Welcome to our latest newsletter, today we are re-sharing some thoughts and practical self-coaching questions when considering how coaching can support individuals through change, whether that’s an individual or organisational change they are going through…we hope you find it a useful, interesting and inspiring read…and if you saw this the last time we shared it over a year ago we hope it’s a helpful reminder.

Today we are also shining a spotlight on industry specific coaching support for women and the work we’ve been doing here, maybe you work in one of the industries we’re currently working with or you’d like to know how we could offer something in your industry – have a read and let us know if you’d like to know more.

We’ll leave you with a simple but often forgotten coaching question for you, your colleagues and friends.

 

 

Coaching is at the heart of what we do, whether it’s through one to ones, workshops, programmes or our self-coaching resources, and we’ve seen the positive impact it can have both on individuals who are going through change or when the organisation is going through a change.

In recent coaching programmes some clients have told us:

“I thought it was an excellent course – the best I have attended at this organisation or at other workplaces. The topics were well thought through and the course – and all its opportunities – arrived at such a pertinent time for us all, as our organisation undergoes a change programme. There was a lot of opportunity for discussion and personal reflection, practice of various tools, and embedding of tools and practice.”

“This course has been perfect for helping me to just ‘stop, breathe and reset’. In a time of huge personal change where the pace has been nothing less than 100mph, engaging with the group, taking on the wider reading and completing the tasks has forced me to remind myself of the bigger picture. If you need to zoom out of the detail for a while and check-in with yourself, I’d highly recommend this course.”

Coaching, whether one-to-one or in a group setting, offers individuals a valuable space to pause, reflect, and make sense of everything that’s going on. It provides a steady, neutral support to help navigate the often complex impact of change.

Working with a coach who is outside the situation can be incredibly beneficial. It allows space to explore options, clarify decisions, and develop strategies to manage uncertainty – all of which can significantly boost resilience and wellbeing during challenging times.

These are the sorts of areas that may impact individuals in your organisation during times of change and coaching can help them to…

• challenge negative self-talk and imposter syndrome and build confidence
• manage work and life demands and feelings of overwhelm
• develop a positive mindset, personal resilience and manage setbacks
• focus on career progression and development
• consider their leadership aspirations and the leader they are or want to be
• explore having a voice and how to present themselves
• consider managing professional relationships and building connections
• consider the impact they can and want to have
• create an action plan of manageable achievable next steps

 

Here we’ll look at three examples of how coaching can support individuals through periods of change along with some self-coaching questions to help those navigating the change for you to share with anyone who you think might find them useful.

1. Dealing with ongoing uncertainty

During a time of change, the uncertainly can lead to a sense of a lack of control which can have a negative impact on how someone feels and responds to change.

Coaching can help you to identify areas where you do have some control and to put in place positive steps.

Coaching questions to get you started:

• Make a list of all of the elements in the situation and decide which ones you have control over and which ones you don’t.
• Look at the areas you have some control over, what could you do to make the most of the control you have? Even if the only control you have is you own internal mindset, thoughts, self-talk – focusing on that can have a big impact on how you feel and behave throughout an uncertain changing situation.

 

2. When you feel knocked by the situation and it’s affecting your self-belief, resilience and confidence

Individuals might be doubting their own abilities, and their self-talk becomes more critical and negative during a time of change.

Coaching can help you to analyse your beliefs and particularly those that are impacting how you are dealing with the situation. It can help you to tune into your inner self-talk and develop strategies for dealing with it. It can give you tools to practice so you can develop and build your resilience and ability to challenge any negative messages you keep telling yourself.

Coaching questions to get you started:

• When you are facing a challenging situation what kind of self-talk do you notice?
• What if you could choose to think differently about the challenging situation or yourself? Write down some alternative, more positive self-talk you could say to yourself instead.
• Bring to mind a time when you positively dealt with challenges in the past – what did you do to prepare for that, during that time or after?

 

3. You feel alone in the situation…

It can feel quite lonely dealing with a change and this is where group coaching workshops can be particularly helpful, either focusing on a topic or by providing a more open session to provide time and space to explore.

Coaching questions to get you started in a small group:

• What’s important to you right now?
• What solutions / tips / ideas have you tried before that have been successful and helpful and that you can share with others?
• What do you want to take forward that will have the most positive impact for you?

This list is of course not exhaustive and there are many reasons why coaching is so beneficial during times of change.