Coaching, Reimagined

When I say the word coach, what pops into your head?

Maybe someone with a clipboard and a whistle yelling “Hustle!” from the sidelines. Or maybe that one person in high school who believed in you a little more than you believed in yourself.

Most of us get what a coach is when it comes to sports. They teach. They encourage. They push. They catch things you can’t see because you’re in the middle of it. They make you do things you probably wouldn’t do alone (like run stairs voluntarily – ha!). And when you’re doubting yourself, they’re the ones yelling, “You’ve got more in the tank — keep going!”

But coaching doesn’t only live on a field or in a locker room. In real life, if we’re lucky, we all have coaches — we just don’t always call them that.

Your mom talks you through a recipe when you’re standing in front of the stove in full panic. Your best friend reads a text draft and says, “Delete that last line — it’s too much.” Your partner helps you think through what to say to your boss without setting the office on fire.

These people? Coaches. They know you, they’re invested, and they want to help.

But sometimes, when it comes to business, the people who love us most are too close to give us what we actually need. They want us to feel better, not necessarily figure things out. Or they’ve only ever seen us in a certain role, and it’s hard for them to imagine us stepping into something new.

That’s where I’ve learned to seek coaching from outside the circle. For me, it’s been business folks I trust, podcasts, smart people on the internet, many (many) books, and yes — sometimes it’s asking ChatGPT to help me untangle the spaghetti in my head.

Coaching shows up as a mirror, a nudge, a breath of fresh air. It helps me see what’s really going on underneath the surface, reminds me I’m not alone, that my problems are often universal (not uniquely defective!), and that I am rarely as stuck as I feel.

And here’s the cool part for me: I get to offer that same kind of support to others.

The kind of support I offer isn’t loud fanfare. We will not be creating a 20-point action plan with subsets and calendar reminders. What we will do is get you moving again — with renewed interest and excitement in your project. We’ll have real conversations about what’s happening in your life, what might be stopping you or holding you back. And together, we’ll figure out small, doable, positive next steps.

I’m not a guru. I’m not your boss. But I am really good at walking alongside you until things start to make sense again.

So if you’re in that weird season — too much on your plate, too little clarity, a big idea that won’t let go — maybe what you need isn’t a how-to guide.

Maybe you just need a coach.