How I’ve tried to be coachable in everything I do

As a performer I have always been someone who has wanted to get better at my job. No matter what a teacher has told me about my own intelligence or what an employee has told me about my skills, I have always been someone who has listened and strived for improvement. I care about growing and reflecting and I care about learning from others. Whether I am working on a group project, playing in a sport team or cooking for friend’s I am always thinking about how I can improve. To do all that stuff and be great at it I’ve had to work on being as coachable as possible. Here’s 4 approaches I’ve been using to help me see how coachable I can get.

I invest time and energy in getting better

As part of my ambition I’ve wanted to improve myself so I can have the best chance of delivering on my goals. One of the most useful things I’ve learnt has been the importance of getting really open and honest feedback from the people and experts I value most. So, relationship building has been something I’ve really focused on.

I’ve have this ongoing drive to help, inspire and make a difference to people’s lives and I’ve known for a long time now that I can’t achieve this without making changes and improvements myself.

I am clear on my roles

In order to learn and improve, I’ve put myself in lots of different working environments. For someone like me, this can be a challenge, but I’ve really focused my time and energy on understanding my roles and how I can best support the teams I work with.

In doing this I’ve had to balance focusing on what I feel I should do with ensuring I’m spending time on things other people need from me. This collaborative approach has helped me to work more effectively with different teams.

I listen and learn

When you’re in lots of new environments and building new relationships, you get a lot of information shared with you. Not surprisingly my ability to listen to and use feedback has been really improved. Not only have I have learnt to not be afraid to ask for feedback, but to see it as a chance to learn more about my strengths and weaknesses.

I am ready to be challenged

A part of being in so many new environments has also been being pushed regularly outside of my comfort zone – and I’m someone who also likes to feel comfortable. So, it’s been an ongoing quest for me to look for opportunities that challenge me and to then see how well I can embrace them.