‘I worked in football and now I am going to be a coach…No, not that kind of coach!’
Six months ago, facing some potential changes in my role at The Football Association due to a restructure, the Coaching Academy were recommended to me by my business coach and so I signed up for their 2-day free training course.
Initially sceptical and not sure what to expect, I can safely say I was impressed by the quality of the delivery and content of the sessions. During my career I had done some coaching and mentoring with colleagues but the scope and level of detail covered on the 2-day event was far more than I had imagined or experienced before, and it fascinated me. A number of the key messages throughout the two days resonated with my situation and I soon found myself both coaching, and being coached. After day 1, I was hungry for more!
Shortly after the course I began the Life Coaching Diploma and since then, I have conducted 7 ‘formal’ coaching sessions with 5 different people, I recognise that I am just at the start of my journey however, initial feedback has been positive and each client, at different times during the sessions, has had that ‘wow!’ moment where they have considered the question posed, and suddenly seen what is possible and a positive way forward related to their particular issue, goal or challenge. I am excited about developing my skills, running more sessions with different clients, and learning more each time.
Has it been life changing? I usually retract from such grand statements but the exercises we went through on the initial 2 days provided the clarity I was seeking and helped me to see the direction I wanted to take. For me this has meant taking redundancy from The FA after 11 years and setting up my own coaching and consulting business. As I write this 4 months after attending the 2-day event I can say coaching has already changed my life, and I am sure will continue to do so over the coming months and years.
In my view, everyone and anyone would benefit from coaching. However, with my background in sport and leisure, small businesses, sports agencies and Governing Bodies, I see my specific niche as working with leaders and managers in sporting organisations. I have set up the business in order to help individuals and organisations continuously improve and I see Life Coaching Diploma playing a huge role in this.
I am continuing my training and I am looking forward to learning more, adding more skills to my coaching repertoire, and meeting some more great people!
The Coaching Academy was established in 1999, and is now the world's largest coaching school.
In that time we have trained over 14,000 people to become life coaches.
We are accredited by the International Coach Federation and the Association for Coaching, and we're rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot.
