Since I have become ACC, people often ask me my specialty, what kind of coach I am or in what area I coach. This question has been on my mind and has gone unanswered for months. Thanks to recent coaching and a webinar, I made a great discovery though.
The types of coaches and their titles multiply as I discover this profession and for some time now, I have regularly wondered in which "box" I should put myself. I have pondered on this for ages but to no avail. I even have difficulty differentiating life coaching from business coaching. Don’t they both involve accompanying individuals in their professional or personal lives?
Whether we coach someone on a problem related to his work or his private life, we look at the being, his/her emotions, state of mind, feelings, needs or what is perhaps out of place in that aspect of his life. Every human being is a being before all, the roles we take on are like costumes we wear, but the core of a person remains unique and specific to him or her.
Tired of turning the problem around in my head I decided to get coached on the subject to finally find out my specialty, as it turned out I realised I could simply decide not to have one. Nice first breakthrough!
The second one came a few days later, when during a webinar, an MCC coach answering the question "What would you advise young coaches who are just starting out?" replied:" Coach as much as possible, coach different people, the more you coach a variety of people and profiles, the more you will develop your sensitivity and the more your coaching will ring true. " That freed me!
And paradoxically, I also understood in that moment, that whether we coach similar profiles or not, the diversity of personalities and beings invariably brings the variety that enriches us and surprises us, neither are restrictive! So niche or no niche there is always something to discover and for my part, at this point in time, I prefer without a niche!
During my sabbatical year around the world I loved the feeling of not knowing anything, of not knowing anyone and having everything to discover. What if that was my style?
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