There are many types of coaches in the world: health and wellness coaches, life coaches, career coaches, sports coaches, spiritual coaches, financial coaches… And then there are coaches that are a mix of all of these types of coaches, better known by a different title: Mom, Dad, Grandma, Papaw, Nana, Auntie…the list could go on.
When you are a new parent of a baby or toddler, you coach your little one to walk, talk, and not eat gross things off the floor.
When your little one grows into a preschool age child, you transition to a behavioral coach, focusing on the development of relationship building and social skills.
When your child reaches elementary age, you are an academic coach, sports coach, emotional support coach, health coach, and so much more.
As your child moves onto junior high and high school, you continue sharpening those coaching skills to a more advanced level, while adding driving coach, romantic relationship coach, and probably a few more, to your repertoire.
And then one day you’ll wake up with an adult child who continues to need you for things you perhaps didn’t expect: financial coach, how-do-i-do-my-own-laundry coach, career coach, and general life coach.
It’s clear that being a parent means you have superior coaching skills no matter the age of your child. You listen, encourage, guide, provide feedback, and more. When you are ready-to-return to paid work after a career pause, it’s important to showcase professional coaching skills as part of your value – because it’s true! You’ll be placed at the top of the list of potential candidates if you can relay your parenting skills confidently and with the right positioning.
How Do My Parenting Skills Compare To Professional Coaching Skills?
When it comes to parenting, your coaching skills at home and on the go are easily transferable to the workplace. And the word “coach” doesn’t have to be in the job title for coaching to be a benefit to the position you have your eye on. Any leadership position, from mid-level manager to executive, values coaching skills. Positions that work on a team (which is pretty much all of them!) also benefit from coaching, as it can draw the team closer together and strengthen morale and project outputs.
Hiring managers are usually looking for someone who is skilled at:
Actively listening (and empathy)
Asking powerful, strategic questions
Offering constructive feedback
Assisting with goal setting
Problem Solving
Providing accountability
Celebrating success and learning from failures
To confidently showcase the skills you developed as a mother in a cover letter or during an interview, you need to understand how you exercise each of these skills regularly and be able to provide examples of your successful execution. Let’s break down each coaching skill listed above, dissecting what each entail, with examples of how you’ve used them in your parenting:
Actively listening (and empathy) - When your child is really upset about something, you excel at discovering the root cause of the issue by actively listening and showing empathy. You listened for the thing not being said and in doing so, you likely discovered that they weren’t actually upset about the issue you originally thought (not wanting to go to school) but instead that there was an underlying issue (being picked on at school) fueling their response to the situation (needing to get on the bus). By actively listening, you showed you cared while also processing everything they had to say. This allowed you to see the bigger picture and helped them find a solution to the root cause.
Asking powerful, strategic questions - Coaching isn’t about teaching and telling; it’s about guiding and instilling self reflection practices. By knowing what questions to ask (like after a disappointing grade on a test you might ask your child what they learned from looking at the questions they missed) and when to ask them (after you’ve empathized with them), you help others come to their own conclusions about their problem at hand instead of just telling them what to do (you should spend more time studying next time).
Offering constructive feedback - Practice makes perfect is a popular statement that is flawed at its core. If you practice something the wrong way over and over again, you’ll keep doing it the wrong way. And perfection is often unattainable. You are able to provide constructive feedback (I noticed you are kicking the soccer ball with your toes and the ball doesn’t always go where you want it to. What if you try kicking it with the inside of your foot instead and see what happens?) to guide others towards progress over perfection (more consistently accurate soccer ball kicks).
Assisting with goal setting - Each summer, a friend I know sits down with her kids and helps them come up with goals for their summer vacation from school. Goals have included learning how to tie their shoes, learning to ride a bike, completing the summer reading challenge at the local library, and volunteering at a local food pantry one weekend a month. Knowing how to set appropriate and realistic goals for your kids proves you have what it takes to coach others in setting professional goals for themselves.
Problem Solving - If your child has a problem that they just can’t figure out (that math equation is t-r-i-c-k-y!), it may be easier to just solve it for them but you know the value of letting them find a solution on their own (a deeper understanding of math concepts and higher long-term grades). You coach them each step of the way to allow their own brain to process and do the work themselves so that they grow as a person who can confidently do it on their own next time.
Providing accountability - Not eating in your bedroom is a rule in my house, and I’m confident that if I didn’t hold my girls accountable to this rule, I would find dried up apples and moldy PB&J crusts under the bed. As a parent, you know how to follow up and ensure that what needs to be done, gets done. You are a great accountability partner!
Celebrating success and learning from failures - Riding a bike can be a traumatic experience. Everyone falls down and skins a knee and elbow at least one time before they successfully ride it more than a few feet. As a parent, you were right there cheering on your child and encouraging them to keep going when they fell, giving them tips on how to keep their balance next time. The process to get to the end goal can sometimes be difficult, but the celebration that happens when it's achieved is worth it (let’s bike to the ice cream shop for dessert)!
Find Return To Work Success Through Career Coaching
Successfully showcase your parenting transferable skills as desired professional coaching skills by partnering with a career coach who specializes in helping parents return to work after a career break. Parents Pivot is ready to help you take the next step in your life’s chapter that satisfies both your desire to return to paid work while also being the greatest parent you can be. You can do both, with confidence! Check out our 1:1 and group coaching programs to get started.
