Why I Hire Coaches and You Should Too

By Shahnaz Broucek

Sometimes I get in my own way. I might have every intention of achieving a particular goal, but willpower isn’t always enough. It can be hard to see other alternatives when I’m trapped in my own view.

Great friends and family members can be good listeners but they are often caught up in your story and may not be fully objective when you share your challenges with them. They may be able to help you feel better in the short run, but they often are hesitant to provide candid feedback and other views. Their own fears and beliefs can influence their advice and perspective.

Coaching is different. It’s about being heard, seen and respected exactly where you are. Without a filter, without fear of confidentiality, coaching gives you the opportunity to be real and re-examine your assumptions and interpretations.

I hired a coach for the first time when I signed up for coach training in 2012. I had never worked with an executive coach before, although I had experience working with a career coach, numerous leaders, as an entrepreneur and decades of leadership experience. Before I hired her, my first coach said to me, “If you’re thinking about becoming a coach, do yourself a favor and hire one yourself. Find out what it’s really like, from the client perspective.” I agreed and hired her on the spot. That sent me on a journey to believing deeply in the value of coaching and affirming my desire to be a coach.

Here are a few questions to help you assess whether you are at the right time and place to explore coaching:

  1. What do you want to manifest or change in your life that seems to elude you?
  2. If nothing has changed a year from now, how will you feel?
  3. What would the value be to you if you could make the change you most deeply desire?
  4. How willing are you to invest in yourself?
  5. What beliefs do you need to let go of in order to move forward effectively?

Certified coaching through the International Coach Federation (ICF) requires deep training and practice, and often coaches bring numerous additional certifications and significant professional experience to their work. What are the benefits of having a coach in your corner? Coaches:

  • Help you be the best version of you
  • Push you out of your comfort zone, giving you confidence and support to try things beyond what you thought you could do
  • Can help you develop confidence and resilience
  • Help you break through barriers to success
  • Challenge you to focus on what you want to do vs. what you feel you have to do
  • Come with the expectation that you hold the answers within you
  • Hold your agenda and help you be accountable to yourself
  • Will support you in finding solutions, not complaining about problems

In the coaching partnership, your coach designs a plan based on your agenda. Coaching takes what’s inside and translates it into outer goals that you accomplish step-by-step.

Ten years into my coaching career, I have hired five coaches and work with a team of coaches today who help each other through peer coaching. I believe in coaching at least as much from my own experience being coached as from the positive feedback I’ve had from clients whom I have coached. I have worked with coaches for my career, health, business and deep healing of old wounds. It has always proven to be a worthwhile journey.

Where are you in your own life? What’s calling to you as you read these words about the shift that awaits you? Investing in yourself will be the best move you can make…not just for yourself, but for everyone you care for and want to positively impact. You’re absolutely worth the investment.