Coach in the Spotlight - Sheila Cox Lousada

What brought you to coaching?

I was at a real crossroads in my life: I knew I wasn’t happy in my job but didn’t know what else to do. I stumbled across an ad and the rest is history!

What drew you to The Coaching Academy as a provider?

I had a done a small amount of coaching but I really wanted to specialise in working with young people. After attending the initial Coaching Academy weekend taster (which was amazing and I would highly recommend), I signed up for the Youth Coaching Diploma. It was the content and diversity of this course that appealed to me.

What was your profession before becoming a coach?

I worked in Consumer Insight for a number of large organisations such as Unilever, L’Oreal, TSB and Homebase.

What did you find most interesting to learn?

Looking back, it was some of the basic tools of coaching that inspired me the most. For example, the Wheel of Life, identifying Limiting Beliefs and the ‘doing vs being model’. I’m a different person today because of these and have used these techniques extensively in my coaching. Watching my clients grow has been the most rewarding part of my journey.

Which bits did you enjoy the most?

For me, the accelerator days were fantastic on a number of levels. Without exception, the trainers were inspirational and extremely knowledgeable in their fields. I was bowled over by the materials they shared and I am still using a lot of them in my workshops.

It was also great to get to know the other course attendees, the majority of whom were already working in education or care work/youth work. As well as being great fun to be with, were a great support and source of information for me.

How did the qualification slot in with you own life?

I was freelancing at the time of doing the Diploma so it was relatively easy for me to fit my coaching around this and the family. I set at least one day a week aside to do my coaching work and my husband took over when I attended the weekend accelerator days. My family were very supportive throughout my training and were willing guinea pigs for all of the coaching exercises. They got used to me coming home from accelerator days, buzzing with excitement, ready to try out the latest coaching tools and techniques that I’d learnt.

Where are you now? How are you using your coaching skills?

I have my own business called ‘Good To Talk Coaching’. You won’t believe how much I agonised over naming the business. In the end I went back to basics. Getting people to talk/open up is a really fundamental part of coaching and so I named the business after this principle.

I am a firm believer that once you are on the right path in life, then good things come your way. They certainly did for me. I am involved in a number of different areas now.

I have a real passion for building positive psychology into the lives of young people and I now go into schools to teach a number of programmes relating to this. In addition, I do one to one coaching with teenagers. I find this very rewarding and have had great feedback on the impact of the coaching from both the teenagers themselves and their parents.

What is your coaching niche and why did you chose it?

My coaching niche is working with young people/teenagers. I chose this area for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because my own teenage years were not particularly happy ones and, in hindsight, I really wish I’d had access to a coach at that time in my life. The second reason hit me straight in the face when I started coaching. Initially I was coaching adults and I found that a lot of the issues they had and wanted to work on stemmed from their teenage year: without realising, they’d taken them into adult life with them. It was like a light bulb moment: I thought, why not tackle the issues before it gets to this point?

What is your favourite coaching question?

One that was asked of me when I was apprehensive about changing career. ‘What’s the cost of staying in this place?’

What do you enjoy most about being a coach?

Making a real, positive and visible difference to the lives of young people.

What are your top tips for people who are looking at coaching?

Just do it. Even if you don’t end up being a coach, you’ll learn lots about yourself and be a better person for it.