Communicate with Mastery

7When Being Coached

We're often asked what factors into a very successful coaching engagement. Each coaching engagement differs, but one thing that all successful coaching relationships share is an active and engaged participant. In this chapter, we offer some ways to maximize your effective engagement with your communication coach so you can meet your goals effectively: establishing your goals, selecting your coach, and adopting a coaching mindset.

Establishing Your Goals

Kara and I debated the order of these first two elements—establishing your goals and selecting a coach—but ultimately settled on beginning with goal setting. You've got to know what you want to accomplish before you engage a coach, even though you will likely have to refine those goals once you begin work with a coach.

Reading this book may be a great first step; you may now see developmental areas in sharper relief than before. If you felt a chill or recalled a bad experience while reading the preceding two sections of this book, you may already have identified a good starting point for the work you want to do. As we suggested in our discussion of leadership for veterans, looking at recent performance reviews may also help point to areas where you want to improve.

You can certainly also survey colleagues and supervisors, but be careful with that tactic. Many times we'll hear, “Oh, you're fine, stop worrying. I wish I wrote as well as you did.” This may feel good, but as a springboard for improvement, it ...