We are two weeks away from the publication of “Cultivating Coachability: How to leverage coaching readiness so thinkers can optimise value”. Is it on your radar? Pre-order now on Amazon or any good bookshop of your choice.
One of the things I have been pondering since writing Cultivating Coachability is how we might structure our coaching biographies in a way that not only shows our credentials, but also makes higher demands on those with whom we might work. Setting expectations if you like about what it might be like to work with us. So they are not just window shopping to choose a coach, but also understand that they will get more out of it if they show up wholeheartedly.
I don’t claim to be a specialist in writing coaching biographies. But I do know that they can be a bit samey. And updating your bio to incorporate something about the thinker’s responsibilities might be one way to differentiate yourself.
I know that the bio needs to be short and to the point, so something else might need to give to fit this into a one or two-page coaching bio.
But do you have anything in your bio about the kinds of people you work best with? Not just your niche, but the attributes of people who get the most out of coaching within that niche.
Maybe something along these lines (I shared a version of this in a previous post, but for those who are new here, this will give you an inkling of what I am thinking of including in my bio):
I work with thinkers to identify who they are, what’s important to them, what they want to be known for, and how they want to show up. What they want and need to jettison to become the person and leader they wish to be.
This means that coaching will work for you if you are willing to go there – to explore your True North and to move away from whatever is holding you back from reaching your full potential as a human being rather than a human doing.
You must be ready to contemplate what matters most to you and to make some changes in the way you work and live to align with what matters most.
I don’t have a magic wand (nor magical answers).
But I do have powerful questions that will help you to identify what you want from the next chapter of your life and to go after that – if that’s what you want (not what your boss wants, or your partner wants, or your parents want…)
If you are looking for a performance coach, a surrogate line manager, a teacher or mentor, I am not the coach for you.
To be sure that we start as we mean to go on, in a worthwhile partnership, I will ask you some searching questions about your goals and intentions for yourself, your work and this coaching. I expect that you will probe me too, to ensure that we are a good fit for your learning and thinking styles.
We’ll reach a mutual agreement to work together, matching your desire to become more of the human you wish to be with my very human coaching skills.
Only then, once we have both decided that this is a relationship that can work for both of us, will we sketch out how to work together to get the most from the coaching, given all that we know about each other.
Be prepared for a state of deepening awareness.
To get the most out of coaching, you must be coaching-ready just as I will be coaching-ready for you. All-in. That includes being mentally and physically ready, logistically ready and change-ready.
Ok, ok, I know that is long for a coaching bio. But I’m going to have a play, to see where and how it might fit. You will come up with your own of course, based on who you are as a coach and how you want to bring out thinkers’ coachability.
