We all have goals we want to reach, challenges that we are striving to overcome, and times when we feel stuck. The process of coaching often allows the clients to empower themselves to unlock the previously unexplored resources that thereafter allow them to resolve their own issues and experience self-development at the same time. Therefore, coaching is a powerful process that can be applied to people of all age spans.
Situation 1: We all have goals we want to reach
I once met with a school leaver, who unfortunately flunked her History subject in SPM, which disabled her to obtain her SPM certificate. This incident struck her out of the blue, hampering her to pursue her dream career to become a professional early childhood teacher. She was emotionally down for days, thereafter she started to look for shortcuts to be accepted into the education program. However, she had not succeeded due to the regulation by the ministry.
When she met me, she had a lot of internal conflicts and limiting beliefs, but after spending time with her, she managed to embrace her positive self. She began to be aware of what was the most important to her now, and thus decided to retake her SPM. She realized that sometimes there are no shortcuts in life, if you really want to achieve something, you need to work hard and let go of those negative beliefs that are influencing your performance.
Coaching Questions:
– What option do you have in achieving your chosen career?
– What is the one thing that when you achieve will give you the other?
– What do you need to overcome to achieve your chosen career?
– What is the most important thing you can do now to achieve your career goal?
Situation 2: We all have challenges that we are striving to overcome
I once met with a trainer who was in her fifties, her training career was incredibly affected by this Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the prolonged pandemic, she had not been generating new income and with the stress of the circumstances, she started to get worried and anxious.
At the beginning of the coaching process, she had a lot of negative thoughts. By resolving her internal stumbling roadblocks, she was able to overcome her fear and learned new technical skills to sustain her career and income. We also brainstormed some methods for her to improve her digital skills and use social media platforms for her own marketing. Finally, she regained her confidence and sustained her career by jumping on the bandwagon to conduct virtual training.
Coaching Questions:
– What is the most important to you now?
– What is the one little good thing that you have learned from this pandemic?
– What is the one situation that when you take up a challenge, resulted in a favourable outcome?
– What needs to happen so that you can conduct virtual training confidently?
Situation 3: We all have times when we feel stuck
I once met with a manageress who was one of the high-performance staff that consistently met her key performance indexes. After she resumed work from her confinement leave, she noticed that her superior had gradually assigned her more challenging tasks, and she started to feel tension coping with those new tasks. She also began to generate some negative thoughts and beliefs about her superior and organization. She thought that her organization maliciously did that so that she would be willing to resign at her own will. She also started to isolate herself from her team especially trying her best to avoid connection with her superior and the organization.
When I first met her, she was full of false thoughts, beliefs, and invalidation but throughout the coaching process, she discovered that assigning more challenging tasks to her was not because of any prejudice but in turn would like to offer her opportunities to prove her capabilities. Also, with her positive self and open heart, she was able to stay connected and extended her help to her colleagues, thus receiving favourable feedback from her peers.
Coaching Questions:
-Why do you think that your superior is prejudiced against you?
-What proves to you that everyone is getting the same bonus and increment?
– If you did not do well, how would it affect your superior?
– What can you do to regain connection with your superior?
Written by Janess Ong, Managerial Psych, Certified Professional Coach,
ICF Member (No.0096306221), email: ongpc99@gmail.com
