Lumen Impact Group
Lumen Impact Group

Who Needs Professional Coaching? 

Published: January 9, 2024

By Lisa Diaz and Dr. Laura Groth

Welcome to a fresh new calendar year! At Lumen we believe one of the most powerful tools in each of our toolbox is looking forward – designing the vision of the work and life you want and then taking specific, actionable steps to make it real. If you too have goals, hopes, and dreams for the future, but need support or structures to get started or sustain that work – now might be the time to consider a professional coach. 

What Does Professional Coaching Look Like?

Professional coaching means committing to working regularly (generally once a week, or every other week) with a professional, experienced coach to bring your goals to fruition. It means committing to your own growth and working with a trusted, confidential partner who is fully invested in helping you access your whole range of strengths and assets, while finding new and creative ways to work through the barriers that keep cropping up in your life. It means carving out regular time to do that forward-thinking in a structured, effective way to help you work towards real change and growth.

At Lumen, we believe strongly that coaching is for everyone. 

Who Needs a Professional Coach?

Professional coaching might be a great fit for you now if:

  • You’ve been in the same role for five years now and you’re feeling a bit stuck. Each day feels like Groundhog’s Day, and you don’t know in what direction you want to grow, much less how to get started.
  • You’re an experienced leader used to managing teams and working towards big goals – but lately you’re finding it’s a bit lonely at the top. You have a great team working with you, but managing is hard work even with a strong team. And let’s not even talk about the time element – how are you supposed to manage a team, think big picture strategy, and also do your own work??  (School principals, we see you!)
  • You’re new to your leadership team, or new to this whole industry, or new to this company, and you’re feeling a bit nervous about getting your feet on the ground. You feel your nerves every time you walk into a meeting or suggest a new idea, and you want to make sure you’re moving in the right direction in this unknown space.
  • You are on the hamster wheel and no matter how hard you run it feels like you can’t keep up.Your little hamster legs are getting very tired. 
  • You have this idea you think could change the impact of your organization but things keep getting in the way of moving it forward. 

Any of that resonate?
If you’re interested in learning more about the coaches at Lumen and Lumen’s coaching model, contact us at info@lumenimpactgroup.com.

Testimonials

"“They don’t tell you what you want to hear. They tell you what you need to hear. That makes a huge difference. We needed to understand our weaknesses in order to make the organization work right, and I was overwhelmed by how they really got it and they helped us to get it too. They were able to do it in a way that really made me want to understand the goals we needed to focus on. I believe Lumen was absolutely the best we could have found.”"
Barbara Sellinger
Cresthaven Academy
"“I’ve been in nonprofits for 30+ years and have used the services of many consultants, but I have never been so comfortable with their commitment to helping us. It was as if the Lumen team shared our need to have a successful outcome and they were committed to the notion that they would indeed bring value to what we were doing.“ "
Caroline Novak
Alabama School Readiness Alliance
"“The Lumen team did a really good job sharing the hard truths with us. Their findings were different from what we were expecting, but they used the information to push us farther than we originally planned. They were candid and didn’t hide anything from us. We’re now on the path to developing products that are very different from what we’ve done before but are hopefully much more useful for the people we serve.” "
Drew Jacobs
National Alliance of Public Charter Schools
"“The management of a federal CSP grant is a really niche area that requires a tremendous depth of expertise and technical know-how. You need to have a microscopic attention to detail when it comes to compliance and reporting timeliness. The Lumen team is excellent at all of the above." "
Tyler Barnett
New Schools for Alabama
"“In my coaching, we make really strong, specific plans for next steps and then we follow up on them in our next conversation. We try to keep those next steps really manageable. When I’m busy, I can’t layer a ton of personal growth on top of my other responsibilities, so we make plans for growth that are baked into the work I’m already doing. That has been really helpful for me.” "
Kristen Forbriger
City Fund