I’ve been running a series of CPD Workshops for Executive Coaches in the first few months of this year. One of the topics we worked on was entitled: Coaching Leaders through Mid Life Transition. This attracted a lot of interest, and all of the coaches – a wide diversity from Scotland and N Ireland – were hungry for information on this topic!
Let me share with you some of what we discussed.
- This is a hot topic. When we’re coaching managers and leaders in their mid to late 40’s and 50’s, we are likely to encounter issues of mid life transition
- What is ‘mid life transition’?! Well, it’s not what we tend to stereotype as a ‘mid life crisis’. Because it’s not a crisis. It’s a stage of growth in our lives. If our coachee is asking deep questions of themselves, such as ‘What’s it all about?’, ‘What’s the point of me putting my all into my work?’ or ‘I’m not as driven by achievement (or money, or status, or the nature of my work) as I used to be…’ – then chances are, we’re on a mid life transition issue
- And……this applies to us too as coaches! Many of us are in a similar place, or had been in the last few years (indeed, was that why some of us became coaches?!)
- So…..how do we understand it? And importantly, how do we help our coachees through it?