The coaching market is back and the year has started with a return to enquiries and a
stronger client pipeline of delivery. Thankfully the stalemate of last year feels like a distant memory as those seeking a coach either now have budgets released or it has become an intention to get support as it can no longer wait.
It is no surprise that last year’s global elections and new government budgets needed time to work through and now at least organisations and individuals know where they stand and are being offered coaching to work through change and the ongoing business challenges. Leaders in have no choice but to face into another year of global poly or perma crisis topics and the uncertainty of the political and economic fallout of macro world changes. Leaders also need to cope with high levels of potential burnout in themselves or around them and be resilient and strong in implementing change. All of which lends itself to reaching out to a thinking partner to talk through their thinking and plan their role in change whilst leading others through it well.
Coaching around change topics is purposeful work and fits my intentions to offer more
support to leaders in 2025. It is not always easy to be the thinking partner when the client is also going through their personal acceptance of change but being with a client throughout their learning journey is rewarding as the impact is seen for the individual, their teams and their organisations and often the wider system. Once we have connected to the why of the change and can visualize the intentions I help the client to paint the picture or select the imagery of the from/to thinking as it then becomes easier to stay on course and know the work is purposeful.
Understanding the change the client desires has always been key to understanding the role I must play as a coach. The discovery consultation sessions offered to each enquiry help me to make choices on where/who to support and why. As a coaching solopreneur, I have choices to make about management of my time, alignment to my values and ethics and how to offer value whilst honouring the value of my time in my subsequent proposals. Last year this was harder to do as the pipeline had another issue in that there were monthly income targets that needed to be met whilst offering more time to my family during their exam period. However, I viewed a number of my choices in turning down briefs as ethically correct and purpose driven in that it didn’t align to my worldview of the coaching profession and its role or they were misaligned to my intentions for this year.
When you are self-employed there are times when you need to be brave and place faith that the referrals will come and your partnerships with organisations and network will be your marketing. Whilst you need to remind your network you are still there; I still refuse to be a slave to only marketing one version of my offer so that I can remain agile in responding to what challenges any client needs of an executive coach who is trained in client centric delivery in many forms.
Even writing this today has reminded me how much I love to respond to a consultation call not knowing what the enquiry might be about but to offer my presence first to really listen to the client’s intentions before and only once I understand my intentions to support this ask or not! I can only do this if I am clear on my intentions for this year and then apply these to my business. I am rarely surprised by what topics leaders bring to the consultation call and rarely not equipped through experience, understanding of the current context or deep empathy for what shows up in our human-to-human interaction.
Each year I feel prepared because of the intention setting and wonder if it is something you might be missing and need a coach to help.
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