So what is Coaching anyway?  

If you go to the gym and get a personal trainer, you know they’ll support, encourage and ultimately enable you to achieve your fitness goals using the best motivational techniques and latest industry know how.  And so it goes with Coaching. Think of it as a spin class for your mind.  Personal Coaches support, encourage and motivate you to get what you want out of your life using all the latest science, tricks and strategies that they know works. So if you want the fitness to do a a half marathon, go to see a Personal Trainer, but if you want to find the motivation, go and see a Personal Coach. 
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Ok, but how is all that possible?

We’ll do that by Speed Coaching. That’s being Coached by up to 5 of our amazing Guerrilla coaches, each with their own unique expertise, insight and life experience of their own. Like Speed Dating it’s a social, informal experience and you get the chance to hop from one Personal Coach to another, airing your ideas, gaining new insights and courage. With 3 three coaches, plus 2 group coaching models you’ll get different styles, different questioning and a chance to unpack and really explore your thinking from every possible angle.

There’s plenty of evidence around too that supports the effectiveness of these faster sessions.  Coaches are primed to cut through, separating the wheat from the chaff.  There’s energy and dynamism.  Teresa Klasener, Guerrilla’s founder has coached many 15 minute and 30 minute sessions - way shorter than the usual 60 or 90 minute ones - and is always amazed at the quality of the interactions. 

“The apparent lack of time, actually enables you to be even more focussed on listening. As soon as you start, you’re locked on, building trust and empathy actively focussing on solutions.  Theres a really energy in the room”

Roxanna, who was coached for 15 minutes at Women of the Word WOW Event, by Teresa had this feedback: 

“To be honest Teresa, I found our chat to be completely not what I expected in a really great way! I found it really empowering to speak to you and hear you have confidence in me (even without really knowing me.) I spoke to you about thinking about applying for art therapy and I am happy to tell you that I am mid way through my application and am applying for September! So yes, I did find it very effective and supportive- Thank you!! “

Get your tickets on Eventbrite, then come along on Friday 11 May, from 7pm at Conway Hall, Holborn.  There’s a bar and lots of warm, engaging Guerrillas

So now, what’s stopping you?

Statistics, research and measures all show that having women on the board or in leadership teams improve the profits of a company by up to 80%. Quite frankly, hire a woman and your ROI is a given.

In addition to the numbers that count, legislation to create gender parity supports the reduction of the gender pay gap, the right to request flexible working and anti-discrimination on the grounds of gender. This is all great and necessary as we are a long way from creating an equal society and work place, and I have a whole other blog primed for why and how we better achieve that through company values and culture, but, right now, I want to address what women can do directly to influence this shift.

I deal with lots of people and many of them women, and if you ask a woman outright if she has any issues to deal with that are exclusive to being a woman, almost 99% of them would (initially) say no. But once I start to explore their story, their obstacles and their desires, it becomes apparent that being a woman makes for a very different workplace and life experience. The language and infrastructure of business, the social norms in the boardroom, the out of office culture is starting to shift a bit, but is still an exclusively male domain. Young women can adapt and fit into this world, there is a sense of dynamism attached to it, a competitive nature that Gen X/Z can exploit and explore but, as our life outside of work starts to influence our priorities, it becomes a situation of ‘if you’re not in, then you’re out’. This change can come as quite a shock to the twenty-something females as they progress in their career, I’ve seen it a lot.

Much of the latent discrimination faced by woman is their capacity or potential to have children, this is irrelevant as to whether they actually want children, or have a partner who choses to be the lead parent – the point is, if you are a biological oven, then your promotion and recruitment is considered differently. Fact. I have spoken to leaders in small and large organisations, mainly men, sometimes women, and in all countries, and they have the view that somehow a woman is going to be less committed to work because they are (or might become) a mum. Which of course, is bollocks.
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A person’s desire to work hard and contribute to an organisation, is in the hands of that organisation – the values and the culture it breeds – and that’s not just about making sure they follow the line of the law, but about making every employee understand their contribution and support them to deliver it. This is not influenced by whether they have a terrible illness, dependent parents, children or an alcoholic partner because we all have our fair share of personal responsibilities, but how the organisation works for its people.
 
Women, on the other hand, you could acknowledge that it IS different being a woman, and sometimes it’s harder, BUT those challenges can only be overcome if you identify them first. Having the ability to say this stuff out load and talking it through in a safe place is one of the most rewarding experiences my female clients enjoy. Together we wade through the emotional and angry verbal vomit, have a bit of a laugh (and maybe a cry), consider what is from within and what is from without and then start to align some strategies and practical plans that we can implement to start making some change. This could be dealing with our own areas for development, and/or developing techniques to influence change in others. We track the progress and flex the style and techniques according to the situation. Sometimes these things are major and sometimes they are minor, but Women Coaching is about identifying and acknowledging the differences and making them work, because being different to a man is not about being less than a man.

Mind have today published some extensive research into Workplace Wellbeing and it's findings have been reported all over the national media. It's big news for business and among other things, the report highlights how taking a proactive, preventative approach to supporting the mental health of staff is a crucial element of an effective workplace wellbeing strategy.  

Listen up.   Time off work and issues with work/life balance can quickly lead to stress and burnout, which may lead to sickness absence. Ignoring this has lead to a reported £33-£42 billion  burning a hole in the collective pocket of business, proving that investing in supporting mental health at work can only be good for business and productivity.  If they did, the latest companies evaluation of workplace interventions show a return to business of £1.50-£9 for every £1 invested.

Here are some key facts pulled out of the report:

• One in 10 employees said their mental health was currently poor.
• 26% of employees said their poor mental health was due to problems at work.
• 54% said it was due to a combination of problems at work and outside work.
• Only 1 in 4 employees said they would likely talk to their manager if they were experiencing a mental health problem. 
• Respondents often illustrate a disconnect between what the employers report and how staff feel. 

​Some of Mind's survey recommendations conclude that all staff develop a Wellness Action Plan with their manager as a way of understanding individual needs and  how  best to support their mental health at work.  This will be both  good  for boosting employee wellbeing and  good  for business.

​Here's a link to the full report.

It's seems obvious, doesn't it, that it's better to act or deal with problems immediately. If you wait and deal with them later, things will get worse and problems will take longer to deal with and costs begin to spiral. And this is where Coaching is both King and Queen. Coaching will fit nicely into any possible wellness plan as a proactive way of supporting an employee by putting in these early intervention mechanisms to not only keep them well but also productive at work.  What more would employers want? With skills of listening, questioning and building trusting relationships that are common to counselling, mentoring and therapy, coaching too promotes awareness, responsibility and self-belief.  The significant difference with coaching however is, whilst making use of counselling skills, it is less focused on the past and more focused on goal or role-related achievements, optimising success and fulfilling potential.  Typically the process involves a conversational style of probing, listening, pausing and giving the person space and time to reflect, be mindful and stay well-connected to the present.  It's the conflict between a person's desires, beliefs and core values that often results in stress leading to under-performance and dissatisfaction at work and Coaching addresses all this by reframing mindsets, helping to shift perspectives and challenge world views to support and stimulate a new normal.  It's not only incredibly empowering but a jewel in the crown of preventative mental health.  Employers would be missing a big trick to not have Coaching as an integral part of their employee tool kit.