I am often asked about my journey into coaching. To save me repeating myself, but also to give myself a bit of reflective space to think about it, I thought I might capture that journey here for you. Maybe you are interested, maybe not. Maybe there is something for you to learn from this, maybe not. It is my story, so I wouldn’t expect anyone else’s to be the same, but you may spot some similarities to your own move into coaching – as you will no doubt see differences.
When did it all begin?
Rewind over two decades (gosh that makes me feel old – or perhaps I should equate it to wise?!!) to the year 2000. I was heading up the company’s Leaders at all Levels strategy back then. We had plenty of training for new and not-so-new leaders. But despite the commitments that participants made to change the way they developed their people, created value and operated the business, they frequently slipped back into their old ways when they got back into the workplace.
That was disappointing. But hardly surprising, given the research that I found by Olivero et al that training alone leads to a meagre 20% change in behaviour. I discovered in the same article that training followed by coaching led to an 88% change. That got my attention.
So I started to look into this coaching thing, as a tool for transferring the learning out of the classroom and into the real world. I got the company to sponsor me for a short introduction to coaching, which led to a longer programme. It wasn’t the best training in the world, but it did get me hooked. I did my first official coaching in January 2001. I say that I did it, because it was a doing thing for me back then – I hadn’t yet discovered the being of coaching, which came much, much later. I was following steps in a process…but that’s how we all start in coaching, clinging to the steps to feel secure.
I look back at that time now and realise that I was doing performance coaching – driving to solution, to resolution, to outcome. But I was just a beginner so I look back at that time with kindness: I had started with that one step into the world of coaching. And as an aside, I just discovered AICoach.Chat, which drives to solution too, but is really awesome at acknowledging the thinker, which is something this human is still learning!! Go try it (after you’ve finished reading this blog post!!)
I accumulated all of my hours of coaching within the company. It wasn’t my day job – but I loved it so much and I saw and felt the difference it could make, so I made time for it. It was relatively easy to get my first few clients, as they weren’t paying for it. And I was able to leverage my internal blog to “advertise” myself, which meant I worked with people from around the world, not just locally – India, the Philippines, Europe, the US mainly.
But I did so many things wrong, from an ethical standpoint. We had no three-way contracts (hadn’t even heard of them), I had no supervision of my practice, I was taking on clients even when they were not a good fit for coaching or for me…..but I loved this part of my work and I was rather blind to these things back then.
Introduction to the ICF
I met several external coaches through an Action Learning Set training, who pointed me towards the International Coach Federation (sic – it was Coach vs Coaching at the time) as a credentialing body. As far as I was aware (and I didn’t do huge amounts of desk research) this was the only credentialing body around at the time. That turns out not to be true, but it seems to have been the best known. And it has suited me to be aligned with the ICF for those two decades. First, because they were and still are internationally recognised (as I know some of the other bodies are becoming now), and second because I like the way their credentialing process focuses so much on how you show up as a coach, rather than what you write about your coaching. In my experience, being able to write a good essay or reflective journal does not necessarily make you a great coach.
I’ve lost track of the year that I became an Associate Certified Coach with the ICF but I know that I got my PCC in 2010. That was a big deal for me – the proudest achievement of my life. Back then, you needed 750 hours of coaching under your belt (vs the 500 that is now required). I loved my coaching work and I loved being recognised externally.
Over time, I met more and more people internally who were trained coaches. And more and more people were being pointed to me as one of the go-to people in Accenture who was a leader in this space. A small group of us set up and ran a Community of Practice for these people who had found coaching, in similar ways to me, most of us self-funding our continuous professional development as it wasn’t part of our day jobs. This was a brilliant bunch of like-minded people who wanted to change the culture from the traditional paternal command and control style of leadership to using more of a coach approach. We made some good inroads, but it was like pushing water uphill. We did this for the love of it and because of our belief in the efficacy of coaching.
This is why you’ll see on my LinkedIn profile a job title called Advocate for Coaching. This wasn’t a real job, but it was my self-appointed mission to change the culture, one coaching conversation at a time….and one blog post at a time. At one point, I had more views of my internal profile (equivalent to a LinkedIn or Facebook page) than our then-CEO, because people were really interested in learning more about how to lead using a coaching style. I was super proud of that statistic.
These are the kinds of things I got up to (even though coaching wasn’t my day job):
- Provided executive coaching, coaching supervision and action learning to all levels, including Managing Directors. This raised engagement and performance levels; lowered attrition levels.
- Set up and provided thought leadership for coaching community of practice. 650+ people joined in the first week, suggesting the appetite for a coach approach to leadership is high.
- Designed and facilitated the Individualised Leadership Program (using action learning), which won Brandon Hall Excellence Award, Best in Coaching and Mentoring for its impact on individuals’ leadership and relationship building.
- Provided subject matter expertise for manager as coach training, shifting our culture from command and control to using more of a coach approach to leadership.
- Designed and delivered a coaching programme for HR (course, followed by action learning sets) to enable them to use a coach approach with our employees.
- Wrote a blog for people developers, majoring in coaching, with 11,500+ followers. The 30-Day Challenge, propagated through the blog, won the Unlimited Human Potential M-Prize for innovation in management development, and has since been sold to Accenture’s clients to support culture change. https://www.managementexchange.com/story/developing-tomorrow’s-talent-girl-blog-and-30-days-business-impact
- Evaluation results for the Coaching Challenge showed a clear change in behaviour back on the job, with 75% of participants reporting that they were able to apply the coaching skills in their daily activities.
I say all of this because if you are internal and you want to make a difference, this proves that you can – even though you may not get recognition for it. Or maybe you will in your culture and in this time, 20 years later. Times change. Business needs change. And coaching is better recognised now than it was back then.
Eventually, my time at Accenture ran out. My Employee Experience role was made redundant and the job that I wanted didn’t exist in Accenture when I left – though 3 months later, it came to be, for one of my Community of Practice peers. Not the best timing for me but a superb result for the company.
I say it wasn’t the best timing, but honestly, I needed the impetus and the kick to go out on my own. When I had interviewed at Accenture, some 17 years previously, the reason I apparently got the job was my certainty that within 3 years, I would be running my own company. It took me much longer than those 3 years, mostly because I was (and am) risk-averse.
I left in August 2014 and set up my business in January 2015. I have written about my business development journey before, so I won’t repeat myself here.
What of my continuous professional development journey?
Well, I had completed my supervision training in 2014, and that enhanced my coaching as much as it enabled me to supervise. Most of my learning and development has come through mentor coaching and supervision – I see them as the most individualised, tailor-made development that meets me where I am at and they go hand in hand, keeping me sharp, safe and sane. And I read a lot. And I write to get clear on what I know, and what is emerging in my knowing. These are my favourite – and highest ROI – development experiences. I love discussing stuff with my peers too. I really am living the 70:20:10 rubric of best practice in learning (70% comes from learning on the job with reflective practice, 20% comes from social learning and just 10% from training) (Morgan McCall, Michael M. Lombardo and Robert A. Eichinger). Hmm, I hadn’t realised that before I wrote it. That’s sweet, given that’s the model I was espousing when I was internal! It was so ingrained in my subconscious that I made it happen.
I set my mind on becoming an MCC when I renewed my PCC for the third time and told myself that would be the last time I renewed – I wanted to put serious (and playful) focus on enhancing my coaching and meeting the requirements to apply. I counted back from the date I would need to renew by and made a plan to get at least 10 hours of coaching every week until that time, such that I would meet the requirement for hours. And I started the mentor coaching journey over two years before renewal (I had always invested in mentor coaching, but not specifically for MCC). I didn’t want to leave that to the last minute as I knew it would take practice and commitment to reach the standard. I still had a lot to learn – and unlearn (see The Transformational Coach for the unlearning that I have done over the years).
Last year was the best year of my professional life. Previously, PCC had been my proudest moment, but that was nothing in comparison to how I felt when I became an MCC. It’s not about the hours, it’s all about the skill of coaching. The mindsets shifted, the new habits embraced, the changes made. I had lots of help along the way – it takes a village to raise an MCC!!
This learning journey does not end here though. Mastery is not a destination. I am learning huge amounts from writing my next book, due to be published in October 2024. It started as one thing and is morphing into something very different – and I hope it will be as useful to all who read it as it has been to me to write it. I also continue to invest in mentor coaching and supervision. I’m also stretching into new territory, working with aspiring MCCs to support and challenge these PCCs towards their own mastery. I learn as much from observing them, as they learn from the feedback they get. This year will also see the second annual Mastery with Soul retreat, where Anna Springett and I host those who wish to be soulfully masterful. It’s not a tick-box exercise after all.
What’s been your journey into coaching? Steve Ridgley and I hosted several coaches on our podcast in 2022, who had come to coaching via slightly unusual routes. You may want to listen back to those:
- John Anderson
- Nicky Chambers
- Alun Bedding
- Charlotte Wilding
- Sorrel Roberts
- Charlotte Blair
- Tony Worgan
- Dave Stitt
So great to hear about your coaching journey