2022 the year in year in review.. the foundation for next year’s plan. 

One of the most common themes I encounter as a Business coach when working with small and medium enterprises is Strategic planning. I love working with a business to help them put a plan together to help them figure out what they want in the future and how to get there.

I’m in the middle of that planning process for my own business. One of the first things I do before I look to the future is to look back at how I’ve done over the last while. (I do this a few times a year to check if I am on track or if I need to make adjustments.) I ask myself, “where are you at?”. Its like planning a journey and looking at map. You need to know where you are currently and where you want to get to so you can plan the route.

So I thought I’d better practice what I preach… before I complete my plan for 2023, here’s my 2022 year in review with some of my key highlights.

One of my driving forces is to be the best coach I can be. Continuous professional development is a core value of mine. I set myself a target in 2021 of gaining my professional certified coach (PCC) accreditation with the International Coach Federation (ICF). This accreditation process challenged me to bring my coaching skills to the next level and by gaining this accreditation, I am acknowledged as being of a standard that is recognized internationally. I was thrilled to get confirmation in March 2022 that my PCC status had been granted by the ICF.

One of the strategies I have to grow my business is to develop key partnerships. I have existing excellent strategic partnerships with Harmonics, TIO Consulting, Randstad Risesmart, the Retirement Planning Council (RPC) and the Irish Management Institute (IMI).  I wanted to explore expanding this portfolio in 2022…enter Emma Jane and her equine coaches!

I am fascinated by the work of Emma Jane Clarke in Martinstown Lodge in Athboy. Her work on Equine-Centred Coaching (ECC) just has to be experienced! There is excellent synergy between her work and what I do. I was thrilled to be able to bring a group of coaches from the Irish International Coaching Circle (IICC) to experience ECC in April. Like me, they were blown away by what Emma Jane does. I also had the privilege of my first collaboration with Emma Jane where we worked together with the senior leadership team of a large public relations company in May. They had an excellent morning with Emma Jane and her equine coaches. I followed up in the afternoon with a team coaching session that built on the lessons learned and insights gained in the morning session. I am proud to add Martinstown Lodge to my portfolio of key partners.

Training and facilition is one of my key offerings in Enable Me Coaching. This side of the business moved online during the pandemic.  My goal for 2022 was to spend more time back in the classroom/conference room. I had the pleasure of running several in person strategic planning sessions with key customers including Dooley Insurances in Kildare and Electric Skyline in Mayo.

I am a certified DiSC facilitator; (DiSC is a well-known psychometric assessment that helps users identify their own behavioural style and that of their colleagues. It helps users build better relationships inside and outside the workplace.) The DiSC workshop I run is very popular. I ran multiple workshops online with Lloyds pharmacies in March and April working with over 90 of their store managers nationwide. This led to more face-to-face work in November with a group from the leadership team in United Drug. Happy days. 😊

I wanted to increase my focus on marketing for my business in 2022. This is not an area of expertise for me, so I began to look for a marketing partner. I began working with Carmel Knight from MARKETING4YOU in August. This was one of my better decisions this year. Carmel “gets me” and my business. She completely overhauled my social media profiles and has helped me improve my social media presence. She recommended some simple changes to my website which resulted in significantly increased traffic to the site, an uptick in prospect enquiries and several new clients particularly on the Career coaching side of my business.

The goal of a Career coach is to “get fired”. i.e. the coaching engagement finishes when the client has a path forward or they have secured new employment or the promotion they were seeking. As a career coach based in Kildare, I had a bumper day in September when I scored a hat trick and “got fired” 3 times in one morning! Not many businesses would be happy to have this happen, I was thrilled! 😊 😊

November brought some more highlights. I love to coach, and I had set a goal of logging over 1000 coaching hours by the end of the year. I was delighted to hit that milestone in early November.

In the ICF Ireland awards in November, the Irish International coaching circle was highly commended for our work as a community of practice for coaches. This group won the ICF coaching circle of the year in 2018.  I was a co-founder of this group with Mary Vaughan in 2017.

From a business perspective one the key highlights continues to be the support I get from my business networks, Kildare Chamber of commerce, Dublin Business network and South Dublin Chamber of commerce.

In summary, it’s been a very good year. When I reflected on what I aimed to achieve and what was met of those goals I am very happy. The reflection and review of the business is key to any planning process. It gives a clear picture of where things are at now, what worked and what didn’t work during the course of the year. This information helps formulate the plan for next year or whatever your planning horizon is.

To finish this blog, I will leave you with two quotes:-

“A plan without action is just a dream” and “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there!”