Camill Rapacz: So you've decided to hire a coach. Are you ready? In this episode, we're going to explore what it means to be ready to be coached and why it matters.
So get out your notebook and prepare to be coached.
Camille: Welcome to The Belief Shift. The show that explores. What you really need to know about building a successful business.
I'm your host, Camille Rapacz: business coach and consultant who spent too much of her career working in corporate business performance.
George: And I'm George Drapeau: your co-host and her brother. I'm a leader in the tech world bringing my corporate perspective, but mostly my curiosity.
Camille: Together, we're exploring beliefs about success and how to achieve it. But mostly we're bringing practical solutions so you and your business can thrive.
Camill Rapacz: Hey, George.
George Drapeau: Hey, Camille. How you doing?
Camill Rapacz: I'm doing well. I am just in the mood to promote coaching, but in a little bit of a different way than normal.
George Drapeau: Oh, yeah?
Camill Rapacz: You know, I highly value coaching because I am a coach. It's not all that I do, but I find coaching to be very valuable.
George Drapeau: Yes.
Camill Rapacz: Of course, but one of the things I run into is that I often find people aren't really thinking about whether they're ready for it or not. Like, what does it take to be ready to be coached? So, I thought we would talk about it. And it made me curious if you've ever, tried coaching someone who wasn't ready, or maybe you were on the other side of that, where you were gonna be coached and you realized you weren't ready.
Have you ever had this? I've def,
George Drapeau: oh my God, yes. I've definitely tried coaching someone who is not ready repeatedly over my career. , and sometimes it's their fault and sometimes it's my fault. , there have definitely been times when I should have re realized when that person is not ready for coaching and then stopped trying 'cause there was just rude or whatever.
There was other times when. They're in a situation where they really should be open to coaching in the professionally. They're not doing well with that. And that's bad for them. It's gone both ways. And have I ever not been ready for coaching myself? That's a great question. I want to say, no, I'm always ready for coaching all the time, but that can't possibly be true.
It can't be true. I can't be that awesome.
Camill Rapacz: I would like to think the same about myself, but I'm pretty sure I've had my moments of, in fact, I can remember the feeling of somebody trying to help me and I just wasn't in a space to be helped. So it's related to that, which should probably put in the show notes.
I did a past episode where we talked about helping whether you're ready to be helped or not helped. it's all around this coaching idea, and I think we know it when you've had that moment of. Man, I kind of missed an opportunity there. And I wish I had reacted differently in the moment.
But in the moment, you have whatever emotions you have that keep you from being open to it, you're feeling called out or your ego gets in the way or who knows what. So this is very much related to that. But today I wanted to take the angle of if you are an individual who is thinking about Receiving coaching, whether that's from your boss or from hiring a coach or however you're doing this, that there are things you can actually do to get ready.
So I want to focus just from that perspective. I think later we'll pick up the topic of leaders as coaches. And so kind of to what you were talking about, you know, are you trying to coach somebody who Isn't coachable and are you part of the problem in that we could talk about that some more too. And we touched on it in the helping episode as well.
But there are things that you can do as a leader, to be better at coaching and also part of it is knowing when to coach around what topics and when not to coach . It's not the end all be all tool for everything. There's a time and a place for it.
George Drapeau: Sure.
Camill Rapacz: So let's start by just defining coaching and then we're gonna get into some steps.
So if you're listening to this, I'll drop these steps in the show notes, but you might wanna take notes because I'm gonna give you some very clear things that you can do to make sure you're ready to be coached. But first, let's just talk about what it is.
George Drapeau: Okay.
What is Coaching?
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Camill Rapacz: So I wanna differentiate.
Coaching from consulting or teaching. There are all ways of helping that, you know, we're as leaders and for me as a coaching consultant, I'm doing at any given time, but coaching focuses on helping individuals or teams enhance their skills, performance, and effectiveness. So this is more about unlocking their full potential and it's very goal oriented.
And so this approach also emphasizes that the person being coached, the coachee, it's emphasizing them discovering their own answers as opposed to say, consulting or teaching, which is focused on delivering solutions, advice or knowledge.
So it's kind of like the uncovering of your potential,
George Drapeau: yeah.
Camill Rapacz: Because coaching is this more collaborative relationship focused on growth and development, it does require that the person who's receiving coaching be a little more prepared. Like, I think mentally you have to be more prepared to be coached than consulted. Do you think that's true?
Oh, yeah. I wish you could see George's body language right now on the podcast, people, because he was just was like, sigh.
George Drapeau: I'm going to say yes, but I don't like my yes. And here's why. Totally agree on coaching. Yes, absolutely. But I'm thinking about the consulting. And I think one of the failures of working with consultants is we aren't fully prepared to use them the way that we should.
And so we will just kind of toss over a bunch of responsibility to them. And they kind of maybe with the best intentions, do what they want and make recommendations and they go fallow. And so we're not really, we're prepared to receive proper consulting. We're not driving them the way that we should sign.
I guess I'm signed at an indictment of using consultants more than an indictment of what you say about coaching. A hundred percent agree with you about coaching. That's my sigh.
Camill Rapacz: Yeah, I'm sighing with you because as a consultant, I often have the experience. Sometimes I honestly I want to say, and for all of my clients who are listening to me, I'm sure it was none of you that this happened with, but I do often have the experience of, Oh my gosh, why are they paying me to just ignore me?
George Drapeau: In our last episode, we were talking about retreats and we did that because you had just come back from a retreat with a client and this particular client. Seems like they're very dialed into using you as their consultant, unless I'm wrong, it seems like they, they bought into your model, they're expanding how they actively use you and take recommendations and follow it.
They seem like they use the consultant really well. Yeah.
Camill Rapacz: More often than not, yes, but there is no such thing as a, I, I'm realizing this now as you say this, I have to make this admission. I don't think there's any such thing as a client who perfectly uses me the way that I would want them to use me as a consultant or a coach.
Yeah. And I don't think that that's on them. Or on me. I think it's just the nature of the work that we do.
George Drapeau: Welcome everybody to Belief Shift the group therapy session.
Camill Rapacz: Group therapy for Camille, my goodness.
George Drapeau: Sorry for the digression, but going back to answer your question directly, yeah definitely need to be in the mindset to be properly coached, to receive coaching for sure.
Camill Rapacz: And I think to your point, yes, you also have to have the right mindset to receive consulting. And as a consultant, I think also your job is to not get overly frustrated by a client who just might not be ready for what you're presenting to them. That's how I take it. Like, Oh, okay. This was too soon.
My timing's not right. They're not ready for this yet. My job is to be patient through that. And I do know a lot of people don't have the patience for that. And they do then different types of, consulting or they have a different approach. But I sort of believe in, look, I'm trying to transform humans and the way that they work and they think and interact together.
And I can't just flip a switch to make that happen. So I have to have some patience built into the process.
George Drapeau: Yeah.
Camill Rapacz: What brought me to this is I have to hear people talking about, you know, wanting to get coached but what they really want is a consultant, but they think they want coaching and they're not really clear about the difference.
And then they're also not clear about, you know, what their job is in being prepared to be coached. And both of these are very useful, valuable services, but coaching is different. It's requiring you to show up differently than consulting does. So I want to have this just focus on if you're considering hiring or working with a coach or.
Even just engaging with your, you know, as your boss maybe is trying to coach you or another leader is trying to coach you that this is how you can get the most out of that experience because it's a really powerful one that sometimes will fall flat if people don't pay attention to these things. Okay. I guess the other way to say it is, if you work with a coach who doesn't demand these things of you, you are also not working with a good coach.
George Drapeau: Absolutely.
Camill Rapacz: In a way, this is a way for you to determine whether this coach is, actually worthy. I mean, there's more to it than this, but this is like baseline. If your coach doesn't come in and set these expectations for you in this arrangement you have, then they're not doing the right work.
George Drapeau: Well, this is bringing up so much stuff for me.
Right at the top of the show here, I've been making this, I think it's a clear, valid connection between coaching and mentoring. Mentoring is a form of coaching and the best mentoring in my experience. I've run mentoring programs before I participated, been a mentor and a mentee and all this on time and I'm very good at it.
I've got a lot of experience with mentorship and I find repeatedly, The best mentor mentee pairs are set up when the mentee drives the agenda and is clear what they're going after and the mentor is actively able to work with those goals. So it's symbiotic, but it's not the mentor driving everything.
You're getting the mentee to kickstart it by saying, here's what I think I need to learn. The mentor is good enough to work with that, and set up a good coaching relationship.
Camill Rapacz: Yeah, I think that that is one of the reasons why I see mentorship programs falter is that it's not really clear who owns what in this relationship and how that should happen.
And also, the way I would differentiate mentorship from coaching is that when you're mentoring, it's with somebody who is either has or is doing something that you are aspiring to do, whether that's a specific skill set or role or a level of achievements in an organization like, hey, I want to be a VP, and you're a VP.
So help me with how to do that. Or I want to be excellent in, marketing and you're excellent in marketing. So help me learn how to navigate that as a career path. And so it's very specific to something you want to achieve where coaching doesn't have that same connection.
A good coach doesn't require experience and knowledge in that particular area you're trying to achieve. Now, in general, they do like I'm not going to be a health coach. But I don't have to be specifically. I have been a VP to help you be a better VP. I'm working from a different perspective.
So there's a nice pairing of having a good mentor and a good coach at the same time. Or at different times, like over time, having both of those is really valuable, but they're working on different aspects of your personal and professional development.
George Drapeau: This also reminds me of.
music lessons growing up and in college. And so there's a transition, like I'm going with, this is thinking between teacher and coach, and there's definitely a lot of teacher in my music teachers.
But the, I can think clearly about when they switch from teacher to coach, like when there's a basic level of proficiency and we're no longer talking about, I'm going to teach you this lesson there about you go off and go learn this thing and then come back and bring it to me so that I can critique it and give you advice about it.
Definitely coaching in the lesson plans. If you've done your prep work, I guess this reinforces your point. Like when I'd have a week where I didn't practice piano very much, the lesson was crappy because there wasn't much she could evaluate for me. She couldn't coach me. Maybe she could teach me. We could talk about something, but.
That was not really what she wanted to be about.
Camill Rapacz: Yes. So that analogy of both learning in music and in sports and in like the, the analogy fits all the way across for all the things I'm going to talk about and how you prepare.
Goals
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Camill Rapacz: So number one on the, how to prepare to be coached.
So this is the list. I've got five things for what you do to prepare to be coached. Oh, awesome. Okay. Number one thing is goals. You need to be really clear. About the goals, objectives or outcomes you want from this coaching engagement. So if you go to, your example of piano, I'm learning how to play piano and your goal isn't, I just want to learn how to play piano.
I mean, it is. But you have a goal within that. So I remember we both had the same teacher and I remember our goals were always around. This is why they would have either we were going to like a competition or we were going to give a concert. I mean, just to our parents, but we had to get this piece of music to a level that was good enough to play in front of people and not just in front of our teacher. That was a very specific goal that was helping me achieve the bigger goal of becoming a better pianist. So it applies there and it should apply in your professional goals as well. Whatever you're setting, you want these goals to be something tangible like that.
Like we're going to work towards this X goal. That's going to overall improve your performance. in the workplace. So whether that's around career advancement, or, the tricky part with this is how to make it measurable, you really want the goal to be measurable. And sometimes it's just got good enough to do the thing, like I got good enough to play this piece of music in front of my parents.
And I either feel good about it, or I don't. But in your professional career, it's hard to measure some of these things. So sometimes you can measure based on, career advancement or feedback you're getting in a performance review. But sometimes it's harder things like gauging your improvement of leadership skills and things like that can be harder, but it should not keep you from trying to set very tangible objectives and goals that you want to achieve.
So knowing generally what you want when you go into this. Is really important. You can then with your coach really hone in on a very specific goal with them. Like that's the first thing they should be helping you do is hoping you set a specific goal, but you got to walk in with something. If you just come in with, Hey, I just want to coach.
Cause I want to feel better about myself. That's not a great place to start.
George Drapeau: Yeah, I agree. Okay. So
Camill Rapacz: have you ever had this experience George, where the goals were, you know, not front and center in the conversation of coaching?
George Drapeau: Yeah, absolutely. Frustrating. It's a mess. If I accept that, retools my whole relationship as a coach and it can become much more provisional.
Like I'm good. I can improvise a lot, but you're not getting full value out of the experience. And it's just disappointing. I've plenty of seen that where goals are not front and center. And let me be clear. we've talked about SMART goals. I'm not even talking about lack of SMART goals, just any sort of standards or goals or objectives or desires.
Lack of that, I mean, that would be good enough.
Camill Rapacz: You don't have to walk in with a full detailed out SMART goal. To get coaching to be good. You just need to know something. And so one of the most frustrating things in this for me will be when the goals keep getting shifted.
So I start working with the client and they sort of have this goal set and we're trying to hone in on it. And then the next call they're like, well, I've been thinking about it. And I think now I want to do this other thing. And so their problem is staying focused. So the coaching then comes ends up being the goal ends up being, Oh, how do we identify the right thing and keep you focused on the one thing?
But it can be hard to do, because staying on this one goal and committing to it and knowing that it's the right one. You can never really know if it's right until you start pursuing that and you have to get far enough along into it, into pursuing it. And you're going to have to, be willing to go through the struggles and trials and tribulations of working the goal, but being able to pick one and stick with it it's really important to do.
It will absolutely optimize your experience with the coach and your coach should be really focused on identifying the right one with you and helping you stick with it.
George Drapeau: Absolutely.
Camill Rapacz: So that is thing one.
Growth Mindset
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Camill Rapacz: Let's talk about number two. Okay. You and I have talked about this a bunch on the podcast, and so we're going to talk about it a bunch more because it's super important.
It is having an open or growth mindset. So this is so critical to coaching. You've got to walk into it being receptive to feedback. I think inherently we know this like, of course, I'm going to be coached. I'm going to be open to feedback. But are you really like, what are you going to do when your coach says something or asks you to think about something that is hard and challenging?
And, you have to have humility, you have to have a willingness to see your blind spots. And it's going to get uncomfortable. If it doesn't get uncomfortable, then you're not really making progress in growth and development.
George Drapeau: Right. Agreed.
Camill Rapacz: And uncomfortable doesn't have to be a horrible experience,
if you're doing this well with a coach, it should be this safe place to get uncomfortable and grapple with the feeling of whatever is happening. I feel incompetent. I feel inadequate. You're going to have these moments where you feel this way as you're trying to pursue something bigger.
But every single human who's trying to pursue goals is having that same experience at any given time.
So I know for you, this is like a pretty easy place for you to go.
For you, George is like having a growth mindset. You're like, yeah, that's pretty easy. I can do this. But I'm curious, when you see others who struggle to have a growth mindset. What are some indicators to you that you can see like, Oh, this person isn't really receptive. They're not in a growth mindset mode.
They're closed off right now.
George Drapeau: When somebody, like if I'm a mentor or coach either way, and they perceive me in a position of, you know, Power and they want to get that kind of power and they can ask questions along the lines of like, yeah, what's the two or three tricks you use to whatever, get approval or get buy in or something.
They're not really thinking about changing who they are or how they behave. They're thinking about like, what little things do you know and have access to? Cause you're in that position that I don't. And that's all it is. You just have a couple of facts that you possess. And if you could just turn those facts over to me, I will be magic as well.
It's like, no, there's things you need to change about how you behave. And when the people aren't really willing to change their behavior, they're like, no, I'm cool with who I am. Just give me some facts that's an indicator for me to tell them, okay, this is in trouble.
Or another one is.
I know that this is common for getting into manager roles. I want to be like that. I want to learn how to be a manager because I know that I'll be able to have this immense amount of power. I can just tell people to do what I want. I don't have to really learn anything about how to deal with people.
Don't teach me about that. I just want to learn what's the secret keyword I need to be manager. And then I'll be fine. I'll have everything I do. Plus a magic wand. I could just beat people with. I guess it's common cases of no, they're not ready to really accept critique, be vulnerable, change behavior.
Camill Rapacz: This makes me think of our problem with the quick fix, I often see when people are just like, just give me this quick answer. Just give me the template. Just give me the three things. People aren't trying to genuinely understand so they can come up with their own good answers, which is really the heart of what coaching is, about.
It's about helping you find the answers for yourself, because those are the ones that stick. If I just give you three things, I'm not really teaching you anything. I'm not helping you improve your approach or your behavior. You're just going to do these three things. And yeah, it's, we could definitely have a whole other podcast just talking about that.
The fallacy of have gaining more power as you become a manager or as you move up the leadership food chain. Right. And just that misconception and how that impacts teams and leaders. And yeah, it's a total misconception.
George Drapeau: Yeah, absolutely.
Camill Rapacz: You are not gaining power. It's fake. Knowing what it means to have a growth mindset and being prepared to go into that place is just really important.
And if you are trying to shortcut this, maybe a way to know if this is happening to you is if you feel like you're getting impatient with the process, that's you closing down, like your your brain is starting to, you know, shut down in terms of, Growth and development, and there could be good reasons for that.
Maybe you're just tired, like having a growth mindset can is it takes some energy, but be aware of it and be aware that when you go into a coaching session, you've got to have a growth mindset going in.
Commit to Change
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Camill Rapacz: number three, You need to commit to change. The purpose of coaching is to create some kind of change in you.
But look, coaches are not wizards. We're not casting a spell. I mean, if I could, that would be fantastic, but I cannot. And so I can't just cast a spell and make change happen in you. Only you can do that. Only you can create the change you're trying to create. That's why you've engaged in coaching, whether you know it or not, you're trying to change something about you and how you approach things, how you think through things.
Yeah. It's an improvement . Improvement requires change. And just being open to change is not enough. And I think this is an important distinction I want to make around being open to change versus committing to seeking out the change.
George Drapeau: Because being open
Camill Rapacz: to it, being open to it is like, yeah, sure. You know, change me.
No, no, that's not how it works.
George Drapeau: Right.
Camill Rapacz: Like it's, again, I'm not changing you. You have to commit. To making the change happen. And that's a very different way of going into it. So commit to seeking out and having change happen. I'm here as a coach. I'm here to help you do that. I'm here to give you all the tools and the things that you need to have that change happen within you, but only you can actually do it.
So it's not something that's easy to do, and it might be. Challenge some current ideas that you have that might make you confront some uncomfortable truths about yourself. But with the right coach, it becomes easier. And it's well worth that experience because it becomes a permanent thing that you can hang on to.
George Drapeau: I hadn't thought about it from this angle, but I like this a lot. I have definitely seen people who like, maybe they think they're committed to change.
They think they are, but they're not really not like they said they're open to like, yeah, give me the makeover and that'll be good. I'll, I'll take a makeover versus like the ongoing participatory, do the work, keep doing the work follow through that you really have to do to change. behavior. I've seen people who come in and they're really, really willing to be coached and change.
And when you run into people like that, that are clearly thirsty to be coached, it's a gift when you see. I mean, and you can notice the best of these people. You come and they run into you and it's just clear, they're going to drink up everything you, pour them. That is so much fun. It is so great, but that's like top 5 percent and then there's some people who didn't really know what it's like to be coached and change and you can help them with that and you'll get through it.
And then there's a bunch of people who just not really ready. They think they are, but they're not.
Camill Rapacz: It's interesting cause I find that it is rare that people are like fully committed and understand what that means. That's one of the reasons I want to bring this up is I want to help increase awareness of this is really important if you're going to benefit from coaching. But if you are not sure if you're in full commitment mode but you're open, a coach can help you get to the commitment.
So that's something that a coach can help guide you into. So if I'm doing it right, I'm making it clear what the difference is and what, it looks like for them to commit so that they can actually take action on that. So sometimes people just aren't clear. Like I want to commit, but what am I supposed to do exactly?
And so part of the coaching experience can be helping people get to this place of commitment. But. I've also had people who just they just couldn't get there. They just liked the idea of being coached. But once they had to really confront some of these, uncomfortable truths and deal with some real things, they just couldn't go there.
They just weren't prepared, maybe because they needed to, you know, get therapy and see Shulamit. I don't know. Sometimes there are some blocks there. But usually It's a process of helping them go through the okay, you're here, we're ready to go, let's fully commit. And it looks like this, this is what you do next.
And sometimes if it's as simple as being really clear about what the next steps are for them in order to get them to commit, and that was the only thing holding them back, they just didn't know what they were supposed to actually do. And once I tell them, then they're like, I'm in. Now that I have clarity.
Thank you. I can go do those steps. It's something I want people to think about, but not necessarily think they have to be in a full commitment mode before they engage in coaching. With the right coach, they'll help you get there.
Active Participation
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Camill Rapacz: Let's talk about number four.
Number four is related to number three, and it is active participation. Sure. So when you fully commit. what you're doing is then you are actively participating. You're going to do the work.
George Drapeau: Yes.
Camill Rapacz: Enough said, do the work. So coaching is not all about just talking. Coaching is not just, I met with my coach we're chatting for an hour and then, good luck to you.
It's mostly about doing. So I like this phrase of, you're going to act your way into a new way of thinking. So we're going to talk about the mindset, but you're only going to change your mindset through action.
I love that phrase too.
Camill Rapacz: It makes me think of, the analogy you had about learning how to play piano.
And honestly, I think about this in sports, which is a lot of what we're doing is they're just giving us this stuff to practice over and over again, part of coaching is, go run these drills. Go do these exercises over and over again. And it's with a purpose. We're trying to hone some aspects, some skill that we're trying to do and coaching in leadership and professional development.
It has the same things.
George Drapeau: Yeah, absolutely. Makes perfect sense. Do the work.
Camill Rapacz: Do the work.
Time & Energy Management
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Camill Rapacz: The last one is just about time and energy management. All in order for all of this to work and it's something I do find my clients will struggle with quite a bit, which is just finding the time and the energy for their coaching.
Not just the session, but everything else I just talked about: doing the work, staying committed, being in it. It's hard to, have the time in the end because you're also, whether you're thinking about how you show up to your coaching session or doing the work in between. This is typically very different work from what you're doing on the regular day.
So, you know, if you're going throughout your day and you're, doing your job, being a good leader, and then you have a coaching session, that's shifting your brain into a different way of thinking and working and operating. I'm more of a learner. Now I'm receiving help. I have to be reflective. I have to confront, challenges and issues in a way that you're mostly not doing in the rest of your day as a leader.
It does require you to manage both your time and your energy and how you're going to show up to things and do the work a little differently. You have to pay attention to how you're going to show up and do the homework.
George Drapeau: This is really reminding me of my own personal experience. I'll go back to music lessons.
I had fundamentally different experiences. in elementary school through high school playing piano because I was frankly not that consistent about practicing. Not that, but not to my standard and it showed from time to time in lessons. I was completely different in college. In college, I decided to switch instruments and learn how to play percussion instruments and I took six years of lessons from a professional.
studio player. And I was fully committed. I did not miss practice. I practiced clearly in the way he taught me. And I learned so much faster and I was so much better at those instruments that I was a piano in some significant ways, it was a wholly different experience because of the way I committed to my end of the deal of being coached.
My time in energy management, now that you mention it, in college was Much better. I mean, the rest of my college, my time and energy management wasn't top for the music lesson, music practice. It was great. And it showed. Huge difference.
Camill Rapacz: Yeah. I mean, it's, it's easier to put time and energy into things you care about too.
Right. So I cared about being a better musician. So it's easy to put time and energy into that. And I find that to be true for, leaders that want to be coached. They do. They want to put the time and energy in and be a better leader. Sometimes I think the struggle here isn't so much whether they want to do it or not.
It's just around all the things that are demanding of their time. As a leader, you're supposed to be in this meeting and in that meeting and doing this and getting that assignment done and doing all these emails. Coaching requires you to slow down.
You're trying to slow down in order to actually accelerate your, professional career or progress in whatever way, achieving your goals. And that slow down can be really difficult. So it's not time and energy, like I'm trying to amp you up. It really is trying to shift your energy into how do I be more reflective and thoughtful in this moment and doing this work so that I can really pause long enough to help myself improve.
If all you do is bounce around to all of those activities, you're getting a lot of stuff done, but you're not actually working on improvement.
George Drapeau: Yeah, true.
Camill Rapacz: Or it's very hard to work on improvement in that mode, you're just trying to get things done. Which is understandable, but it is an obstacle.
So it's a really important aspect of thinking about as you're going to be coached as a leader, Think about how you're going to manage the time and energy around what coaching actually represents in your day, in your week, you know, how you're fitting that in and how you're shifting towards it.
George Drapeau: Yes.
Camill Rapacz: Is there anything else from your perspective, George? that would help people prepare to receive coaching?
George Drapeau: I'm thinking from the perspective of the coach rather than the one being coached. I'll just say it and see if it's helpful. If you're a coach, you have to recognize when you're dealing with somebody who's not ready to be coached.
You have to ask permission, to coach them. The manager groups, people have a model for this about coaching and feedback, and that the first time they step into it, they don't even provide the coaching or feedback. they will offer something like, I'm willing to coach you on this.
How do you feel about, are you willing to be coached? And start very gently instead of going in with a coaching system, which I think is interesting.
On the side where you're being coached. If you think you want to be coached, this is a really great checklist.
You should pay attention to first before you engage in it. Because all of these steps are really important. before this, I would have just said, be clear about your goals, but this is a much, much better complete checklist about how I can reflect to be ready for coaching. Also two other things, don't be afraid of firing your coach and finding a new one.
Don't be afraid of that. Not all coaches are suited for you and that's fine. They don't have to fire him before he can get fired just because it doesn't work for you. If it's not working, try to fix it. If it doesn't get fixed, fire your coach. No problem. And the other thing I will say, I learned this lesson from health care that in health care, when you go to the doctor, we are used to being told what to do by our doctors and then driving.
And we're often disappointed when something doesn't go right. But what they really want is they want you to own your own health care journey. They want you to go to them and ask questions. And if you're not getting the right treatment, just something to sound right, they want you to push back on them.
They really do. They're there to help you, but they're not there to own your body and your health. The same thing with lawyers. There's lawyers are not they're not there to tell you how to obey the law. They're there to tell you what the options are. You tell them what you want. I think the same concept here is with coaches.
The coaches are not there to build you. They're there to help you. You drive them. They're not driving you.
If you're not getting served, try to talk with your coach about why reflect about why and does not change it. Change your coach, change your attitude.
Camill Rapacz: Well, that's fantastic. And I would say yes. And it made me think of also the idea of you own your professional development.
So just expanding coaching beyond just, there's a lot of ways to get professional development, but I also find this challenging where I see people who are just waiting for their boss to develop them. And that is not how it works. Your boss is there to help and guide you the same way a coach is there to help and guide you, but you own your own professional development as well.
So anybody who's sitting there waiting for their boss to give them a, plan no, that's not how this should work. You need to own your own professional development. Some leaders, bosses are better than others at helping you create that plan. And you know what, you've got what you got. And at the end of the day, there's plenty of opportunity for you to own your own professional development through other mentors, coaches. There's tons of ways that you can advance that, just know at the end of the day, you own it yourself. You have to own that journey.
George Drapeau: You really do.
Camill Rapacz: That went in a great place that I wasn't expecting to. Own it, everybody. Be prepared by just owning it.
George Drapeau: Yeah.
Camill Rapacz: All right. That's all I have today. Thank you everybody for listening. If you have any thoughts on coaching or questions about coaching, you can go to the belief shift. com and leave us a voicemail. We'd love to hear from you. But also if you are interested in coaching, you can. Book a free consultation with me.
CamilleRepaz. com slash bookacall. All this stuff will be in the show notes. I will also put these five steps in the show notes so that you have a reminder if you should need them. There's always a transcript, by the way, of these episodes. So if you're ever listening, you can always go to the transcript on the website if you wanted like actual details of the episode.
Someday I'll turn these into blog posts. That'll be a miracle.
George Drapeau: That'd be great.
Camill Rapacz: Oh, I know it needs to happen. I need to get on that. Oh, so many things for me to do. All right. Thank you everybody for listening.
We will be back in your ears next week.
George Drapeau: See everybody.
