5 Tips to Grow Beyond Your Coaching Journey

Your coaching journey is coming to an end. Your journey as a leader is just beginning.

When we analyzed our massive database of coaching outcomes, our data scientists found that leaders who reported 80% progress toward their developmental goals actually experienced greater growth along 20 key performance indicators than those who reported achieving 100% progress toward their developmental goals. In other words, the most successful leaders are those who, no matter how much they improved, viewed their development as incomplete, and therefore ongoing.

How can you continue to grow as a leader beyond your coaching journey? Here are five tips to help.

1. Work your Continuing Action Plan

There’s a reason Reinforcement is part of the AIIR Method® — in the months and years after a coaching journey ends, we have seen leaders return to the same counterproductive behaviors they worked so hard to overcome. The Continuing Action Plan that you and your coach put together is an important tool to keep you focused on sustaining and expanding on the progress you made during your coaching journey.

2. Stay accountable to stakeholders

Just like sharing your Strategic Development Plan was important for keeping you accountable to stakeholders throughout your coaching journey, sharing your Continuing Development Plan will help keep you accountable beyond. It’s also a great way to maintain positive relationships with individuals who are key to your success as a leader and in your career.

3. Identify the coaches in your life

Beyond maintaining and deepening relationships with stakeholders, it is important to identify the coaches in your life — superiors, peers, and direct reports who can provide you unbiased information about and insight into your leadership.

4. Remember that nobody is perfect

You’ve made incredible progress during your coaching journey. But, nobody is perfect. At some point, you’ll experience a setback. And when you do, it has the potential to deal a serious blow to your psyche and your performance.

Research from both psychologists and neuroscientists suggests that reframing your setbacks as opportunities can not only lead to better performance and long-term psychological health but also can rewire your brain.

5. Make a commitment

Faced with competition, complexity, chaos, and continual change, we know that it can be hard to carve out time for your personal and professional development. So, find a concrete commitment that will keep you accountable — register for a conference, join a leadership cohort, or peer coaching group.

Register for our daily mindfulness meditation, Breathing AIIR.

Or, let your coach know that you’d like to take advantage of our offer to give your team a free AIIR Team Effectiveness Survey assessment and feedback session with one of our outstanding team coaches.

Prepare your team for the challenges ahead with an exclusive special offer — get a free AIIR Team Effectiveness Survey, a free report, and a free virtual debrief with one of our world-class team coaches!