As a coach, you spend a lot of time encouraging clients to reflect. This is because this is a great way to develop self-awareness, identify strengths and development areas and generally check in on yourself.

So, what are my reflections on my coaching practice during 2022?

For a start, it has been a great year, with a whole range of different coaching experiences, which has made it challenging, fun and engaging.

In 2022, I ran team coaching and leadership assessments in Switzerland, Singapore and Belgium, which made a welcome change from Zoom and Teams. Getting out and running team coaching sessions in person brings a different level of energy and engagement and was a really motivating experience.

As 2022 comes to an end, I have nearly completed two years of working as an internal coach for Robert Walters and as an external coach for my private clients. This has also been a great experience to date, with both roles adding value and insights to the other. The key contrast of flying solo as an external coach versus being part of the Robert Walters Talent Development is something I greatly value.

Essentially, I love working with my private clients from very different organisations and working with my colleagues at Robert Walters for the support I get as a coach from other members of the Talent Development team.

I also feel part of the global Robert Walters organisation and the role coaching plays in enabling its leaders to go from good to great.

If you want to read more re my reflections on working as an internal and external coach, read my blog from last month.

In my private client work, I engaged with two great organisations, coaching a number of their leadership teams over the year. This was 1-2-1 coaching, rather than team coaching, but coaching several individuals from the same leadership team gave me a much more rounded understanding of the organisation than coaching one individual from an organisation can do.

Both organisations also opted to make use of my One for the Planet offer and, instead of the individual clients using the free session on a climate coaching issue on their own, I ran climate coaching sessions for their leadership teams where we explored their relationship with climate change, how it impacted them and what as organisations they wanted to do about it. It was great to hear different perspectives and attitudes towards climate change during these sessions and a helpful stepping-off point for what they could do next.

During 2022, I coached clients at all levels in their career journeys, from newly promoted Team Leaders in their first management role, wanting to explore developing their confidence in managing others and prioritising conflicting workloads, to newly promoted Executive Directors exploring how they want to show up as senior leaders and topics such as developing and making time for strategic thinking.

One surprise for me in the year was the response I got on one blog I wrote on the topic of how coaching can help in the return from maternity.

This was a popular blog which prompted me being asked to talk further on the topic with a global IT provider’s UK team and also prompted the development of a maternity coaching programme with a great psychotherapist, Susan Tomlinson.

The programme is a comprehensive plan, using group workshops, therapeutic support, coaching and webinars spread over up to two years to support both the returning mother and their line manager. It offers a holistic and collaborative programme that helps mothers stay the course and remain at work in the potentially difficult early years of becoming a working mother.

If you want to know more about this, feel free to get in touch.

So, 2022 you were a great year, thoroughly enjoyable and lots of opportunities for me to develop as a coach. I would encourage you to reflect on 2022 and ask yourself, what went well, what are you proud of, and what would you do differently next time around?

Finally, a big thank you to everyone I have worked with in 2022, my private clients, Robert Walters clients, sponsors and colleagues in the Robert Walters Talent Development team.