by Stephanie Bickel
Are you considering a Speak by Design leadership communication coaching program soon, but are not sure about what to expect from your coach?
This is Speak by Design’s leadership communication coach manifesto, and how you can tell you have an excellent coach.
Your Speak by Design coach is invested in both your personal transformation goals and your business goals. Some coaches will only focus on personal transformation goals. Maybe the goal is to better command a room. Your coach shows you the right body posture, vocal style, message structure, and creative attention-grabbing techniques, helps you shift mindsets to believe you have the experience and expertise to deserve to be in command. Then, your coach will help you grow the substance that earns you the command post. An amazing coach helps you set business goals alongside personal transformation goals so your growth happens faster.
Your coach lists out your near-to-medium-term activities and helps you prioritize them. What are you doing in the next two weeks and over the full year? Your coach can help you jettison the tasks that are not aligned with your personal transformation goals and your business goals. Suppose your goal is to be a more concise speaker. Literally, you should need less time in meetings because you are saying less. Try ending them sooner than you used to and see the ripple effect on your time management and productivity. That has an enormous compound effect on your year, and on your teams. An amazing coach helps you decide the kind of role model you aim to be to your teams – mastering time management and sharpening your focus can lead to healthier communication habits.
Your coach provides you models, frameworks, systems that are documented and encourages you to teach them to others. Nothing is more gratifying than meeting up with a former client who is still using and quoting the models and frameworks. We know that the best way to learn is by doing. We know the best way to master a concept is to teach it. We encourage our clients to teach the concept within 48-hours of learning it. We often ask them to teach it back to us at the next session. An amazing coach is a good teacher, but also a great apprentice. As a leader, learning how to teach others is an essential part of your coaching experience.
Your coach thinks like a builder. Your coach is helping you build systems and processes for how you think, speak, and react. Coaching becomes a fascinating experience when you can tell that what you are doing in your work is not from a manual. Speak by Design coaching begins with a clear set of activities and concepts. From that springboard, your coach builds a tailored system for you. Your coach can help you build scripts for videos and conference talks, talking points, FAQ guides, trainings, and materials for pitches. The more you let your communication coach into your business goals, the more your coach can help you build intellectual property, communication systems and plans that you can bring back to your teams. An amazing coach will play the role of a personal business partner you can count on to build knowledge and content.
Your coach documents every interaction with your progress, the new tools covered, and where to focus forward. We document every session, so clients have to give themselves credit for their progress and actions. We also document the tools and frameworks covered, so we can quiz you at the next session on what you remember and what you have been using. We always close a session on where your head should be. Mindset shifts are the best ways to change deep rooted habits. An amazing coach supports you throughout your growth journey, reminding you to celebrate your own greatness.
Your coach ends with closing thoughts that leave you on a high. How you begin and end your coaching sessions is a sign of quality of the coaching you are receiving. Come to your sessions prepared to share what is going well, what could be better, and what is coming up for you in the next two weeks. The coach will always come in with a topic, but your learning will be best if the coach can connect that to what is going on with you at work. Your coach reflects on the whole session and shares a more expansive view of what just happened together: “You said a couple of things that made me wonder if this feels like a competition with your peers. Put your blinders on. Your peers do not matter. Be a helper. It works like a charm and it feels great.” The end of the session is a moment where you get to be inspired by your coach.
Your Speak by Design coach helps you become the obvious choice. Think of a person who looked at you as greater than you see yourself. That is what a coach is. Your coach sees the potential. Your coach sees the path to reaching your potential. Your coach sees the fake ceiling you have put yourself under and will lift that ceiling. “ I want to be the kind of leader my coach thinks I am.”
Fast track your career path. Speak by Design University is a one-of-a-kind leadership communication program. It’s the only leadership communication program in the world that gives you access to self-paced learning, group coaching and training and, most importantly, private one-on-one coaching. Learn more and register at www.speakbydesign.com/join