Why hiring a life coach is a step towards changing your career

Sometimes, all it takes is external support encouraging you to make decisions and forge new directions towards career success    

About two years ago, public relations and marketing professional Varisha Kampani, in her 30s, found herself at the crossroads. After working with various agencies for over a decade, Kampani felt ready to  launch her own company. “The COVID-19 pandemic gave me time to reflect and evaluate. I thought to myself that I bring in professional experience of over a decade, why not use it for myself. Entrepreneurship has always really scared me, because I thought it takes a lot of courage, responsibility and everything that comes along with it.” 

In July 2020, during the first lockdown, Kampani decided to take the plunge into being her own boss. “I was very apprehensive about it. But thankfully I have a super supportive family and husband who pushed me.” When Kampani–who specialises in the lifestyle and hospitality space–started her business, it was with a handful of clients. She now has 15-17 clients on her roster and is a full-service company that provides social media collaborations and manages social media accounts along with PR mandates. The game changer she says, for her, has been using a life coach. 

Who is a life coach? 

The International Coaching Federation (ICF), a leading organisation that certifies coaches, defines coaching as, “Partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential.” Life/leadership coaches keep their clients focused on the present as much as possible through sessions, exercises and workshops that enable their clients towards their goals. While psychologists and therapists focus on the past and on mental health, life coaches are firmly rooted in the present. 

Former corporate head honcho and bestselling author of The Habit of Winning (2011) and The Secret of Leadership (2013), Prakash Iyer, a certified leadership coach, says a coach is like a catalyst. “A good starting point would be to ask, ‘How can I become as good as I was meant to be?’” says Iyer when interviewed by The Established. He says this introspection could translate into a radical and successful career organisation. “ Typically if you're a leader, you tend to get lonely. You don't have someone you can speak with very easily. Feedback is hard to get. And very often for [leaders], it's difficult to open up because of the fear of being judged. If you're the leader, you're supposed to have all the answers. ”

Of course, it helps that Iyer’s impressive CV includes stints as Managing Director of Kimberly-Clark Lever and MD and CEO, Infomedia18. “What a coach can do is become a sounding board, someone you can have honest conversations with and who can then give you an external perspective. And that can come through conversations where you open somebody’s mind and say, ‘Have you considered another way of thinking about it?’ That's really what a good coach can do for you,” simplifies Iyer when asked about his work.  

Saloni Suri, executive leadership neuro coach, trainer and author uses neuroscience-based models of change merged with spiritual wisdom to help her clients. Suri founded her company The Coach in 2017. Through coaching sessions, executive leadership training, public workshops and mindfulness classes in various formats, Suri says, “I work with individuals, groups and organisations to support them to communicate their purpose and provide them with effective tools to help them move towards their desired goals.”

Both Iyer and Suri emphasise that the key to a good coach is communication and being open to change. Communicating needs and incorporating feedback, then, becomes crucial. 

Keeping the balance, growing the business 

Sanjana Patel, creative director and executive chef, who has been working with a coach for close to four years now, says it has made all the difference to her professional life. “For an entrepreneur, it’s genuinely a very hectic journey. You [can] start internalising certain emotions and feelings that could be work-related or  personal.”

Patel, who says she’s an introvert, considered coaching after reaching a static point in her career. “I was a little lost. I was trying to grow from thinking like a passionate chef to meeting the demands of a growing business. I was always a very reserved person, and still trying to change that part of me. I went from that perspective to thinking a bit more dynamically. I had to [learn to] structure my thought process, and see how I can make my passion meet a business. And that was the main reason that I approached a coach.” For Patel, it also meant a better work-life balance, “Today, I have more time to spend with my family and friends. I'm able to relax and ask myself about my priorities. [My coach] really helped me to look inwards when it comes to priorities and trying to prioritise everything, which I was failing at [earlier].

For Kampani, it was about tapping into her potential, “Having a life coach really helped me find opportunities in any given situation.” Kampani’s coach, Amishi Gambhir, who is also her sister-in-law, meets her online every fortnight and helps her with perspective, forming a different mental conditioning and developing consistency. “The sessions have really helped me build the discipline I needed. For example, I always bashed myself for not waking up early in the morning. I saw so many people being active in the morning, and here I was struggling to wake up! With my sessions, I identified that I need to sleep at a better time. So instead of being harsh on myself, I am actually doing something about it.” Kampani now puts on an alarm and reminder on her phone for bedtime at 11 p.m. and is able to wake up earlier than her usual time, achieving more in her day. On the work front, Kampani’s coach has helped identify what her core value system was, for herself and her organisation.” As a result, Kampani says, “I have started dealing with my employees and working with my clients similarly, based on what worked for me.” 

At what age or stage should you hire a life coach? 

Both Kampani and Patel were in their 30s when they decided to approach a life coach. The general consensus amongst coaches and clients is that you should hire someone when you feel ready for growth and the ability to work with introspection. Suri says, “There really isn’t any right time to hire a coach. It is a misnomer that one should seek a coach when things are not right in your life. I believe you should seek a coach when you are open to learning more about yourself and are looking for ways in which you can unlock your potential.” She says that her clients–who range from ages 18-82–have one aspect in common: “They have had the insight that the power to change and happiness lies within.” 

Kampani says, “I feel like there is no [particular] age when it comes to wanting to get a life coach for yourself. It would really depend on the approach, as everyone has issues. Sometimes lessons from a life coach can feel like a punch in the gut. For me, it's literally been that: A wake-up call. I call my life coach my ‘wake-up call’ for everything,” she declares. 

Coaching success stories

Success, which can sometimes be intangible, can be measured through goals and tried-and-tested methods that are good roadmaps to follow. In Suri’s case, “A client who was a hardcore cynic when I first started coaching him, was able to understand the magic of manifestation just by following the practise of journaling the way I taught him. [By doing so] his focus strengthened and he became goal-oriented. He also adopted meditation as a habit in his stressful life. He is calmer now, his decision-making as a leader of his organisation has definitely become much sharper and I am happy to see that his habits for himself and his organisation are now in place.”  

Kampani says coaching, for her, has given her the confidence to forge better business goals and ties. “I was not able to identify the right kind of people I want to work with only because I felt I'm a control freak. That's not a very great quality to have, because you tend to get burnt out.  My coach helped me break this pattern by not being very micro. I just needed to let loose and take that time to form my goals, and I actually saw great results.”

Suri had a similar experience with a client. “Recently during a session, a client realised that she had a limiting belief about her potential as a leader and founder of her business. The minute she felt more confident she was willing to hire her second-in-command who was more experienced and senior than her. She realised that one need not feel threatened by one’s own team, if one wants to grow; it’s okay to hire people who know more than you.”

Action-oriented goals

It’s best to work with clear-cut goals, say both trainers and their clients. “My clients choose their own pace of learning and are always in charge of their coaching journey with me. During the first session, I teach them the golden hour and the goal-setting process. They then have to practise this every day and stay on the path of instilling the habit of owning their mornings. I only see them again when I know that they are committed to rewiring their brain and willing to focus on their goals. If we don’t practice what we learn we really cannot expect any change. I am a very tough action-oriented coach,” says Suri.  

In some cases, the goals can be achieved through baby steps. For instance Patel says since she works in a customer-related industry, it had become difficult for her to take even a single day off from work. “That change needed to start internally, within me, before it was reflected in [my company’’ policies]. So from seven full working days, I switched to a six-and-a-half week, gradually working towards my eventual goal of taking a two-day weekend, perhaps,” she says.  

Typically, work assignments for leadership coaches like Iyer take over six-eight months with monthly or fortnightly meetings that last for 45 minutes to an hour. But the most important starting point for anything has to be desire to want change. And when the change comes, says Iyer, “It’s a hugely powerful [place] for a person who really wants to get it right. Because it gives you data points that you may not have otherwise had. [Coaching] helps you to have conversations which you might have otherwise struggled to have, and which are absolutely essential, given the role that you're playing or the role you want to play. I think one of the things that you'll see is that it's becoming increasingly popular, and it's got something to do with people actually seeing some benefit out of what they're going through.” 

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