COVID-19 Impact
The impact of the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is far reaching. Many professionals are experiencing job loss, unemployment, lay-offs, furloughs, loss of work, reduced work hours, reduced income, temporary or permanent business closings, and career change as a result of the crisis. Others are navigating leadership challenges, remote teams and uncertainty in the workplace. Families are struggling to balance working from home with their children's educational needs through e-learning while schools remain closed. The special elder care needs of aging parents has also become increasingly challenging due to Coronavirus health risks in nursing homes, assisted living, and in-home care.
Pivoting and Addressing the Tough Challenges
Especially now, with personal lives impacted and business-as usual no longer the norm, many professionals are choosing to make major life or work changes. They are seeking help to navigate the challenges and the desired changes. Through career and life coaching, they are gaining new perspectives and are looking at the pandemic as a new opportunity to take actions and make decisions that will shape the way they will be living in six months, in a year, and in future years.
With leadership and executive coaching guidance, leaders in high-stress jobs with their work-life balance totally out of whack, have been able to focus on goals and the steps they need to take. They’ve clarified their values, wants, and needs and have made major changes professionally and personally.
Professionals that were once lost in chaos, and mentally blocked on what they needed to do in many aspects of their life and work, now have clarity and are reaching their dreams through collaborative, real-life coaching.
Immense Pay-Off and Long-Lasting Impact
Even amid the pandemic, through coaching, face-to-face accountability, commitment, and ongoing feedback, professionals have enhanced their leadership, secured better jobs, and achieved the work-life balance they desired. They’ve grown their businesses into successful ventures, achieved early retirement, and relocated to warmer climates. These are just a few of the successful outcomes leaders I’ve coached have experienced. All are amazing, committed leaders in their respective professions and industries.
To learn more about why coaching matters now more than ever, I’m sharing an extract from an insightful article on the "Top Ten Reasons You (and Your Organization) Need Coaching More than Ever Right Now" by Ann Betz and William Arruda. I had the pleasure of meeting William Arruda at an International Coaching Federation conference in Washington, DC in 2017 when I and other ICF members from around the globe were awarded the ICF Chair’s Award for dedication to the coaching profession. Read more below:
1. Many tools and techniques of professional coaching are scientifically proven to reduce stress. When we are stressed, it is much more difficult to have empathy, think creatively, control impulses, and make effective plans. When stress is reduced through coaching, people have more access to creativity, empathy, and resilience, all of which are critical right now.
2. Coaching helps people process what is going on. This is an unprecedented time—the very fact that we have little to compare it to makes it exceptionally difficult to process and make sense of. Without processing during the time we are in the experience, we run a high probability of either crashing when it is over, or sublimating our worry, fear and stress into health issues, low energy, and other negative impacts. When we notice and allow our true feelings and concerns, we move the energy through and stay steadier and more able to cope both during and after. Many people need the support of coaching in order to do this effectively.
3. Coaching helps people find their own resilience and capacity, even when we can’t change the external landscape. Any coach worth their salt knows to focus on the client, not the issue. When people are what we might call, “returned to themselves” through coaching, they see more possibility and find more internal resilience. This restores some sense of control in what feels like an uncontrollable world.
4. The small amount invested in coaching during a crisis will pay off in terms of larger gains.
The companies and individuals that will get through this time are those that maintain a fair amount of calm center, limit the toxic impact of stress, are flexible and agile, and truly “think outside the box.” Given the impact of the circumstances we find ourselves in, it is highly unlikely that people will find their way there without the kind of support coaching provides.
5. Giving managers and leaders coaching provides a noticeable ripple effect. Research shows that leaders have a potent impact on the “weather” of their organization. When they are calm, emotionally regulated, thoughtful, and patient, those around them feel more able to respond more thoughtfully as well. (Same is true for parents and children.)
6. This will most likely lead to permanent changes for individuals and orgs. We know coaching is one of the most effective ways to help people navigate change. We’re not going back to “business as usual” after this. Coaching helps us know and express our own needs, desires and boundaries as things change so we can be active “co-creators” in what is to come.
7. It is more critical than ever to retain and develop top talent. We’re going to need extraordinary thinking and performance to help any enterprise—whether it is a business, a school, or even a family—get through this. As things are pointing to different structures in how we do business, all enterprises are going to need to rely more on multiple layers of leadership. Coaching helps develop people’s leadership strengths and confidence, and is also a proven retention strategy.
8. Coaches help people get unstuck and move out of fixed patterns or mindsets. Surviving and thriving in this time requires an adaptable brain that can respond with flexibility and creativity, while still being thoughtful and applying logic. Coaching helps people identify limiting beliefs and move into more open and responsive mindsets.
9. People are thinking about purpose and meaning as a result of this crisis. Without support in terms of surfacing and focusing on questions of meaning, life purpose, and important values, all too often the things we learn in crisis are lost. Coaching can help us powerfully reflect on what we are learning about ourselves.
10. People will be using this opportunity to make major life and work changes and will need a coach to help navigate this change. Our old patterns and habits are well-wired into our brains. Making real change is disruptive to the system, and we need support to make major changes. Coaching is all about the reflection-action-reflection cycle of learning. A coach helps us identify what we want, try some things to put it into action, reflect on what we learned, and then continue this positive cycle as we move into new ways of being and therefore new results in our lives.
Learn more about One True You Coaching and how to navigate your challenges in these unprecedented times and find fulfillment in your career and life.
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