At What Academic Career Stage Do You Need A Coach? (with Gina Robinson)

Today, I sit down with one of our coaches, Gina. We discuss how coaching benefits different stages of an academic career. Whether you are only a couple of years in or mid-tenure, professional development is a powerful tool that can completely change the direction of your career. If you have ever considered coaching or are feeling overwhelmed, it’s time to make a change. 

What is the Difference Between Coaching & Teaching or Training?

One of the significant differences between coaching and training or coaching and teaching is that coaching focuses on relationship development. It is about connecting new information to your life and finding ways to take your ideas and what you want to do and make them happen.

We can process information, and we have original ideas on our own. But coaching introduces self-reflection and forces us to connect with our inner voice to develop self-trust. Coaching is just starting to become part of the academic culture and is a new way to experience professional development. 

At What Stage in Your Career Is Coaching Most Effective?

If you are starting to think about coaching, now is the time to do it! So many people I have worked with wish they started their journey sooner. As academics, we are smart and self-reliant in a lot of ways. It is easy to think, ‘I can figure this out myself’ or ‘I will wait a little longer and see what happens.’

But when you say, ‘I can hold on a little bit longer,’ it’s already too late. If you think about it clearly, you don’t want to be hanging on at any point. If something feels wrong, you want to be able to deal with it before the pressure becomes unmanageable.

So whether you are just starting your career or mid-tenure, investing in coaching will make an impactful change in your future.

What Does Coaching Look Like at Different Career Stages?

Years 1-5: The most common challenge academics have at the beginning of their careers is an onslaught of opportunities. Right away, you are inundated with different programs to join, which can be overwhelming. For that first year, you need to be able to breathe and set the course for the rest of your career. Coaching is a great way to leverage professional development to set up your future. For example, coaching will help define your academic mission statement. That resource serves as a compass for everything you want to and will attain as a professor. 

Year 10: If you are in your 10th year as a professor, coaching becomes about creating boundaries. Learning how to prioritize things that impact your academic mission statement is essential. If you don’t, you will continue being bowled over by other people and pulled away from your mission. Coaching helps you take back control of your time and energy.  

Mid-Tenure: This is the stage of academia where many professors experience burnout. There is a disillusionment that reaching tenure will change everything. You will be completely in charge and not have to do anything you don’t want to. But, unfortunately, it doesn’t happen that way for most people. Coaching will help turn that disillusionment into something else. It gives mid-tenure academics a chance to talk through struggles and regain a sense of power and direction. 

“Coaching is more about connecting new information to your life and finding ways to take your ideas and the things you want to do and actually make them happen. It is definitely not for people who just want information.”

“How can you be more you and solve your problems rather than saying ‘I’m lacking this and so I need to get better’. You have a higher level of expertise that needs to be nurtured and cared for. You don’t need to be wasting your time getting good at things that you’re not good at. Get rid of that pressure.”

Want to be coached by Gina in person this summer? Don’t miss our Puerto Rico writing retreat gathering in August! Get the details and grab your spot here by June 3rd!

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:

1. Our 12-week Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap® program helps tenure-track womxn and nonbinary professors with a disruptive perspective on their field to publish their backlog of papers so that their voice can have the impact they know is possible. Check out the program details and get on the waitlist to be notified when the next cohort opens here.
2. Cathy’s book, Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing is available in print! Learn how to build your career around your writing practice while shattering the myths of writing every day, accountability, and motivation, doing mindset work that’s going to reshape your writing, and changing academic culture one womxn and nonbinary professor at a time. Get your print copy today or order it for a friend here!
3. Want to train with us for free on your campus? Now you can when you recommend our Scholar’s Voice Faculty Retreats to a decision-maker on your campus! Download the brochure with the retreat curriculum and both in-person and online retreat options here.

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