I am very often asked: “what issues can be solved with coaching”?

To answer this question, I took my coaching sessions of one year, categorised the topics, grouped into larger categories and narrowed them down to 6 themes of coaching.

Before giving you the figures and talking about them, let me tell you that those topics never come up straight. In each session, there is a personal story, a personal trap and a personal dissatisfaction. The client rarely knows exactly what to work on, which direction to move and how to shift the current situation.

With the help of coaching a shift is happening to be possible and a current unsatisfying situation alters to a future oriented solution.

If you are someone who never experienced professional coaching, then most probably we will spend our first session together, to clarify around what topics we will be working on in the future. 

Here it is, the re-framed and consolidated list of coaching topics what my clients happened to bring with them into the session. 

Personal growth (36%) happens to be the most actual topic of coaching. Basically, if you want to change something, then this is the moment, that you feel the need of personal growth. I put here all the cases that came up with topics such as: I want to have a meaning in my life, I want to be better in this or that skills, I want to move forward, I want to change something, I don’t like the present situation but do not know what to do, I want to better position myself, I want to have clarity for the future, I want to know where I am going to, etc. 

Self-management (30%) and personal growth are very much related, but I still wanted to separate them, as when we talk about self-management, the topics are getting much more specific. If we dig down the meaning of self-management we will come up with topics such as: motivation, confidence, self-control, time management, productivity, communication, resilience etc. Here the clients already sensed the need for change, and have passed the journey of self- awareness and starts specifically working on single improvement point.  

Business growth (10%): here the matter of conversation was growing sales, planning some marketing campaign, developing an existing business idea, strategic planning of a project and other business related topics. 

Leadership (9%): into this topic I put sessions of team leads, who were seeking to find out ways to get the team more productive and effective, to improve team engagement. They were seeking to improve team communication and relationships.  As you notice, here are more team and others related topics and not the leader herself. The topic of leadership coaching and why it is so necessary like water, is another topic and I will be discussing it in a future article. 

Self-awareness (8%): here is the tricky moment. You might have been thinking that “personal growth” actually starts with self-awareness. And you will be absolutely right. What I did, is that I took the cases, where from the very beginning, the client was saying: “I want to know myself better, I want to be more self-aware”. This is absolutely wonderful, as without self-awareness no journey of change will start. If you wish to be better, then you will have to know what is disturbing you, what your blind spots are, what your improvement points are and what you truly want out of this life. 

Decision making (6%): I decided to leave decision making as a separate category, to show, that sometimes it is getting really difficult to make important decisions and move forward. When someone is in a usual thinking pattern and has not the support of a coach, to step out of the usual pattern and have a wider view on the situation, it is getting more and more difficult to make that one, very important decision. 

As you see, the topic range can be as wide as a human mind is and what I love about professional coaching, is that it is not limiting the subjects and it is giving the opportunity to break the barriers and move forward with passion, engagement and commitment. 

If you thought you or someone you know would be interested in a coaching, know that the first meeting is always free of charge and free of obligations. 

Stay safe and healthy, 

Luiza