Well-being and public health have become universally discussed and openly debated topics during the pandemic. Those discussions are no longer trends but emerging priorities for employers and society. Well-being is not just about an individual's mental health; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention casts a larger net with a definition that includes physical, economic, social, emotional, and psychological factors as critical to overall well-being.

This new social emergence is beckoning a shift in leadership and companies. Time, attention, ideology, and budget are now supporting the concepts of well-being in new ways. Gone are the days when employers expected employees to simply power through work, temper emotion, meet all expectations, and manage family and life with sheer independence and grit while parking their needs at the door. Instead, it is now widely acceptable to admit that support structures and resources are the keys to ongoing professional success.

Often well-being is difficult to achieve without assistance from a helping professional. Are you dealing with professional fatigue, burnout, blurred work-life boundaries, toxic work environments, unpredictable system dynamics, or anything similar? If so, a neutral guide in the form of a coach can help you navigate your context.

How a professional coach can help you

Professional coaches can help restore three important things in their clients.

A sense of self. When individuals feel battered by life and work, their self-care, self-awareness, self-regard, and ability to be open and curious can feel impaired. TD professionals can sometimes be so other-focused that they often forget their own way of being.

Coaches with expert use of inquiry can evoke awareness in their clients, enabling you to feel capable, equipped, and whole. With that shift, you find yourself again and reclaim your professional purpose.

Individual agency. At some point, everyone feels stuck between what appears to be only two options. That story or narrative is rarely true, but our perspectives tend to narrow when facing staggering challenges and obstacles. People often need a thought partner who can help to widen their sense-making, process information through a new lens, and see multiple options.

When you expand either/or thinking to see both/and instead, you begin to notice how you have allowed yourself to work and live in a confined mindset. Once aware, you can choose to step into a bigger way of being and leading.

A navigation system. Many professionals continue to rely on their tried-and-true strengths of administration, project management, attention to detail, process and procedure, and protocols. Those strengths may become thwarted or ineffective when faced with unpredictable work issues.

A coach can help you recognize new ways of leading and navigating in ever-changing conditions requiring fluidity, relationship building, and willingness to take risks. Rarely are TD professionals in simple work environments. More likely, you are dealing with intense complexity.

As the IT Revolution article "Cynefin: Four Frameworks of Portfolio Management" states, there are no experts in complex domains. Instead, individuals gain crucial experience. Complex environments, with their ambiguity, require different strategies than more traditional work environments, and coaches can be a lighthouse in the fog.

They are often the source of support when a client needs to shift their professional view from feeling powerless to purposeful, stuck to focused, or lethargic to energized. Those ways of being are all essential factors for a mindset that allows for growth. With that mindset and a focus on well-being, you will have cleaner fuel in your tank to be of service to others.

What coaches do not do

While coaches are helpful in many circumstances, before partnering with one, you should understand what coaches don't do.

They don't give advice. Instead, coaches have a mindset that their clients have many of their own answers and acknowledge that clients are responsible for their own choices. Coaches will hold the space for their clients to reflect on their own solutions. There is no power differential in coaching—coaches are partners.

They don't solve their clients' problems. Rather, coaches demonstrate curiosity during the coaching process and remain comfortable working without knowing the answers. Rarely does a client have no idea what they should do about a situation. Coaches are there to explore their clients' thinking about approaching the problem or dilemma.

They do not do all the talking. Instead, coaches ask questions to understand clients' thinking, values, needs, wants, and beliefs. They also use inquiry to help clients go beyond their current thinking while inviting them to share more about their experiences. Good coaches will use silence as a way to help their clients breathe and process their thinking.

They don't determine the agenda. Coaches will challenge clients to align their objectives to their leadership or professional goals. However, clients decide the agenda for every session, and the coach partners with them at whatever pace and place clients choose as best.

They don't drive in multiple lanes. Coaches are not therapists, consultants, or mentors. They assume their clients do not need to be fixed, diagnosed, or overly tended. Coaches are educated and trained to stay in the coaching mindset and maintain ethical practices. Often, clients want someone to tell them what to do. However, coaches will resist that and challenge clients to be the heroes in their own stories.

For TD professionals who tend to hold advising and facilitating roles in their relationships with others, coaching can be a new experience. Due to the unique nature of coaching, some coachees may not know how to leverage its value comprehensively. Because you may be accustomed to giving and receiving unsolicited advice in your professional role, you may not know how to be in a situation that assumes you are capable of finding your own voice and answers.

Getting maximum value from a coach

To benefit from a vital relationship with a coach, individuals need to know how to be a good client.

Trust the process. Sometimes coaching can feel foreign because, for once, you are the main topic. The good news is that it gets to be all about you. The bad news is that it gets to be all about you.

Allow yourself to sink into the process of someone hearing you. You deserve this professional development opportunity. Bring your thinking, feeling, and sense-making systems into each session. Trust that your coach is excited and eager to work with you from a place of unconditional positive regard.

Stretch out before and after each coaching session. This stretch is not necessarily physical. It is a head, heart, and gut exercise. When individuals increase their self-awareness, they explore what is behind their thinking. They tap into their heart space to identify their emotions and the source. They are paying attention to the physical ways of being.

Breath, heartbeat, strain, body pain, energy, and lightness are all ways the body sends information. When we notice, we can stretch and shift; when we shift, we update our inner operating systems. In those shifts, we learn and grow.

Well-being conversations will hopefully never end. Instead, each helping professional needs to keep themselves informed and ready to partner with every client in the most needed ways, informed by evidence and education. TD professionals are poised to lead many of those conversations within their organizations. However, you cannot give what you do not have. Consider coaching as a place to help yourself deepen your ways of knowing and well-being.

5 Elements of a Coaching Conversation

1. What is most important to discuss today?

2. What do you want out of this session?

3. What are you thinking and feeling about the issue?

4. What do you want or need?

5. What changes now, and what are you learning about yourself?

Selecting a Coach

When you think about a coaching relationship, consider these reflective questions: Do I know my own story? Who has heard it? What is my growth edge? What is my willingness to let this be all about me? What commitments do I need to make to myself? What will it take to get the most out of this professional development opportunity?

Those questions will help you consider whom you want to serve as your coach. Coaches typically have a one-page bio that describes their background and focus as a coach. Given the closeness of a coaching relationship, consider and interview two to three candidates before making a selection. The interview conversation is an opportunity to consider several factors when choosing a coach. Ask yourself a few questions, such as: Does this person seem to understand me? Do they have a coaching background or experience that I trust will meet me where I am in my professional career? Does this individual seem like someone I can open up to, and do I feel a sense of trust in this short interview?

To determine those factors, ask your potential coach three questions: What is your coaching approach? What is your experience coaching someone like me? What is essential for me to know about you as a coach?