HOW BUSINESS COACHING CAN HELP IN EDUCATION
If you wish to discuss how working with a Business Coach can benefit you, please contact me for an initial free chat on 0785 7422614 or at martin@mjbcoaching.co.uk to discover how I can help.
Working in an educational setting can mean that you could benefit from all the skills that a coach has to offer. Receiving some business coaching will help you develop your own skills. It will also aid you in developing a better environment for education and learning.
Business coaching for education
School, colleges, and universities are very similar to businesses. They have a hierarchy and sets of rules in safety and conduct. There is also guidance for expectations to follow. Budgeting, management of people and tight deadlines also figure in both environments. So, it makes sense to utilise the skills of a Business Coach. They can assist you with getting a handle on educational administration and any staff issues that may arise.
Coaching to become a better listener
Learning active listening skills will help you to interact better within a school environment. We only hear around 40% of what another person is saying if we do not hone our listening skills. We often do not take in body language which can be very revealing as to the other person’s intentions. This can lead to misunderstanding and confusion. By working with a Business Coach, you will enhance your ability to listen.
Learn to ask the right questions
To elicit more than a yes or no, a good questioner knows how to frame questions. These are usually ‘open’ with a leading Who, What, Where, How, When, or Which. The respondent then is more likely to provide more expansive answers. Getting good business coaching will steer you to ask better questions. It will also enable you to know how to deal with the answers. Being able to dig beneath the surface when questioning means you will gain deeper insight into your staff and pupils.
Coaching in resourcefulness
Being resourceful is useful in all occupations, so having this skill will inevitably help you. Knowing how to deal with uncooperative respondents or difficult pupils by using different tactics is a great skill to develop. Business Coaches can help provide new perspectives for you, as they come from a different starting point.
Empathy within education
It is hard to build trust without empathy. It is also hard to work in an educational setting without trust. If, as an educator, you suffer from a lack of respect, then your learners will not absorb information. Learning true empathetic ability takes time and practice. This is where a Coach can work with you. They will have worked with business owners on projects relying on developing the trust of their staff. They can bring this experience to your situation.
Self-reflection
Being able to look at yourself, analyse what areas you need to work on and which skills to hone is a marvellous tool. It will help you to become a better teacher and staff member. Holding sessions with a Coach allows you to look inside yourself. This enables you to be honest about your abilities and true motivations.
Analytical skills
Developing the ability to self-analyse also means you will be able to assess external situations more easily. So, you will start to perform a better analysis in order to make better decisions. Doing this will lead to better working systems. It will also lead to smoother day to day running of your working life.
If you would like to talk through your situation with a Business Coach, then please contact me to arrange an introductory call about your options.
A BUSINESS IN COACHING: WHAT YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE CONSIDERED
If you wish to discuss how working with a Coach can benefit you, please contact me for an initial free chat on 0785 7422614 or at martin@mjbcoaching.co.uk to discover how I can help.
As a Business Coach, Career Coach and Life Coach of some years, I have come across many things I had not really considered before I started my business in coaching. Here I’d like to share some of them and explore how you might approach them in your own coaching business.
Your own emotional health and well being
Dealing with other people’s difficulties in life will make you reflect on your own. Your previous experiences can be a huge resource to fall back upon when helping your clients but equally can influence you less positively if you let them. It is up to you to make sure you are guiding from the head and not the heart. Clients’ problems can cause you emotional upset too, especially with a long-standing client with whom you have formed a bond. Building resilience into yourself will help guard against this. However, even the toughest need assistance too. So why not work with a fellow Coach to share the burden? Take care of your own emotional health, as without it you cannot continue to help others.
Building a business in coaching
As a coach you have to build a business, so you go through similar steps to some of your clients. Steps such as building a website, promoting yourself, and seeking out clients need to be taken. You also have to learn about the new modern skills of digital marketing and sales funnels. You may be starting your own business from scratch, and working for yourself can be a lonely place. Therefore, I would suggest that you consider employing your own Business Coach to help guide you and make sure your business runs smoothly, leaving you free to actually work with clients.
Prioritisation
Working out how you should tackle work priorities can cause you stress. Which client requires greater guidance between sessions? Which client comes first when diaries conflict? Everyone battles with prioritisation and that is why some people employ Coaches. You need to know that, as a Coach, you will also have the same battles. If you are prepared to stick by your decisions and yet remain flexible if the choice proves to be wrong, then prioritisation becomes easier.
Time
This is a big one; time to build your own coaching business and the time you give to your clients. Time for yourself to recover and recuperate. Making time for your family and other personal commitments. Know that as a coach you will learn to use time to your advantage, to let things work through to conclusion. I find that planning timescales into all my projects, personal and business, helps to keep perspective of everything that I am working on. Extend that planning into the detail of your client work. This means that realistic expectations can be created and maintained for both you and your clients.
These are some of the considerations that I feel will help you to gain greater clarity and insight before embarking on your own coaching business. If you have any to add, please let me know.
TOP OF YOUR GAME? YOU CAN STILL BENEFIT FROM AN EXECUTIVE COACH!
If you wish to discuss how working with an Executive Coach can benefit you, please contact me for an initial free chat on 0785 7422614 or at martin@mjbcoaching.co.uk to discover how I can help
Just when you have reached the pinnacle of your career, be it in business or sports, you may start to think its time to ditch your Executive Coach. After all, they have been pushing you to reach your goals and now you have got there. I am going to demonstrate that this is not the decision you want to make.
I’ve Arrived, Haven’t I?
Arrived at the goal(s) you set for yourself, yes. But why not aim higher, or in a different direction? You may want some time to re-group and to relax a little on the full throttle approach. However, once that short sojourn is over, you may find you are ready to get going again and focus on some new challenges.
Keeping Your Eye on the Ball
Once you stop coaching sessions, you can be tempted to relax your grip on the day to day running of your career or business. Maintaining ‘match fitness’ will need some attention, even if you have automated much of your processes. Retaining a coach to help you hold onto the smooth running of your business is a good idea.
New Challenges
Within your business, new challenges can come by the way of staff changes, new equipment, or changes in trading regulations, to name just 3 examples. By retaining your coach, you can head off most disasters before they arise. Your executive coach will help you to identify ways to incorporate internal and external changes into the business.
Growth
Growth never stops. When building your business, your main goal will be to increase profit, which in turn is determined by wage and product cost increases, which leads to more production etc…
This can mean you are on a hamster wheel of ever-increasing growth. To continue growth, you will need your Executive Coach as the pressures can be a little overwhelming. Until you sell your business, you do not want to slow down the growth. Your potential buyer or investors also need to see the ability for the business to continue its growth.
Support from your Executive Coach
Life can be tough at the top, having a compadre and confidant, who is also independent, will help you to stay there. If you are the CEO and the buck stops with you, having the support of your Executive Coach will help release pressure and let you make better decisions. For your wellbeing, your coach can help you to keep all the confidence and self-esteem you have built up as your business has grown and developed.
If you would like to talk through your options with an Executive Coach, then please contact me to for an introductory call about your options.
LOOKING FOR A CAREER COACH IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
If you wish to discuss how a business coach can benefit you, please contact me for an initial free chat on 0785 7422614 or at martin@mjbcoaching.co.uk to discover how I can help
Are you looking to develop your career in the public sector further? Are you finding making that step onwards difficult? A career coach can help you work out the obstacles to your advancement and help you get that job or position for which you are yearning. The rewards come with moving up the pay scale and having more responsibility and power.
Stuck in a Rut
Lots of people feel that they should just keep their head below the parapet and wait for job offers from their current employer. Asking your line manager to advance you can sometimes feel like being pushy or rude. So, we get stuck in the hamster wheel and end up getting frustrated.
Looking for a Career Coach
Having someone to help you work through your work-life issues and assist you to move up the career ladder is great. So, how do you find a career coach? Sometimes, there will be a colleague at work who has moved up and is willing to coach you. However, this is not always the case. Googling will provide you with a number of career coach options. However, you may need a more specialist coach with experience in the public sector.
What Attributes to Look for in Your Career Coach
In my career as an HR professional, I worked in a number of public sector organisations. These spanned Health, Housing, Government and Local Government. I have a keen appreciation of how recruitment processes work within these types of organisations. I also understand the cultural mindset of these institutions.
In selecting the right career coach for your requirements, firstly look for someone with knowledge of public sector recruitment. They will understand the right application processes and where to look for the right position for you. The application process and criteria can be very different from the wider working world.
Your career coach should be able to work with you on your Curriculum Vitae and help to redress any issues to give you a head start when applying. He/she will help you with your online presence, utilising LinkedIn for example.
They should work with you on interview techniques. They should also guide you on the appropriate answers and which questions you should ask in return.
If being headhunted or given a number of job offers, your career coach should be able to help steer you through the offers to make sure you make the right decision for you. This is not always the one with the highest salary.
What Can You Expect from Myself as Your Career Coach?
At first, you will be asked a number of questions, so that we can work out where things are not working for you in your current role. We will also talk through what you want from your next role. We take your lifestyle and family situation into account too. These can be factors when choosing the right career path. It is important to understand your motivations. I will explore whether knee-jerk decision-making is taking place, or whether your next role will really fulfil you in the longer term. We may examine your values to be sure your next move will not lead to disillusionment further down the track.
On a practical level, we will look at how you are presenting yourself, both in-person and online. We will help you make appropriate adjustments. We then work through application and interview stages to provide the best chance of securing the role you want.
Once you have the next job, you and your career coach will want to have a plan in action to continue on your career path.
If you would like to talk through anything with a career coach, then please contact me to for an introductory call about your options.