Recently I was approached by an old friend whom I had worked with many years ago about the opportunity to engage in a series of executive coaching sessions. My friend, Danyelle Jinks, is an expert in organizational change management and had successfully implemented change management programs around the world. In addition to her work as an organizational change manager, she had also individually coached many people throughout her career and recently had taken steps to more formally follow her passion. Danyelle was in the process of reaching out to folks she thought could benefit from her expertise.
Over the years, Danyelle and I have often kept in touch by reaching out to each other a couple times a year to check in to see how the other was doing. Though at one time we spoke daily because we worked in the same department, over time our careers took different but sometimes similar paths. We both ended up teaching for the same college as our side hustle and both held the role of Area Chair but our 9-5 careers went in different directions. Danyelle pursued roles towards change management while my focus was in project management in sales and marketing operations. Even though we ended up in different areas of business, what kept us talking were the similarities we had when it came to the challenges of corporate culture and professional development. What I often enjoyed were our long philosophical discussions sometimes deep conversations about work/life passions. Danyelle was always one of the few people I knew I could be real with so when she approached me about her pursuits in coaching I was intrigued but not convinced.
Often as I teach courses in leadership and management, I explore the value of having trusted advisors whom can help but for many the concept can be difficult to imagine in practice. However, despite the advice I have given to others, I found myself having some apprehension about Danyelle as my coach. Not because I did not think she would be great but rather I was a little stuck on the idea of whether I needed a coach.
I am sure there are some who may believe that their strong and independent nature coupled with their own satisfactory results is proof enough they have no need for a coach. Others may consider it to be business oriented psycho-babble requiring far too much time for such little reward. Still others may hear terms like Life Coach, Executive Coaching or Trusted Advisor and conceive of a person who is just a good listener, consultant, or provider of objective feedback. As I thought longer about the conversation I had with Danyelle, I began to wonder whether or not these were the reasons I was initially closed off to the idea. I had to force myself to consider whether or not I was going to live the values I profess or if I was going to be a hypocrite by advising one thing and doing another.
The longer I thought about my own personal barriers, the more I wondered, how many other people may share the same thoughts and feelings that I do? How many others might fear taking that first step towards being coached because they fear being judged or told something they don’t want to hear? Maybe they have misconceptions about how a proper coaching relationship is supposed to work and they have no idea what to expect. Even though I also shared some of these concerns, what if I had the opportunity to help others by allowing them into my own coaching sessions and letting them further understand what a coaching relationship could be and how it may benefit them.
The more I thought about my conversation Danyelle, the more strongly I felt this was an opportunity. What if I could take our coaching sessions and turn them into something beneficial? This is probably not something everyone would choose to do; broadcast personal coaching sessions for the world to hear, but the longer I thought about my own feelings towards being coached the more I realized that this could be an opportunity to share something meaningful for the benefit of others. Sure, I would be putting myself out there more so than I have in the past but I felt in the long-run there were more potential positives than negatives.
With this in mind, I reached back out to Danyelle with a proposal. What if I agreed to be coached but we record every session and we turn it into content for Satisfactionist Live? We could document the journey and give listeners an inside tour to better inform those who might be curious about what a coaching relationship might be like. As a documented journey we can look back over time and hear how things evolve and change and along the way share some deep and insightful conversations that may help people grow.
After a short pause Danyelle thought it would be a great idea. So with that in mind, this week Satisfactionist Live introduces a new documentary series called Growth Coaching. In this series, the audience of Satisfactionist Live will listen in on coaching sessions led Danyelle Jinks. Each episode is a minimally edited and will explore, among other things, the development, drive, and challenges of producing Satisfactionist Live through the lens of its creator.
In this episode we begin our coaching relationship and discuss some of the foundations for Satisfactionist Live and what drives the show. We discuss the purpose of the show as well as thoughts on what holds me back from being my authentic-self.