Are you struggling to advance at work?
Would you like to be more assertive?
Does your team have a difficult time working together?
A personalized communication coach, for you and your team
In my role as a communication coach, I try to help my clients with problems like these. Just like in my English classes, the focus is always on you and your needs. We work together to make a plan for your communication goals, and meet regularly to strategize about your next steps.
Problems are rarely just one person, however. As a team coach, I also work on problems like process misalignment, mismatched incentives, and “undiscussables”: problems that everyone can see, but no one is willing to talk about. In larger organizations and organizations going through changes, what might start as a small point of process can quickly escalate into a major problem if teams don’t really understand each other.
Whether I’m working with individuals or teams, my approach to coaching focuses on three main areas: listening for needs, communicating needs, and transforming conflict.
Listening for your needs
What would make you happy at work, at home, in general? Could you write it down on a piece of paper? Do you know what your teammates want? How do you know?
Sometimes, in our busy world, we don’t take the time to actually reflect on questions like these. But if you don’t know where you want to go, how can you get there? And how can you work together if you don’t understand each others’ motivations? In our sessions, we’ll take the time to find out what your target is, and from there, we can figure out how to make it a reality!
Communicating your needs
Maybe you know what you want, but you don’t know how to ask for it. That’s the next step. In our sessions, we’ll explore different ways to communicate what we need with those around us. We’ll learn how to overcome some bad communication habits, and how to get your message across as clearly as possible!
Working with teams, this kind of communication is even more important. Having an unbiased outsider to talk to often means people speak more honestly, and problems that used to linger under the surface can finally be addressed and fixed!
Transforming conflict
Even when we know what we want, communicating can be hard in today’s world. People get angry, we talk past each other, and we ignore problems until they explode into conflict. At the same time, we need to work with others in order to get anything done. Businesses, non-profit organizations, and even groups of friends have to deal with this tension everyday: we need each other, but we are scared of the conflicts that seem to show up all the time.
Anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.
– Marshall Rosenberg
Once we’ve identified what we need, and figured out how to ask others for what we need, we can begin to understand where conflict comes from. When different people try to meet their needs, sometimes we clash. With practice, however, we can learn how to navigate these situations with grace and confidence. Better yet, by listening to everyone’s needs, conflicts within organizations can become a source of incredible creativity!
Conflict is resolved not through compromise, but through invention.
– Mary Parker Follett
If this sounds good to you, click on the button below to send me an email, and we can see what works for you and your team! The first consultation is usually free!
(If your browser doesn’t support this contact button, just email me at everyonessecondlanguage[at]gmail[dot]com)
Everyone's Second Language 