An article written in 2016 suggests that on average we spend nearly a full working day practising our hobbies. For many of us this will be nurturing our garden, fastidiously practicing to improve our golf handicap, honing a recipe until we create food heaven, tinkering with our car or bike until it runs like a dream, digging deep to beat our previous personal best time on our running circuit or tweaking our technique to progress to the next platform of our favourite game.
Yet many of us give little thought to how we might improve our performance, enjoyment and or outcomes at work. Perhaps because we believe we don’t have the time, or we have a perception that there is nothing relevant available, or simply that we are good enough already.
What we know is that the very best performers do not stop when they are on top form; sports men and women continue to train and the country’s top leaders make time and invest in themselves with coaching and mentoring sessions which help them continue a journey towards excellence.
Being listened to, or talking and reflecting with someone who is completely independent, from outside of your organisation and is only focused on your best interests is often transformational and a catalyst for people to excel. We also know that keeping people moving with a positive attitude past the inevitable blips we all encounter from time to time is fundamental to high performance. Coaching or mentoring is the perfect bespoke activity to help people at work to gather insights and apply these with precision and power.
Whether it be mentoring with a sector or functional expert, where you can draw on their experience to help you make decisions or coaching sessions with a qualified coach who is an expert in facilitating lasting change, we know that going from good to great requires continued focus and effort and the output is generally increased versatility, performance and resilience.
So imagine if you and your work colleagues invested as much time and effort in coaching or mentoring as the average person spends on their hobbies and interests… it could be the start of something truly transformational.
