With International Women's Day (IWD) and Mother's Day falling a few days apart, March feels like a significant time for us women to celebrate, and reflect on where we are. It feels rather appropriate to celebrate these two days in Spring, with Winter on its way out, and new life/growth starting to appear. What better than to reflect on the achievements of women, and consider how we take further steps towards equality, and acknowledge the contribution of mothers. With the UN's IWD theme this year being 'Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress', it seems rather fitting to consider how coaching can support with this theme.
As a female coach, I support women to thrive, helping to boost their confidence and reach their full potential. This feels so important to me, as there have been times in my career where I have felt lost, lacking in confidence, or not truly believing I can achieve what I set out to achieve. I wish I had had access to a coach to support me to move through these challenging moments.
Whether you are a business owner, work within an organisation, or a woman seeking support through coaching, here are 3 different ways to access coaching, that could benefit you, or the women that you work with.
Coaching in Organisations
Some organisations have a coaching provision internally, to support people with leadership, a new promotion, or manage conflict within a team, for example. Coaching has many benefits to the organisation, including building self aware leaders, resolving problems, and supporting their teams to be the best, often reducing the turnover of staff.
This set up can include internal coaches (staff within the organisation who have trained as a coach), external coaches (coaches from outside of the organisation), or both. 65% of staff report being highly engaged in organisations that value coaching (International Coaching Federation).
This support can make a significant difference to women in the workplace, allowing them time to develop, working with a coach, and benefitting the organisation as a whole.
Individual Coaching
If you don't have the option of coaching through work you can find your own coach, (see my earlier blog on choosing the right coach for you). This is a great option, depending on who you choose will depend on how much this costs. My approach has always been to make coaching affordable to all, and I offer one off sessions, and a 'pay what you can afford' approach to support a variety of different circumstances. Coaching should be accessible to everyone, those starting out, those mid career, mums returning to work, and not just for the top executives.
Individual coaching can make a huge difference to your outlook on life, your approach to work, or help you to understand what your next steps are to achieve your goals.
Group Coaching
A growing area for coaching is in groups, where a series of sessions are advertised to work on certain topics, such as improving your confidence, increasing you self awareness, developing your leadership style. This is a cost effective way of working on a specific aspect, with others wanting to do the same work, so you benefit from a lower cost, and collective thinking. Working with a group of people can improve your motivation to push yourself out of your comfort zone!
I love working with groups, watching the relationships develop between coachees, and the support and understanding they offer each other over time. This isn't for everyone, but I would encourage you to explore this!
One of these 3 approaches, can make all the difference to women in many different circumstances, so my challenge to business owners that want to make some positive contributions to support women in the workplace, is to consider what coaching offer you could implement. Whether this is commissioning a coach to come and deliver some tailored sessions, or setting up a coaching provision permanently to support all your staff.
For the women out there reading this blog, don't wait to seek out the coaching support you need, you are worth the investment! Trust me, you won't regret it!
Happy International Women's Day, and a big shout out to the great mums out there!
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