We are pleased to be featuring Esther Hardman as our Coach in the Spotlight in this week’s blog. Dive into Esther's inspiring journey as she transitions from the classroom to coaching, leveraging her passion for communication and conflict resolution to reshape her career and empower others using coaching within the education sector.
Having begun my educational career as a Secondary level foreign languages teacher, I have always been interested in communication, be it verbal, non-verbal, physical, written or visual. As a Form Tutor, it gave rise to the need for mediation skills and an awareness of social dynamics, whilst restorative justice and conflict management skills were called for in my subsequent Middle Leader roles within the curriculum and pastoral sides of the education sector. During my five years as a Head of Year with approximately 290 students under my responsibility of care, something lit up within me at the idea of conflict resolution. This was brewing into something bigger; I just couldn’t place a direction on it yet.
Despite being a career that has always provided me with the level of variety and challenge that I have needed for my personal satisfaction and growth, halfway through my time as a Head of Year, I began to question, once more, my desire to stay in a highly stressful and demanding occupation. I began to search seriously for what alternative careers I could find that could be my next step in the brave jump from one sector to another. It was along this journey that I came across The Coaching Academy’s free Introduction to Life Coaching webinar. I signed up, intrigued by its content and found myself amongst a tribe of people that I felt I already belonged to, given the references made to Growth Mindsets, Neuro Linguistic Programming and Positive Thinking that I was already personally interested in, or had already worked with to help develop students at school. I signed up the following Monday for the Life Coaching Diploma, plus, I already had my eye on the Corporate and Executive Coaching Programme due to its ‘Coaching Towards Conflict Resolution’ module. I began my coaching journey in January 2020 with big plans!
Then, in March of the same year, the UK Government began the first of its Coronavirus Lockdown measures. As the education sector adapted and teaching went progressively online, so did The Coaching Academy’s training, meaning that the time I had gained in not travelling to work, I could use to proceed through the course. I enjoyed every minute of it, from learning the new content, facilitating ‘golden moments’ with clients, to stretching my organisational skills to fit it into the demands of my profession. However, as teaching returned to the classroom, due to the pandemic's extensive impact on the education sector, it became harder to fit in my studies and coaching practice and my pace slowed.
Nevertheless, through a lot of self-coaching - treating myself as my own coaching client - I experienced a shift. I not only found ways to complete the remaining coaching studies, but to also integrate coaching into my leadership role at work. I coached a colleague who I line managed, cascaded the GROW model to my team of Tutors for their use in 1-2-1 discussions with students approaching their GCSEs. Additionally, I used effective questioning and the GROW model to guide groups of students through highly complex and emotive (teenagers!) behavioural issue fall outs. I began to see how I could use the skills I was gaining through the Life Coaching Diploma in a range of ways in within, not just outside of, my leadership role at school.
Then in November 2021, an opportunity to apply for a senior leadership role came up that fitted my skills and experience. I applied, citing my coaching skills as part of my strengths and was able to lean on both practical coaching skills and theoretical knowledge when navigating the various stages of the 2-day interview process. I am pleased to say that I was successfully appointed!
Initially I had planned to complete my life coaching course within two years but the impact of the pandemic on a highly demanding profession, multiple personally challenging life events along with the preparation for a high-level interview took their toll. My dream of setting up my personal coaching business has shifted now as I've now found a pathway forwards to remain working in the education sector. However, having access to a professional coach at work has meant that I am now focusing once again on what small steps I can take forward, whilst also integrating the use of coaching skills into my personal development targets at work in order to continue developing staff within the organisation.
On reflecting on my journey into coaching so far with its various twists and turns, I think of the similarities between this and the mountains that I have experienced whilst supervising various skiing trips over my career in the education section. It’s during these times I have witnessed how engaging with mountains can expose character traits that need refining. It’s a choice to get up again when you fall, and it can take great strength, both physically and mentally. For me, the mountains have come to symbolise the opportunity for personal growth through challenging circumstances, which a positive mindset and coaching can help you through.
Having finished the Coaching Academy's Life Coaching Diploma, I have now finally embarked on the next stage of my coaching journey, by enrolling on the Corporate and Executive Coaching Programme. I am already seeing how I can integrate these skills into not only my own practice at work but that of others. I am excited for the future as I work through this course!
It has been a challenging due to the pandemic, but a highly developmental and rewarding path to get to this point in my coaching training, and I encourage everyone who is considering studying with The Coaching Academy to do so.
Coaching has not only furthered my career, but more importantly kept me in the career that I am clearly destined and meant to be in!
Thank you Esther for sharing your coaching journey with us!
If you are feeling inspired and would you like to find out more about training to be a life coach or using coaching within the the education sector, then do join us on our Introduction to Life Coaching webinar - choose from available dates here.
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