Often when we think of coaching, we think of a feel-good experience working in partnership with your coach to reach your aspirational state of success. I am here to tell you its not all rainbow and unicorns! Coaching should be a thought provoking, collaborative process where your coach challenges and stretches you. Just like in the gym, your coach should make you sweat.

To get the most out of your coaching workout, you need the following:

• Belief you can do it: having a growth mindset is at the core of your coaching success. The belief that through directed and focussed effort your skills and capabilities can be developed, and you have the power to achieve your goals.

• Stretch yourself: science tells us that to achieve your potential performance levels you need to break out of your comfort zone. Being outside of your safe space increases your stress levels to what we call ‘optimal anxiety’. Working with your coach to push your personal boundaries creates the space where the magic happens!

• Climb the ladder of competence: before we start coaching, you may not even realise your potential opportunities or blind spots. We are blissfully unconsciously incompetent. At this stage, we don’t even know there is a skill we need to learn. Coaching raises your awareness to consciously incompetent and creates the direction and focus on development. Through feedback, experimentation and practice we climb the ladder of competence.

• Do it again, and again… and again:  it is all about the reps. Action learning principles show us that deliberate and repeated practice is key to mastery.

• Look at yourself in the mirror…..all the time! Reflective practice is one of the most effective ways to systematically learn from our experiences. Reviewing what you did, how it felt and what was the impact creates the foundation to evaluate your progress and create even more effective experiences moving forward.

The science of success takes courage, focussed effort and hard work. If your coach does not make you feel a little uncomfortable and make you sweat, they just might not be pushing you hard enough.

Kellie Rigg | Organisational Psychologist & Coach