Coaching - is it for you?

CACVT is excited to launch our coaching program in 2021 as part of our member wellbeing program! 

We will be providing more information on the coaching program at the kickoff event on December 8, 2020. Registration is now open for that event, click here to reserve your space today. In the meantime, please read the following article by Peg Thoren, a Board Certified Coach working with CACVT members to learn more about coaching and how it can help you!


 

Become the Best Version of Yourself, Hire a Coach!

By Peg Thoren, M.Ed., BCC & Jeff Thoren, DVM, PCC, BCC 

When we hear the term coaching, we often think about the sports coaches we were exposed to in high school, college, or by watching professional sports. Coaches are there to help an athlete become the best version of whom they can be; to help them continue to learn; develop their capabilities; and perform at their best. 

You don’t have to be an athlete to have a coach.  Coaching is becoming more and more popular and people are using the process to become the best version of themselves. The techniques and approach may be a bit different from those used in athletics, but the reward of having a coach is the same… to accelerate your personal and professional growth and development.

A coach is one to help you tackle challenges, broaden your perspectives, and help you get unstuck. They can help you address personal concerns, burnout, career exploration, relationship issues, work/life balance and leadership challenges. The issues discussed are determined by you.

A coach provides you with an unbiased, nonjudgmental partner to facilitate self-discovery, and encourage you to grow.

What is coaching and what do coaches do?

Effective coaching relies on a co-created relationship between coach and client that is built on respect, safety, challenge, and accountability. A coach is not there to give advice or tell you what to do. Metaphorically, it’s like a dance and you are leading, working with a coach to uncover the right steps. A coach is a confidante, sounding board, and trusted “thinking partner” who listens, asks questions, and talks in a way that:

  • Helps raise your awareness of who you want to be, what you want to do, and the key things that are critical to your success.
  • Expands your options and choices for effective action.
  • Fosters the self-trust required for you to confidently design action plans and move forward on your intentions.

Coaching takes a strengths-based approach to generating positive change. It honors you as the expert in your own life and work, and equips you to craft self-generated solutions and strategies. It is built on the belief that real growth must come from within. It cannot be grafted onto you from the outside as the traditional instructional-consulting model suggests.

Working with a coach will help provide the structure and accountability you need to make important changes or achieve specific goals.

So, do you need a coach?

In the veterinary profession, many of us are skilled at rationalizing, believing in our own reasoning, and protecting our opinions as solid facts. Coaching can help you bring your beliefs, assumptions, judgments, fears, needs, and value-related conflicts to the surface and allow you to better evaluate your decisions and actions.

Coaching is all about exploring choices, and a decision to hire a coach is a choice to make if you 1) have a desire to improve some aspect of your performance, learning, or fulfillment, and 2) are open to feedback and willing to take responsibility to create positive change, you can definitely benefit from hiring a coach.

Who wouldn’t want someone on their side with whom to discuss creative ideas, goals, dreams, doubts, concerns, petty irritations, and the personal and professional implications of all of those?

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