The power of training

Professional coaches A/Prof Rachel Martin and Elizabeth Milford explain how to unstick your ‘stuck’ by coaching

Ahn was feeling blue, stuck in a rut. Sick of having every day on repeat, she wasn’t getting the same enjoyment she used to. She thought about moving jobs but worried that her problems would move with her. But what were the issues? She just couldn’t put her finger on them. So Ahn engaged a coach to work on what she thought would be a career change for her. She soon discovered that there were solutions that she hadn’t considered. And she was stunned at the power of the partnership she was able to build with her coach. With trust and compassion, Ahn was supported in exploring and developing a vision for change in her life. She began to see that she could be in control of her destiny. By identifying her values she worked with the coach on how she could bring her work and personal life into alignment and set inspiring goals to springboard from.

Like Ahn, sometimes we have a sense of things being NQR without actually being able to identify the cause.

We have our established decisionmaking processes that generally serve us well. However, these regular modes can make it hard for us to take on new challenges when needed, or when we know that we need to embrace change.

There’s no denying it, it’s hard to change those sticky habits. Coaching is a technique that fast-tracks the development of new decision-making styles. Read on to find out more!

Coaches partner with clients in conversation, helping them explore, discover and work towards the changes they want to make in their lives. Coaching is a creative and thought-provoking process that inspires people to realise their potential.

You come to a greater understanding of yourself, your strengths, and your blocks to achieving what you want

Coaching is a client-driven course of self-discovery, growth, development and achievement. Unlike other services where the professional is the expert, coaching holds the client as the expert, holding the wisdom and the keys to success. The coach is the partner in the conversation who listens, asks powerful questions, probes, challenges, and provides objective assessment and nonjudgemental observations.

Professional coaching is about setting goals, creating outcomes and managing personal change.

The outcomes are impactful because you set the agenda. You own the process. This is your change to make. When you fully and honestly own your goals and are energised by what you have envisioned, you are motivated to work towards them. You have a dedicated partner in your coach who will hold you accountable.

The best coaching is “transformational” as opposed to “transactional”. By “transformational” we mean that it will reveal insights, sometimes many, that are the nuggets of gold that make the process you are undertaking so valuable. You come to a greater understanding of yourself, your strengths, and your blocks to achieving what you want. Whether it be limiting self-beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours that you observe along the coaching journey, many things will be identified to help clear your way to foster new thinking and reveal fresh perspectives.

The small print behind coaching:

Findings over recent decades in neuroscience both support and explain the success of coaching and its role in promoting positive sustainable behavioural change.

The brain is the biological structure that houses our mind. The mind is responsible for cognitive reasoning: thinking, perception, emotion and behaviour. With a hundred billion neurons in our brain, all perceptions, thoughts, emotions and behaviours are the results of neurons firing, connecting and sharing information.

With a new cognitive experience, particular neurons will fire, and a neural pathway is formed. A coachee is encouraged to explore new options and consciously experience new ways of thinking and acting. This supports the creation of new neural pathways in the brain, otherwise known as “re-wiring”.

With repetition, experience and action, the coachee will strengthen this new neural pathway. Eventually, physical changes will occur in the brain structure, resulting in the coachee being able to effortlessly operate in this new “habit” or behaviour. This is the point where we would say a habit has been embedded.

Changing our beliefs and ways of thinking that don’t serve us can create positive sustainable change and new realities when we reinforce and practice them over a period of time.

So, if you feel stuck and want to make a change, take up an opportunity or challenge, or you just want to do more for yourself personally or professionally, coaching may be the solution for you.

* Patient names have been changed for confidentiality

About the authors

A/Prof Rachel Martin

Rachel is a professional coach and mentor bringing a deep understanding of workplace dynamics. She coaches individuals and teams through crisis and change. She is a registered dentist and specialist in public health dentistry with over 20 years’ experience.

Dr Elizabeth Milford

Elizabeth is an educator and mentor with over 15 years’ experience in regulation. She assists students, new graduates and experienced clinicians to manage and respond to professional and clinical demands. She is a registered dentist with a Master of Business Administration.

About Resilience Arena

Resilience Arena brings together two leaders in the dental industry, and a team of experts, with a strategic view of the oral health environment nationally and internationally. resiliencearena.au