What does a sabbatical coach do?

Wait, sabbatical coaching is a thing?

When I told my business mentor that I wanted to be a sabbatical coach, he said although he’d talked to hundreds of coaches over the past decade, he’d never heard of a sabbatical coach. You may be in the same situation. You landed on my website, heard my podcast, or got a recommendation from a colleague, but you may be wondering what exactly it means to work with a sabbatical coach (or why anyone would spend money to do it).

I recently saw a LinkedIn post in which the author marveled at the fact that sabbatical coaching is a profession. You may be wondering the same–why, after all these years professors have been taking sabbaticals, are people offering systematic support for sabbatical planning? 

The need for sabbatical planning support

I started my sabbatical coaching business because, after planning and taking a sabbatical of my own, I realized there’s just not enough support out there for busy academics who want to make the most of their sabbatical. We only get a sabbatical once every 6 or 7 years, right? But beyond a sabbatical application, most institutions provide little in the way of support or a framework for thinking about how best to use our sabbatical time.

I went down many internet rabbit holes as I was planning my sabbatical, trying to find a roadmap or a formula that would help me wrap my head around this amazing opportunity and create a plan that would work for me and my family. I found bits and pieces of advice, but nothing that felt really aligned with what I needed at the time.

I also met with a number of colleagues to ask for their sabbatical advice. Sadly, most of what I heard was cautionary tales. These faculty had major regrets about sabbatical, and I learned a lot about what not to do. I also realized that I really didn’t want to regret my sabbatical at the end. But how to plan a sabbatical that I wouldn’t end up regretting was still a mystery to me.

Fortunately, I stumbled my way into a life-changing sabbatical. I won’t rehash my story here, because I talk about it in a lot of places and on a lot of podcasts (like this one). The short story is that, in planning my sabbatical, I found a way to determine what I needed most from my sabbatical and create a vision and plan for sabbatical that aligned with those needs. As a result, my sabbatical allowed me to overcome burnout and feel excited about coming back to work afterward, a huge shift from my pre-sabbatical thoughts about quitting my job. 

From Personal experience to sabbatical planning program

While I was on sabbatical, I started to think about what it would look like to guide fellow academics through the sabbatical planning process that I had pieced together for myself. I reflected on the steps I had taken to create my sabbatical plan and developed a framework to help others do the same.

The framework I created became my most popular program, Reignite: Your Life-Changing Sabbatical. In this personalized, one-on-one program, I guide my clients through the sabbatical planning process. 

What the sabbatical planning process looks like

Over the course of 7 weeks, my clients gain clarity about what they want from their sabbatical, create a focused and realistic set of goals, and develop a concrete plan to make it all happen. 

The planning process involves three steps:

Step 1: Create your Sabbatical Vision. In this step, I guide clients to identify their sabbatical purpose, priorities, and goals. 

Step 2: Design your Sabbatical Plan. Next, we translate those goals and priorities into a concrete plan that aligns with your sabbatical vision. 

Step 3: Plan for Sabbatical Success. The last thing we do is identify and set boundaries and put systems in place to protect your time and ensure you achieve your sabbatical goals. 

During each week of the program, there’s an activity or reflection to complete. My watch a short video lesson about the week’s topic and send me their completed activity. We then meet for a 50-minute coaching session to review their work and address any challenges or questions that came up. 

Why is this a good way to approach sabbatical planning?

I developed my sabbatical planning program as a way to help fellow academics think differently about their sabbatical and to help them open up new possibilities and set new expectations for their sabbatical.

Often, academics approach sabbatical with a fixed mindset. They may have some incorrect assumptions about sabbatical, like:

A good sabbatical involves living away from home for a semester or a year.

A sabbatical is only worthwhile if it results in a lot of visible scholarly productivity, such as journal articles, a book, or grant proposals submitted.

It’s important to get as much work done as possible on sabbatical because it’s the only time you get a break from other responsibilities.

These are common tropes about sabbaticals, and my clients often come to me feeling disappointed that their sabbatical won’t live up to some idealized version of an academic sabbatical. This resonates with me, because I struggled a lot with the realization that the sabbatical I had created in my head was not the one I actually needed by the time I got tenure and earned sabbatical. 

Some are disappointed that their personal circumstance doesn’t allow them to relocate during sabbatical, and they feel that their sabbatical will be less than because of this.

Others have a nagging feeling that professional goals should not be what dominates their sabbatical, but they’re unsure whether this is okay and feel a bit self-conscious about wanting something other than professional advancement from their sabbatical.

Most often, academics come to me with a vague idea that they need to get something out of their sabbatical; however, they’re unable to pinpoint what that is and they’re so busy and overwhelmed with work that they don’t feel they can take the time to figure it out. They figure they’ll just slide into sabbatical and hope for the best.

My job as a coach is to help you figure out what you need from your sabbatical and make a plan to support that vision

In sabbatical coaching, we shift the focus away from idealized versions of sabbatical and the notion that we should be doing certain things on sabbatical. Instead, I guide clients to identify what they, with their multiple needs, interests, and identities, want to get out of their sabbatical. My curriculum provides a framework for doing this, and in weekly one-on-one sessions we work to crystalize and refine the insights that came up for the client as they completed the week’s activity.

Here are just a few examples of how this process radically transformed my clients’ ideas about and plans for their sabbatical: 

After just 3 sessions, one client realized she was holding on to the idea of a sabbatical abroad even though it really didn’t fit her personal circumstances or her current professional goals. She decided what she needed from sabbatical was to keep her family situation consistent so she could focus on nurturing a new research direction that aligned with her current professional goals.

Another client realized that what she really wanted from her sabbatical was to take on the identify of a writer. She loved writing, but the day-to-day responsibilities in a regular semester did not allow her to have time and space to really lean into her identity as a writer. She created a sabbatical plan that allowed her to nurture her identity as a writer.

The process of identifying your sabbatical purpose and priorities is truly transformative

This is where I see clients go from feeling stressed, uncertain, or disappointed to feeling excited about all the possibilities for their sabbatical.  

Once my clients are clear about their sabbatical purpose and priorities, we start talking about goals and what they want to accomplish. Another one of my core beliefs about sabbaticals is that, when creating a sabbatical plan, it’s just as important to think about what you need personally as what you need professionally. When we shift the focus away from the idealized sabbatical to my clients’ individual sabbatical, it becomes easier to make space for personal needs and goals. This results in creating a sabbatical plan that includes priorities like: attending to mental health and well-being, creating more opportunities for exercise and movement, having relaxing mornings drinking coffee by the fire, being able to give more energy and not just what’s left over at the end of the day to kids and other family members, reading novels, traveling and having adventures, mending relationships…The list goes on.

I’ve mentioned previously that one of the things I really needed from my sabbatical was to overcome burnout. I prioritized rest and recovery for the first half of my sabbatical, and it was essential. I don’t think I would have gotten excited about my work again or even wanted to come back to work after sabbatical if I hadn’t prioritized this.

One of the important things to know about working with a coach is that more role is not to advocate for any one version of sabbatical. You don’t need to have the same sabbatical as me, and in fact, my sabbatical probably wouldn’t be right for you. My focus as a coach is on helping you uncover the best sabbatical for you, in your current season of life. So, if you aren’t burned out and don’t need to prioritize rest, that’s great! I’ll help you figure out what you do need to prioritize so you feel confident that your sabbatical will help you get where you’re going. I can tell you that every client I’ve worked with has planned a unique sabbatical; there really is no singular version of sabbatical.

Why work with a sabbatical coach?

You may be wondering if sabbatical coaching is really worth the time and investment. After seeing so many academics go from overwhelmed and uncertain to excited about their sabbatical and confident in their plan, I can say without a doubt that it’s worth it, but I’m also biased. 

Here’s why I think working with a coach is worth it:

First, working with a coach on this provides structure and accountability. I have a step-by-step process that you follow, so you don’t have to think about what to do next. Because we meet regularly, you have some accountability to do the work of planning, which is easy to put off because you’re so busy with so many other things.

Second, because I’ve mapped it all out for you, you get all the benefits but don’t have to spend any extra time on the planning process. You spend about an hour each week on a worksheet or activity, and then we meet for 50 minutes. You don’t even need to take notes because I send a summary after each session and an outline of next steps. Everything is laid out for you, so that even if you feel like you have no extra time to devote to planning your sabbatical, I can guarantee you have time for this.

Finally, there’s a huge value to getting ideas out of your head, writing them down, and then talking about them. At least once in every session, my clients will say something like, “I hadn’t realized until I was doing the worksheet” or, “I hadn’t thought about it that way before.”  Talking about your ideas with another human is clarifying, and a huge benefit of working with a coach is that I’m not your spouse, department chair, or colleague.

In other words, I want you to have the sabbatical that’s best for you, but I’m not emotionally attached to the outcome. I may also be an outsider to your field of study. This means that I can ask different kinds of questions than others in your orbit and that you can share questions and ideas that you may not feel comfortable sharing with those in your inner circle who are directly affected by the decisions you make about your sabbatical.

I recently worked with a client who was planning her fourth sabbatical. I want to share what she said about the experience, because I think it gives you a sense of the value of working with a coach and some insight into what the process is like:

Bethany helped me clarify my goals, identify my challenges, outline strategies for moving forward, and find ways to prioritize my own creative work. She was part therapist, part life coach, part colleague, part cheerleader; I came away from each session with a clearer and more nuanced sense of what was possible, what was important, and what my next steps should be—everything from seeking funding to finding pet care and locating a house sitter. Given that I’d had a number of prior sabbaticals, I hadn’t imagined all the ways I would benefit from this program; I’m headed into the months ahead with a clear set of commitments and a solid plan: to bring closure to existing work, to attend to creative projects that are often neglected in day-to-day life, and to ready myself for the next stage of my academic career.

Imagine feeling that way about your sabbatical plan? If you have a sabbatical on the horizon and you’re feeling confused, overwhelmed, or just unsure where to start your planning, I’d love to connect and answer your questions about what it’s like to work with me to plan your sabbatical!