The Burnout Coach

Coaching is a space and time for you to explore with judgment, examine your own blind spots, and grow to your greatest potential professionally and personally.

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is the world’s largest professional body for coaches, and they define coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

Mainly that in coaching, the coach does not tell you what to do, give you advice, or teach you anything.

At this point, you may be wondering, “what is the point of coaching then?”

To quote a fellow coach, I find that most of us have too many people telling us what they think we should do with our lives, when what we need is the time and space to explore what we need to do for our own lives. Coaching is that time and space, supported by a non-judgemental, objective supporter who truly believes you are capable and resourceful enough to solve all your issues and achieve all your goals.

A coach is a partner who will create a safe space for you to meet yourself where you’re at, relook at your limiting mindsets, and choose a more useful perspective for moving forward.

I am also a mentor. I mentor new coaches starting on their coaching journeys. Unlike a coach, a mentor is someone uses his or her experience to help you chart out the path going forward. In my case, I listen to the coaching sessions of my mentees and give them feedback to improve their coaching skills. I also help them brainstorm their coaching niche, and give them advice on how they might launch their coaching careers.

In addition, I am a trainer. I train both leaders who want to pick up coaching skills to use in their work and those wanting to become certified professional coaches.

Moreover, I am a facilitator. As part of my work with organisations, I facilitate sessions aimed at helping their people develop a coaching mindset as part of the organisations’ coaching culture.

Lastly, I am a consultant. I consult companies looking for a culture change towards more of a coaching culture internally.

What I’m not, is a counsellor or therapist. Counsellors and therapist work with those who need help with their mental health. I work only with those who are of sound mind and in good mental health.

The biggest benefit is a mindset shift.

That may not sound like much, but our perception of reality controls what happens in our lives. What we can see determines what we can do, which in turn determines the outcomes we reach.

In terms of outcomes, what can you expect? Most of the coachees achieve all the programme outcomes they want in about half to a third of the time.

What kind of outcomes? Some examples of real outcomes my clients have reached include enterprise reorganisation, managing up, people development, career progression, visibility to senior leadership, stakeholder management, and worklife balance.

There’s been a fair amount of research done on coaching. You can refer to some of the papers here:

1. Why Coaching Works?

a. Whitepaper: https://helloezra.com/resources/research/why-coaching-works

b. Webinar: https://vimeo.com/812479199/bdae9b48f7

2. Why and How to Build Coaching Cultures in Organisations: https://coachingfederation.org/research/building-a-coaching-culture

3. Coaching and Leadership: https://www.welead.global/posts/43138862

4. Global Coaching Study: https://coachingfederation.org/research/global-coaching-study