When you reach out to a coach, it’s usually because you have a desire to make a change. Your desires could be business-oriented, but they could also relate to other parts of your life. Maybe you want to have a healthier lifestyle. Maybe you want to improve your work-life balance. Whatever your endgame is, a coach’s job is to help you reach it.
How does a coach do that?
Well, the executive coaching process typically starts with your first call. At that first connection, you’ll go through a cursory interview to determine what you are looking for. The best coaching companies will listen deeply to your answers. Besides noting what you want to achieve through coaching, we listen to where you are in your career.
These bits of information are very important: they help us decide who from our bench of coaches we’ll tap to help you. Each coach has a different specialty. For example, some coaches focus on improving mindset while others focus on leadership. We try to align what the client is looking for with the coach who can help them the best.
Once we have a coach in mind for you, we arrange what we at Rewire have named the “Fit Call.” The Fit Call is your chance to test the waters. You can freely ask questions, and so can your coach. Essentially, the fit call allows you to see if you get along with the coach we’ve selected for you, before you ever commit to working with them.
We take our coach-coachee fit seriously. All of our Rewire coaches have been vetted by us, but we understand the importance of a strong connection. If there isn’t a good personality fit between the coachee and the coach, then the pairing is probably not going to work. Even if the client is eager and motivated to do the work and the coach is the best in the world, if there’s not a good personality fit, then accomplishing your goals will be next to impossible.
That’s why this step in the executive coaching process is so important to us. We don’t want to push you into coaching; instead, we want to make sure this is the right decision for you. During the Fit Call, the coach gives you an outline of what your first four sessions together might look like. If that outline sounds promising, and if the fit is right, then we will do whatever it takes to make that relationship happen for you.
After the intake process, your first official session with your coach will last about 90 minutes. Together, you’ll analyze the results of your DISC personality assessment as well as create a game plan for your future sessions. Basically, this call will concretize the hypothetical plan you and your coach discussed during the fit call. Subsequent calls with coaches will last about 60 minutes.
Your coaching sessions will center around the goals you’ve set for yourself. If, at any point in the coaching process, your goals change, or if you have accomplished your goals and want to set some more, your coach will make sure to adjust the plan accordingly.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why continue the coaching process if you’ve achieved your goals? Isn’t that the whole point of the process?
And in some ways, you’re right.
But here’s the thing about process: it’s ongoing. Even if you achieve work-life balance, it’s not something that stays constant and lasts forever. In fact, we’ve talked about this before. Attaining balance in life is an ebb and a flow. There’s seasons to it. In one season, you might have to work harder than in another season. In one season, you might have a major life change, and now you’re going to be in the flow of dealing with that.
As coaches, our job is to work alongside people in those ebbs and flows. Whether it’s a professional goal they want to achieve or a personal goal, we’re there in their corner to help them close the gaps or seek the balance they’re craving. We help people understand why they might have fallen off the path, and we help them learn how they can get back on it.
In the end, that’s really what coaches do: we build an environment of insight. We find the root of the problem, and then we work with you until we can send you off into success.