“In a crisis, we need short-term goals that are meaningful and motivating and appropriate for the situation at hand.”
Whether you want to improve your leadership or management skills, your performance, or your relationships with co-workers or friends, coaching has become more prevalent in recent years and may have been something you considered. Often a coaching relationship extends over months, especially if you want to gain and sustain new skills or behaviors, but short-term coaching has a more immediate pay-off and helps you to tackle immediate challenges – ones that are a result of events or circumstances that you didn’t even see coming.
What do I mean by short term coaching? Well it’s not really about the number of sessions, though they would likely be fewer and shorter than for other types of coaching (maybe even as few as one 30-minute session), but they will all be laser focused on what you need now. For example, you can:
- Clear away confusion or uncertainty and set your sights on the future;
- Sort out what is most relevant to focus on right now; and
- Design a course of action that will guide you through the chaos and toward your future goals.
According to researchers in positive psychology, goal setting, planning and support while you put new things into place, increases the hopeful belief that you can adapt to the changes you’re facing and move forward with confidence.
For tips on navigating the unexpected, take a look at this blog on psychological capital – https://instituteofcoaching.org/resources/what-you-need-crisis-psychological-capital.
Dianne Lipsey
President