Every January, many folks resolve to ensure the New Year is their best one yet. Yet, too often people fail at reaching goals that they set for themselves. Whether it’s losing that holiday weight, learning a new skill, or striving for that promotion, if you find yourself as someone who has trouble sticking to goals and resolutions, whether it’s a New Year's resolution or throughout the year, then maybe it is time to get yourself a coach. On the other hand, for those looking to enrich their own communication and relationship skills, then the role of the coach may be for you.
Close to two years ago we introduced our Coaching Program to all staff members here at Rangle. We wanted to give everyone additional tools that they could use to help them achieve their goals – both personally and professionally. In essence, the Coaching Program is a confidential, peer-to-peer relationship where a pair comes together for the coach to support the coachee in achieving their goals, while providing lifelong benefits to both parties.
Our program includes training for all staff on how to become effective coaches and coachees, including how to work through the GROW model for goal setting and problem solving. The GROW acronym stands for Goal (what would you like to achieve?), Reality (what is the current situation?), Options (what could you do?) and Will (what will you do?). This model, which uses powerful, thought-provoking questions at its core, is an integral part of a good coaching session.
For coachees, the program allows them to start having meaningful conversations with themselves about what it is they want. Often a coachee may have a certain goal in mind, but as they work through the model with the help of a coach, reflecting on the reality of the situation further, they may dig a little deeper and refine that goal further or even discover an entirely new one. Having regular check-ins with their coach is a great way to keep track of their progress.
Having the coachee define their own goal and approach to follow allows them to take ownership of it and empowers them to strive to achieve it, as opposed to someone else telling them what they should do and how to do it. With this process of encouraged ownership, the coachee is the only person accountable for whether or not they reach their goal. Once the coachee does reach their goal, there is always an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, increasing their skill set and self esteem, which oftens drives a coachee to work on additional goals (and become coaches themselves).
The coach and coachee relationship is more symbiotic than people realize so one should not overlook the benefits that the coach gains from this experience. For one, since a coach is responsible for asking powerful questions, their active listening skills need to be bang on and are always improving. A coach needs to listen to not only what the coachee is saying directly, but also what they may be saying indirectly. Perhaps it is the coachee’s body language that tells a different story, their pause when answering a question, or that their quip when greeting their coach had an underlying concern they may not raise directly. When a coach is able to hear using their eyes along with their ears, and can ask the right questions to encourage productive conversation, they create an environment that is safe and welcoming. This communication style can be extended beyond coaching sessions to be applied to project teams, with peers, clients, and even personal relationships with friends and family members.
There is also no doubt that watching their coachee work towards and achieve their goals has a domino effect on the coach themselves. It brings additional self awareness to the process allowing the coach to more easily define their own goals, approach and will to reach them.
Taking on the role of a coach also demonstrates initiative and leadership. Here at Rangle we have, to date, about half our staff who are trained as coaches. Coaches' contributions help drive growth within the company, whether that is from helping their coachees advance in their accomplishments; assisting teams and clients with reaching goals; increasing their own communication and active listening skills; or working as a Coaching Program representative, helping bring the program to everyone.
So whether you’re looking to finally stick with those New Year’s resolutions, or have the smallest things on your to do list to check off, as a coachee you’ll gain crucial self awareness and empowerment as you own your growth. Coaches will also gain lifelong skills and personal and professional enhancements taking on this very important role.
If you're not a Rangler (yet), check out our job postings to learn more about our culture. In the meantime, remember that the GROW model for coaching can be applied anywhere, whether that means bringing it into your organization or finding someone in your life who can act as a coach.
Let's get working on those goals!