What coaching isn’t

As you begin navigating a new year of college, your InsideTrack Coach will be right there by your side, but what does that really mean? And maybe as importantly, what doesn’t that mean? InsideTrack Coaching covers a lot of areas, but there are also lots of things that it isn't…

Coaching doesn’t mean that you’re not already successful… All professional athletes use coaches to not only stay on top of their game, but to get even better! These coaches believe in their athletes and push them to the next level because they are capable of it. In a nutshell, that’s really what coaching is all about. And as long as Tiger Woods and the CEO of Google can still use a coach, then all of us can!

Coaching isn’t just a series of casual conversations… You have casual conversations with your friends and family all the time – when you meet with your InsideTrack Coach, your conversations are going to be focused on whatever is important to you so that by the end of the meeting, you leave feeling different than when you came in, i.e. more motivated, enthused, organized, relieved, prepared, etc. And in addition, there are specific topics that you and your Coach will be sure to cover over the course of your term or terms to make sure you are armed to get the most out of your college experience.

Coaching doesn’t mean that you are going to be told what to do… Your Coach is not here to dictate what you need to be doing. Coaching is a joint effort; you and your Coach will be working together on the things that are important to you. Your Coach will recommend things that you probably hadn’t thought of, and will ask questions that might challenge you a bit–but it’s still all about you and what’s going to work best for you.

Coaching doesn’t take the place of the great resources on your campus like academic advising, career services, counseling, tutoring, faculty mentors … In fact, coaching augments these valuable resources. Coaching can help you get more out of them by supporting you as you prepare for meetings and helping make sure your efforts are as focused as they can be.

College expectations

I love the first week of fall semester. Excitement and newness are in the air. Everyone is testing the waters – getting an idea of how their next four years will look, and measuring what they thought it might be to what it actually is. So I’m always surprised when the following conversation takes place during the first week:

Me: “So, what are you expecting college to be like?”
Many freshmen I talk to: “I don’t really know – I don’t really have any expectations.”
Me: “Really?! But when you were in high school, thinking about what it would be like to be in college, what came to mind?”
Many freshmen: “Um…I don’t know…”

Maybe it’s because they don’t want to be wrong. Maybe they’re not ready to share their thoughts with somebody they’ve just met. Or maybe they really don’t have fully formed expectations yet for their college experience. There are a lot of ways to think about your college experience, and by considering them now, you will be more prepared for that day that you stop thinking college and start living it!

Here are a few to get you started:

• What are you expecting classes to be like? Homework? Professors?
• How easy will it be to meet people and make friends? How about joining a club or sorority/fraternity?
• What are you interested in getting involved in outside of classes? Sports, music, the arts, volunteer work, community service?
• What will it be like to be on your own? Manage your own time?
• How will college compare to high school? How will it be the same and/or different?

Talking about your college expectations with your Coach will give you the space to explore, to get some perspective, and when you’re ready, to develop your own vision for your experience. Your Coach truly cares about your well-being and success, so s/he can be honest with you about whether your expectations are realistic, and can help you feel more prepared for what is coming, because you can be sure that the best is yet to come.

Who are the InsideTrack Coaches?

I know it might seem kind of weird at first – opening up to a complete stranger about what you want to do with your college experience and then expecting that stranger to work with you to make all of it happen. So, you are probably wondering, Who are these Coaches anyway?

Well, the real story is that InsideTrack Coaches are people who are passionate about seeing college students succeed. No hidden agenda, I promise.

InsideTrack Coaches believe in the value of education. We were once college students ourselves, so we understand the ups and the downs of college life. We too had to navigate our freshman (and sophomore, junior, and senior) year, and the consensus among InsideTrack Coaches is that we really could have used a Coach during our time in school for the support, motivation, and guidance that coaching offers. All of us graduated from college just fine, but we know that our experiences would have been dramatically different had we had worked with a Coach.

Our Coaches come from a wide variety of backgrounds, schools, and majors, so just like the students we work with, our Coaches represent the full spectrum of the “typical” college experience. InsideTrack Coaches are well aware that every student has a different idea of what they want their college years to look like, so we are not going to push you in any one direction because we wouldn’t have wanted to be pushed either.

On top of all that, all of our Coaches receive specialized, intense training to help us support students on whatever comes up in their lives, and makes sure we are well-equipped to dig deep with you in all of the areas you will focus on during college – from having a great college experience, to planning your college and career path, accomplishing what matters most to you, and staying healthy and happy. You can consider us your own personal wealth of resources: We have lots of tools and tips that we can share, plus we have the combined experience to draw upon of having coached over 200,000 students at over 50 universities since 2001.

Just remember, InsideTrack Coaches are real people – we go to the movies, see our favorite bands perform, play sports, play instruments, hang out with our friends, are members of book clubs, travel to different countries and lots of other things! We are people-people – we enjoy talking, listening and connecting. We enjoy engaging with people and the world around us. We are genuinely curious and interested, and we really want to know our students and see them be successful.