This week was the International Coaching Week and I wanted to share some of my thoughts in regards with this topic.
As an immigrant to Canada, I discovered professional coaching later in my career. About 3-4 years ago, I was introduced to coaching while attending at Scala Network Program. One of my mentors Saeideh Fard, to whom I am forever grateful, made the introduction to Scala Network where, I first experienced a professional coaching session and professional leadership courses with executive women mentors outside of the travel industry.
Despite having prior experience mentoring, and coaching many team members in my career, when I deepened my coaching knowledge, I fell in love with the coaching industry and realized how important is to have access to such a service.
Coaching your team on the job is not really the same as coaching with a professional coach. The techniques and tools used in professional coaching, support you by increasing awareness, developing growth mindset and help you make better and more informed decisions. As soon as I experienced this service, I realized how important this service is for the professional development and I was determined to tell the world about its benefits. Most importantly, this could be one reason why some people are able to move up in their careers faster than others.
Having the chance to share thoughts, feelings, bounce ideas and options with someone who knows how to navigate through conversations and help you overcome obstacles, navigate tough discussions or various career options without any type of judgements is simply amazing. Not to mention about the opportunities which may come your way and you may not realize. A coach can support you with all of these.
Speaking from the immigrant perspective who moved to Canada later in life (I was 26 yrs old) and talking with other first generation of immigrants, I realized there are lots of barriers immigrants have, when it comes to professional development and it’s more challenging for the first generation of immigrants to advance in career without having a strong network of mentors and coaches to support them along the way.
You are probably asking why is that?
Well, being born in a different culture, with various beliefs system, values and group consciousness, it can take a while until you fully embrace the Canadian culture. Some people will be quicker at it, while others may take their time. Not to talk about the tendency to work harder and longer hours to prove yourself in the workplace, especially in the first years in Canada.
Speaking about mentors, I was privileged to have many great mentors in my career journey, whom I met, mostly at the workplace. Since many of them were my superiors, I found difficult to share 100% my thoughts and feeling about certain situations related to my choices and career.
While I am a big supporter of mentors and mentorship, in addition to coaching, I find that this service is limited, since you may not always feel comfortable to reach out every time you need support. And if you do have that level of support from a mentor and can call anytime than it is simply outstanding.
Why is a coach different?
With a professional coach you can share and discuss challenges, career transitions, dreams, aspirations and options which would be best not just for the individual best options, but also the organization. A coach will ask you a lot of questions and will refrain from telling you what to do, guiding you to find your own best answers. A coach becomes your trusted advisor and support you along the way for as long as you need.
While coaching sessions support the individual by making great career choices, increase awareness and enhance performance, the organization benefits from having a more engaged and motivated employee who performs and delivers amazing results. You probably realized, I am a big promoter of access to coaches in organizations as part of the benefits and career development for all employees, since I believe this could be one of the best benefit given in the work place for those looking to improve and move to the next level.
Have you tried professional coaching before? I’d love to hear your thoughts about your experience and perspective.
