HR Tea Time: How to Access Coaching

Uche Soile is a Consultant for the UK office and focuses on emerging HR talent across Financial and Professional services. She held a breakfast roundtable on the 28^th September for her HR Tea Community. Over the last year Uche has worked on building strong bonds with her community of Emerging HR Leaders, with this being the second in person event she has run this year. Prior to this Uche held an afternoon tea with a smaller group from the community to gauge what they perceived to be issues within the emerging talent space. The most common struggle that was identified was the accessibility to coaching. 

The discussion was facilitated by Lucinda Lambkin, Founder of Hive Coaching; trained at Henley Business School, Lucinda specialises in executive coaching, leadership development, talent strategy and business transformation, with the aim of educating professionals around how to access coaching, both internally and externally.

Lucinda started the conversation by telling the room what she had gained from having a coach previously; someone who was in her corner, who supported her and helped her to gain confidence when she first started out. She also suggested that you can continue coaching throughout your career and that it is especially helpful during challenging moments. 

During the session participants discussed: 

The Difference Between Coaching and Mentoring:

The group discussed the difference between coaching and mentoring and how each can be used in distinctive ways. A mentor is someone usually from your organisation that shares their personal skills and experience to help you grow and develop; a coach can be internal or external and is someone that provides guidance and will aim to help you reach further goals. Lucinda then shared how psychometric testing can serve as a valuable tool to kickstart coaching discussions within the workplace and are usually used as a means of assessing readiness to accept coaching. 

Reservations/Barriers to Coaching 

Coaching can be a powerful resource for personal and professional growth, one of the biggest reservations the group had towards coaching was not knowing how to find a coach. There was also a general assumption that coaching is more readily available to those higher up in their career and not at their level.

How to Access Coaching 

The conversation moved on to look at how the group could access coaching. Coaching can be made available to professionals at various career stages through; individual coaches, coaching organisations, or as part of leadership development programs. Self-coaching can also be a useful resource, enabling self-guided reflection.

Looking for a Coach – The Chemistry Call.

Lucinda guided the session onto what to consider when looking for a coach. The first step is to ensure you know specifically what you need guidance on and whether it is a mentor or coach that you need. Remember that a coach doesn’t need to have the same experience as you. Once you find someone that you believe to be a potential good fit, have a ‘chemistry call’ – a brief session together to determine if you feel comfortable and can build rapport with them.

The Business Benefits of Coaching 

Finally, the group discussed the business benefits of coaching, which includes an increase in retention, improved morale and supporting leaders in developing their teams. Coaching is also a valuable tool for personal and professional growth, helping employees overcome challenges and reach their goals.

The team would like to say a huge thank you to Lucinda for facilitating the conversation and providing the HR Tea community with valuable insights. Everyone that attended thanked Lucinda and the discussion she enabled, all participants were highly engaged and left feeling more confident around the benefits of coaching and how they could find a coach. 

If you are an Emerging HR Leader and would like to join the HR Tea community, please contact Uche Soile at us@elliottscotthr.com. If you would like to attend future HR events see our events page here.