31 May, 2010
A Day in the Life of…… Brian Johnston
Posted by: admin In: Coaching Articles| Personal Success
I am now in the fortunate position to be employed F/T as a Personal Performance & Development Coach within Student Health at the University of Otago, New Zealand. To my knowledge, I am the first life/study/work coach to be employed as a coach within a New Zealand university.
I have been seconded from my role as student counsellor until the end of the year. If, this new service to students is successful, there is the strong likelihood my position will be made permanent.
What an opportunity for me to demonstrate the benefits of coaching!
In the main I am seeing PHD and Masters students who present with difficulties in time management, self discipline and unnecessary distractions. Social networking seems to have a lot to answer for!
My typical day starts with me arriving at work at around 8.30am. I check my emails and respond to the enquiries from students wishing to know about my service. This can be a simple enquiry like “Can you tell me what Personal Performance & Development Coaching involves?” Or “Help! Save me from my PHD!”
I have an information sheet and Registration Form I send out to students.
My first coaching appointment is at 9.30am and as my service is a new one, I am seeing around four students a day for Intake sessions. This takes on average an hour. I tend to see students on a fortnightly basis.
There are thirteen Residential Colleges within the University of Otago and many of the Residential wardens are keen to meet with me to talk about how coaching can benefit their students. I will be “making the rounds” over the next few weeks to discuss how my approach to coaching undergraduate and post graduate students can support students to set powerful goals and commit to realistic action plans. I have been approached by our Maori Centre counsellor and the Pacific Island Centre administrator to explore how I may meet the specific needs of these students.
By lunch time, I am likely to have seen three students who present with a whole range of areas in which they feel coaching would help them. Poor time management and life/study balance are popular areas in which students plan to make changes.
Most students come motivated to change, some come expecting me to do the work for them. University students are a fascinating client group to work with, as not only are they trying to do well at university, they are in the process of developing from adolescents into the adults they want to become.
I tend to see two students after lunch and spend the rest of my working day with administration work.
My work is challenging, exciting and rewarding.
Brian Johnston
Personal Performance & Development Coach
University of Otago
New Zealand.
I can be contacted by email at brian.johnston@otago.ac.nz
