My coaching journey

I started my coaching journey based on a feedback from the president of my organization.
In an open house meeting he said that he can tell the "personal brand" of anybody and that was a special trait he had developed.

I got up and asked him to tell me my brand. He said  he does not want to talk about it in an open meeting and  we will discuss it in our next monthly 1:1 meeting.

In my next monthly meeting he said that my brand is that of  "genuine helper" and a coach. I was sort taken aback - helper does not sound very fashionable from a corporate standard . I have always related helpers to the "chotus" in a chai shop or in a garage-. Have always heard things like - "Chotu spanner dhena/ panch number table me pani marna"

However this sort of kindled my curiosity on the coach part.I started reading about coaching and thanks to a friend of mine ( he was making  a sales pitch to the extended leadership team on selling his services) I got into making a serious commitment on coaching. I enrolled myself for a certification program from CFI ( coaching foundation of India) which was spread over a six month period.
This was based on a model by Gerad Eagan who calls a coach as a skilled helper. So my boss wasn't wrong in calling me as a helper.
The coaching program included practicing the skills on two coachees with a whole lot of documentation to prove that I have indeed used the skills learnt in the class.

Got my certification and I am now Certified CEO coach.

Having decided to take a break in my career now to pursue coaching I find having a certificate alone does not guarantee any "Dhanda".  Coaching seems to be a hard sell. I tried with my head of L&OD to give me some coaching assignments ( was willing to do it free) so that my knowledge doesn't get rusted. However his point is that he cannot immediately show any ROI as coaching is all about behaviour changes which takes some time. ( you don't become assertive overnight just because you have attended a assertiveness course for 2 days!!).

Spoke to a couple experienced coaches  who have slogged it over the last 6-7 years.
This is a long process - Have to build my brand, network, specific offering , write blogs with followers. In the social media space there are so many groups especially in linked in with so many members. Not sure how many have made coaching as the only offering.
Anyway early days. I will share my experience over time...