Applied Coaching Research Journal Volume 1 | Page 49

APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2018, Vol. 1 It could be you! Let’s take things up a level Coaching Inside and Out may have been the first organisation to do this in prisons, but we don’t want a monopoly, we want change. We support and encourage others to coach too, as we want everyone to benefit. Our vision is that all people convicted of offences, or at risk of offending, are offered life coaching so they can help themselves and others. This article is the next step in exploring how we might all link up with people who are socially excluded and tap into everyone’s potential to change their own lives for the better, wherever they may be. Mind coaching can transform the lives of those we coach, their families and the communities we all live in. So how much further might that transformation be taken by coaches like you? There’s no need to go to the extreme of coaching behind bars either – you don’t even need to go into a different environment, you can do it in the locker room or at the side of a pitch. If people can do this in the toughest of circumstances where you might think they lack both the resources and the will to change anything, then just how much might be possible elsewhere? But if you do want to go into prisons there are many organisations you can link up with through www.clinks.org Don’t be put off by the thought of a tough training regime either. You can pick up useful tips and questions online or you can read and train to deepen your mind coaching skills. The coaching community is a welcoming one, so you can benefit from connecting and sharing approaches with executive or life coaches too, whether they’re working with high fliers in business or with clients considered by many to be hopeless. At its simplest level it can actually just be about picking up the BALL: We all have something more to contribute and you can stretch yourself by expanding both your repertoire of skills and those you help. With different clientele you’ll also gain different insights and rewards to reinvest in your work. The benefits to us all of growing personally and professionally are immeasurable, let alone the life-changing impact you can then have on those you coach. What could we achieve if we all challenge our assumptions about what p eople can do and what’s holding us back? We don’t have the answers to all our problems, but we can all work out far more than we realise, if we’re asked the right questions and given time to think. Let’s take things up a level and run with it. References Clare shares clients’ stories and her many mistakes in the book Coaching Behind Bars: Facing challenges and creating hope in a women’s prison (Open University Press, 2015). This had the strange distinction of reaching the top of Amazon’s “Punishment” section after an interview on Radio 2 with Clare Balding about the tragedy, comedy and hope in our prisons. Professor David Clutterbuck then wrote in the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching: “I rarely suggest that a book should be required reading on coach training courses, but I have no hesitation in doing so in this case.” Maslow, A. (1962; 1968) Toward a Psychology of Being Contact Clare McGregor, Founder of Coaching Inside and Out (CIAO) @Clare_McGregor [email protected] www.coachinginsideandout.org.uk • Believe other people all have their own answers. •  A sk questions in a way that helps people realise their own solutions. • Listen; really listen to what others say. •  L earn about others and yourselves, which is what this journal is all about. 49