If I were to add a gross simplification of an alternative strategy (that I’ve used over the past 2 years)
Experiment with different coaches and find a coach whose theory of change, style, and approach you like.
Become an “apprentice” of that coach by getting regular coaching from him/her while reverse engineering/deliberately practice that coaching method.
Get your first coachees and use the simple versions you’ve acquired this far to incrementally build your own coaching “style”. #LearnByDoing
Crucially, get good at requesting feedback from your coachees to grow.
Find peers and mentors with whom you can have many conversations to reflect on and improve your coaching. Hero version: Move together with other coaches.
Follow situational inspiration (i.e., use the challenges and questions you encounter from your individual coaching practice to seek out models, skills, and additional mentors)
Build your map of the coaching landscape and experiment with an at least moderately promising coaching course.
Cool to see your path to this Sebastian. Some great tips here. What’s both tricky and exhilarating about navigating this space is how free-form it is. I have lots of respect for people who are this damn resourceful.
I’d call your “alternative strategy” instead a “potential pathway” to gaining skill as a coach. What I outlined was more like a scaffolding set of considerations for thinking about how to gain skill and become a coach, within which innumerable pathways could be pursued. But I did like that you provided a personal example. It’s probably a lot more accessible for others to model off of than the prompts I gave.
Writing out your journey in this way does make me want to write out something of my own that’s similar. Like the Coaching Insights section of this post but for how one could work towards becoming a professional coach. Could be interesting for people whose pathway is currently under consideration (or for those looking to fold in different approaches)
Thanks for this. I agree, it’s a potential pathway to becoming a coach which involves more than building skills. E.g., forming an identity as a coach—for me it took a long time to be comfortable in the skin of being a coach (likely amplified by doing this during covid and moving to another country where I knew one person only).
Ideally, I would have added more nuance and an illustration as it’s not a simple linearly progressing approach but when we’re new to something we need simplicity.
If I were to add a gross simplification of an alternative strategy (that I’ve used over the past 2 years)
Experiment with different coaches and find a coach whose theory of change, style, and approach you like.
Become an “apprentice” of that coach by getting regular coaching from him/her while reverse engineering/deliberately practice that coaching method.
Get your first coachees and use the simple versions you’ve acquired this far to incrementally build your own coaching “style”. #LearnByDoing
Crucially, get good at requesting feedback from your coachees to grow.
Find peers and mentors with whom you can have many conversations to reflect on and improve your coaching. Hero version: Move together with other coaches.
Follow situational inspiration (i.e., use the challenges and questions you encounter from your individual coaching practice to seek out models, skills, and additional mentors)
Build your map of the coaching landscape and experiment with an at least moderately promising coaching course.
Cool to see your path to this Sebastian. Some great tips here. What’s both tricky and exhilarating about navigating this space is how free-form it is. I have lots of respect for people who are this damn resourceful.
I’d call your “alternative strategy” instead a “potential pathway” to gaining skill as a coach. What I outlined was more like a scaffolding set of considerations for thinking about how to gain skill and become a coach, within which innumerable pathways could be pursued. But I did like that you provided a personal example. It’s probably a lot more accessible for others to model off of than the prompts I gave.
Writing out your journey in this way does make me want to write out something of my own that’s similar. Like the Coaching Insights section of this post but for how one could work towards becoming a professional coach. Could be interesting for people whose pathway is currently under consideration (or for those looking to fold in different approaches)
Thanks for this. I agree, it’s a potential pathway to becoming a coach which involves more than building skills. E.g., forming an identity as a coach—for me it took a long time to be comfortable in the skin of being a coach (likely amplified by doing this during covid and moving to another country where I knew one person only). Ideally, I would have added more nuance and an illustration as it’s not a simple linearly progressing approach but when we’re new to something we need simplicity.
Would love to read about your path!