Elaine Greaves

Face yourself in the mirror and ask your reflecting countenance, honestly and without evasion, the following questions:

• Am I living the vision I had for my life?
• Has the fulfillment I yearned for passed me by?
• If I have not achieved my heart’s desires, what is really keeping me from living my dreams?

The answer, in many cases, will be the small yet potent word, FEAR!

For many of us, there seems much to fear: fear of the unknown, fear of making the wrong decisions, fear of stepping out on faith; fear of committing to something or someone and the list goes on.

A life coach is someone who works with you to help you with some aspect of your business and/or personal life and to help you improve your performance. Coaches are individuals who aid you by observing your behavior, asking the right questions, giving feedback, and guiding you in developing your skills.

The International Association of Coaching describes coaching as ‘a transformative process for personal and professional awareness, discovery and growth.’

The Coaching Evolution
A review of the history of coaching shows that reference to it in the literature goes back to the 1930’s. However, it wasn’t until the 1990’s that business coaching emerged as a distinct discipline and as an important tool used by major corporations to develop their senior managers.

During the last several decades I’ve had the chance to interact with various types of leaders –professional, political and social – both great and small. As I observed each of them I was able to see the  leadership principles they put into practice that made them the leaders they had become.  As I continued to observe them, I uncovered several recurring themes regarding leadership success that put to rest many of my initial assumptions about leadership and who could became a leader. I also came to realize that many others also shared the same mistaken assumptions which ought to be corrected.

1.    Are Leaders born or made?

Many of us may look at the political, professional or social leaders of our time, or those of the past and believe them to be born leaders – Lincoln; Eisenhower; JFK; Reagan, MLK, and we think they were born leaders.  Very few leaders, if any, are born. They each made a decision at some point in their lives to learn and master skills of Leadership