‘What’s your niche?’ is probably one of my least favorite questions when it comes to talking about my work as a coach. It’s been over a year since I launched Coach it Forward and still I am challenged regularly to identify my niche and summarise my ideal client in 1 or 2 lines.

Some have said it will emerge naturally, whilst others say I need to pick a group and focus on them. But this is where I get stuck because my work to date has included a broad range of clients and a broad range of reasons for seeking coaching. So another question was posed to me; ‘what’s the constant?’. I thought about this for what feels like months now and the only thing I could confidently land on was change. Every single one of my clients have experienced notable change by undertaking coaching with me, and in fact, almost all of them have come to me to address significant aspects of their lives too (relationships, career, and health to name a few).

Funnily, as I noticed this pattern, I could hear myself saying this one sentence that had come out time and time again when talking about my passion for coaching over the past year or two. I had kept saying “change is inevitable”. Upon further reflection I can see why I am so drawn to supporting people to navigate change and find their next chapter; because I myself have gone through so much change.

I experienced cultural change moving across the world as a child, I adapted to familial change as my parents separated and established lives separately, I experienced health challenges and now living with a chronic condition that has permanently changed my day-to-day, I have switched career goals due to chance and change, I have loved and been heartbroken and stood back up to find my feet again, I have supported organisational change and seen teams go from crumbling to catapulting success. Change is a multidimensional, highly personal and whether we like it or not, an inevitable part of life that somehow has the ability to make us struggle or thrive depending on how we approach it. Helping people or teams through change is as challenging as it is rewarding, and because of my own experiences navigating so many of life’s weird and wonderful curveballs, I suppose it feels natural to help people do the same. To get through the grey, confusing, and daunting times and reach their new normal with a sense of comfort and confidence.

As I continue reflecting on some of the key ingredients to navigating change, The Inner Game springs to mind (if you haven’t read them, a theory underpinning an insightful series of books by Timothy Gallwey). Whilst Gallwey’s work is primarily focused on enhancing performance there are synergies with change overall and the following are just some of the key take-aways I resonate with and bring to my clients;

• We have 2 games; the outer game (our external interactions) and the inner game (the game we play in the arena of our mind). Our inner games often informs the outer game and so, heightened awareness of your subtler internal thoughts and feelings can help guide you through change more intuitively and truthfully to yourself.
• Success comes from 3 sources; awareness, choice and trust; “awareness (knowing the present situation with clarity), choice (moving in a desired direction in the future), and trust (of one’s inner resources as the essential link). These three factors make for success in any field.” And I think the same goes for navigating change when I think about mine or my client’s experiences.
• Permission to fail is critical. What we hope to achieve and where we want to be will take some trial and error to find what works. Simply put, if you stand still trying to work out the perfect way to get from A to B you might be stood there a very long time.
• Success involves getting the clearest possible picture of your outcomes. Translated to navigating change, this means clarifying what change you want to achieve and what that will look and or feel like. By holding a clear end goal in mind, we often move closer to that end result through both conscious and subconscious thoughts and actions.

Training as a coach offers a range of methods, principles and tools to equip a coach, but the skill of a coach is to not just know them but apply them artfully to draw out the best from their client. It’s also important to recognise that a coach does not need to be an expert on the subject matter to be an effective one, and there appears to still be much confusion about where coaching stops and the mentoring starts.

So this is as niche as you’ll get me, Aska - The Change Coach. I will continue working with anyone of any age, background, gender, profession, you name it. If you’re going through a significant change and trying to find your feet in your next chapter, I’m here to help.

At least that’s where I stand for now because after all, change is inevitable.