Hi y’all! Well I’m not from the south of the US but I am from the south of the Netherlands 🙂
Today is the first saturday of september and my own studies have started again for the second semester! The kids have gone to school for three weeks, and now it’s kick off for me! I’m very happy to go into learning mode after a summer off.
On days like this, either my husband is home with the kids or my parents are, if hubs has a volleyball match. It’s great that my parents are able to provide this care, for us so we can do fun things for personal development. I left the house relatively early today: I was off at 8 am, with my thermos and a banana, with a good audiobook for the one hour car trip. Happy days.
Today, we have a seminar day on the organisation of a coaching session. For instance, to work really goal based, a coach can apply the GROW model.
GROW stands for Goai – Reality – Options – Way Forward. Let me give you an example.
You, as a professional mom with a few youngs kids, are thinking about working more hours per week. (think that never happens? read this). Your goal is to earn a bit more money, but foremost to develop yourself as a professional. You reckon that if your work more, you can take on bigger projects and position yourself better for a promotion (lean in, so to speak).
The reality is that you have trouble finding good child care to take care of your kids in the extra hours, you like your company and its purpose, but you don’t have a lot of faith in your boss who has to support you. Your partner is in favour of you working more and together you want to make it happen, however, his working schedule is intensifying due to a project nearing its end.
What are your options? Well, you can work more in your current function at your current company. You can sidestep your boss and ask a more senior manager or the CEO for a special project. You can change jobs and/or company. You can create a sidehustle, based on your profession or something completely different. You can go homeschool your kids parttime, through which you will not make more money but you will spend less on childcare so the bottom line is equal. (simplified, this is, there are of course insurance and pension issues to figure out for all of these options). What options can you think of?
What is your way forward? You explore the options you like most. You try to expand your childcare options, because it’s good to have more back up anyway. You go on with one option and let your stakeholders know what you want for the near future. You check in with other moms who are working more, for some peer support.
When you have this clear for yourself, you can breath slowly again and have fun with it! The GROW model is a nice rounded model for few coaching sessions and a very practical coaching issue.
Could you apply it yourself on an issue you’re facing? Let me know! In the comments or book a free 30 minutes session if it’s confidential and you would like to lend my ear!
Photo: The only studying I did this summer…