From Scientist To Life Coach
My role as a life coach is to be your thinking and success partner. Coaches are neither consultants nor therapists. We donīt diagnose, treat, tell you what to do or solve your problems for you. What we do is help you find your own solutions. Who better than you will know what your best solution is? We support you, challenge you and motivate you to take action, so that you can get wherever you want to go. As Tom Landry (a well- known American football player and coach) once said: "A coach is someone who tells you what you don't want to hear, who has you see what you don't want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be." In a scientific term, a life coach is a catalyst, that initiates or accelerates your success without being directly involved. Your life is the experiment and your coach is the enzyme! A coaching session usually takes around 45 minutes and is done over the phone or in person. The clients bring a topic, goal, challenge they want to focus on. And they end the session with more clarity, new ideas, perspectives, and what next step to take to move forward. The most common topics my clients bring are: balancing career/life (time management, starting a family, concerns about their partners...), and deciding their next professional step (embarking on a new career, leaving science or not, alternatives to being a PI, fear of failure...). Changes donīt happen overnight, and it all depends on their commitment, willingness, and work. I offer support so that they can be focused and take consistent action towards their goal, to make it happen once and for all. Life coaching is a rewarding, flexible and creative profession. We empower people to change their lives; decide on when, where, and with who to work, and if sessions are done over the phone, in person or even by email. You can attend meetings, and keep learning different tools and techniques to serve your clients better. You can offer one on one or group coaching, organize workshops, give talks, write articles and books, etc. The hard part? Changing your mindset from employee to entrepreneur and overcoming the fear of failure. On the other hand, as a scientist you learn to be persistent, to solve problems, to think both short- and long-term, and all these skills are applicable to your business. What I miss: bench work, the stability of a regular paycheck, and the daily contact with a group of people. By the way, for those of you who might be wondering...I do have my own coach!
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My career as a life coach started unexpectedly after two years of postdoctoral training in the Department of Genetics & Genome Biology. I had been thinking of taking a life coach training course as a hobby for a couple of years. And the opportunity arrived during my one-year maternity leave. After a couple of classes, I decided I wanted to go for it, it was the right moment for me. However, the idea of leaving Science was hard to bear. I decided to apply my experience as a scientist to help other scientists, and that way stay in touch with the field. Now, I help scientists and other professionals to find and achieve their best career/life balance and next professional step.
