Or do you recognise any of the following preconceptions? Do you dare to challenge yourself to look at coaching from a different perspective? What would you gain if you could overcome your preconceived ideas with regard to coaching? How would you transform this into an opportunity?

• Coaching is for incompetent people and people with problems.
• I have so much experience. A coach can’t teach me anything.
• I don’t need coaching, the management does.
• Coaching is only for top managers.
• Successful managers don’t need coaching.
• Coaching only relates to how a person functions professionally.
• A holiday or good chat with friends can also solve any frustrations that I have!
• You are supposed to work during office hours and not to talk about ‘how you feel’.
• What can a coach do that I can’t?
• If a coach doesn’t understand my profession, then how can they help or guide me?
• Too much emphasis on talking. Not enough on doing. Changes need to happen fast.
• I’ll learn just as much by reading a book!
• Coaching is soft, not tangible. So it doesn’t work!
• They can’t even prove what the benefits of coaching are.

Prefer to stick to the old and simply refuse change?

You may have been successful so far. But will you be able to maintain this? You have a choice: you can either resist change, or welcome the opportunity to flourish as a person through new insights and through further development.

Any doubts with regards to the usefulness of coaching and/or resistance against it are generally based on fear of change processes.

Resistance can also be viewed as the first step towards change. If you are experiencing resistance, you are already being ‘immersed’ in change. You can choose to keep offering resistance or you can choose to focus on self-reflection and expand your competencies by taking action. The world will seem slightly different if you are willing to view yourself as someone who can develop and apply competencies that you have this far never used.

What are you waiting for?