Why I Love Transition Coaching
After 25 years of a thriving HR career, I made the decision in 2018 to attend the prestigious Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara to pursue my executive coaching credentials. I began the rigorous year-long program in January 2019. While I knew it was going to be a huge commitment much like a Master’s program, I thought it was the right time in my life.
I would be turning 50 and my kids were getting older with my daughter heading into high school. What I didn’t know then, was that my life would fall apart in the middle of the program.
Talk about being close to your work.
Hudson requires 50 hours of coaching clients during the year-long program. But while I was coaching alongside so many clients going through their own transitions, I found myself smack dab in the middle of my own transition. And I was blindsided by most of it.
My father suddenly passed away. And as an avid runner and gym rat, my health took a turn. In addition, while I was dealing with the grief of losing my dad, I was feeling discontent in my career. Not sure where I wanted to go next, I felt utterly stuck. I knew I wanted to make a change but I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go. I was trapped and tired.
As described in Fredrick Hudson’s The Adult Years, I was in the Doldrums (Hudson 1999). I knew I wanted something more.
Shedding old skins.
Thankfully, the Hudson Institute also requires that you engage with a coach throughout the program. I began a deep exploration and transformation with my coach’s help and learned so much from my own coaching clients. Transition is “an era of instability, shedding, and new discovery” (Hudson 1999), and that’s exactly what I did.
Working with my coach, I found my inspired future.
It was through this transition that I experienced an amazing transformation. I was awakened to change.
I realigned some goals around my health and crafted a better focus on my family. I was able to leave my job, take some time off over the summer while finishing Hudson, and launch a new business over the fall. In this, by coaching clients through transitions, I found a new joy.
But what exactly does this look like?
These are some of my favorite coaching questions for people in transition:
- What do you want? What inspires you/brings you energy?
- How would it make you feel if you had it?
- What are you afraid of? What is getting in the way?
- What are the strengths and talents that you love using? (this often requires some digging)
- What have you tried so far?
I love exploring with my clients what the possibilities might be and what might be getting in the way of them reaching their goals– a gap analysis of a life journey.
When I started Hudson, I never dreamed that I would leave my job and start my own business and that I would be living my dream. But the possibilities are limitless. There is joy on the other side, I can confirm. And we learn about how to get better in the process. How can you lean in and find your joy on the other side?
