Personal Coaching
My first contact with personal coaching in YIN took place during an informal “test coaching” following one of the regular interim reviews. I appreciated the opportunity to pick up a few of the topics that had just come up in the peer counseling round with a professional coach, and we ended up putting together an outline of topics for a continued coaching relationship. We had a series of sessions separated by intervals of 2-3 months, typically, to take regular snapshot impressions reflecting my personal development and also the frequent and sometimes deep-reaching developments of my professional environment, which in general are characteristic for the career of a junior group leader. This monitoring was aided by my coach coming to visit me at my workplace for one of the sessions, to get an impression of my professional surroundings and the way I interact with them.
My experience with discussing personal career goals and mechanisms to cope with various typical stressors was very positive. In particular, I got practical advice on the concepts of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), which my coach helped to implement in my daily routine. For me, thus, the personal coaching offered through YIN forms an ideal supplement to the continued education program organized as group workshops and to the peer counsel during the interim reviews.