Blog Post

Why I coach

Ollie Smedley • Apr 20, 2019

And where does my motivation come from

Last weekend I was in the Peak District catching up with old friends from my post graduate coaching course. It was precious time to kick back and collectively reflect on our progress since we qualified. In particular, we all wanted to explore why we coach and who we think we’re best suited to help.

Whilst all professional, our backgrounds were very different and ranged from blue chip commercial leadership to teaching, M&A advisory and HR leadership. Of course, with differing backgrounds and life experiences our motivations were different too.

However, a consistent theme did emerge and whether they were overwhelmed, stuck, lacking direction or needing inspiration; we could all see some of our old selves in the people that we coach.

I first experienced coaching about 15 years into my career - Big job, big team, big salary, big ambitions and big expectations. It was everything I was looking for.

I gave it 120% but about 9 months in it slowly became apparent that the skills that had got me the job weren’t sufficient – the scale, complexity and pace of change compared to the resources I had to hand were out of balance. It wasn’t my fault but I didn’t have the experience to spot it building.

Privately (& probably to others), I was starting to become overwhelmed and showing the symptoms of stress: Working to excess, compromising my personal life, poor sleep patterns, niggling colds and just not enjoying it. All in a vain hope that by working harder it would “soon get better”.

Fortunately Terry, my MD at the time, introduced me to his coach and the rest, as they say, is history.

Of course it wasn’t an instant fix and there were no magic wands but I quickly learned that the coaching environment created safe space for me to decompress, reflect, challenge and start to think and act differently about my situation. My resourcefulness returned and I started to take back control of my situation. I started to enjoy what I was doing again.

As I look back, engaging a coach was just the start of a turning point for how I managed my career and personal life. Instead of being a passenger, I started to be the pilot – making conscious choices, particularly when making unavoidable compromises.

Back to the Peak District - my weekend realisation was that I wanted to be like Terry and share that same gift of coaching to people in need.

So for the many high performers out there with great jobs who are currently finding things harder than they should be – that’s why I coach.

Drop me a line at info@olliesmedley.com if you’re interested in a conversation about how I might be able to help you.

Ollie helps finance leaders and teams create the space, thinking and leadership they need to thrive. Previously an FD and MD in a range of complex, blue chip organisations he’s now an ICF accredited coach. Try his free “What Matters in Finance” exercise if you’re curious about what really matters to you.

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