches have their own coach at least once a year?
Note: ReciproCoach (originally known as Contra Coaching) started out in 2005 as an initiative of Kerryn Griffiths together with the local members the Brisbane ICF (International Coach Federation) chapter.
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There are 4 Responses so far...
Kerryn,
I will respond! I believe wholeheartedly that coaches should personally be able to receive the valuable experience that they provide to others. The support, affirmation, growth, and transformational possibilities are all exciting positives. Who can say no?
I want to commend you on ReciproCoach. I have used it and enjoyed it, and have just referred someone else to your site, today.
Thanks Patti – you’ve highlighted an important point. I have noticed that not all coaches are able to RECEIVE coaching, even when they are in coaching sessions. I have also noticed that those coaches who RECEIVE coaching really well, also coach really well. Now that would be an interesting study!
Although I agree that it would be odd for a coach to believe they are beyond the need to be coached, are you suggesting they need to become each others’ customers to be valid?
A coach who has experienced the possibilities of sitting in the opposite chair will go there now and again as they grow just as a doctor will hire another when they need to heal. That makes sense, but is it fair to judge those who don’t “have their own coach” and “a naturopath who eats McDonald’s…or a fireman whose house just burnt down”? Really? Those are “Flashing lights that say, ‘WARNING! Big mismatch!’” Are you sure?
Maybe you just need better examples to make your point. Just as ‘a stressed out massage therapist’ might not necessarily find relief from their stress purely through massage, a coach who believes the solutions to all their problems lie in coaching may be as out of balance as the ones who don’t think it applies to them.
I believe in being coached as tool for ongoing personal development, but equally so, professional development. That is what I suggest, though I perhaps did not articulate it very well! As for the examples, well, I guess I was just trying to say that I prefer the “practice what you preach” principle. I preach coaching, therefore I practice it in my own life. I certainly was not intending to suggest coaching as an answer to “problems”…
Using Louise’s metaphor of the doctor, interestingly I choose preventative medicine. I don’t WAIT until I need to heal to see a doctor… I see naturopaths to stay in good health, so I don’t need to see a doctor!
I guess it comes down to whether you believe that as a coach you’re there to “fix”, in which case you’d get coaching when you need to be “healed”, of if you’re there to make what’s already good, even better, in which case, you’d be in coaching as much as was practicable. I subscribe to the latter – when you’re in coaching regularly, you’re making your own life and your own professional practice better and better.
It’s not about fixing problems… it’s about unlimited possibility for positive growth personally, but equally so, professionally.