After coaches complete their coach training, they need to gain coaching experience. New coaches sometimes struggle with this because, in these early days people often ask you to coach them in an area that reflects your background and experience. This leads to the question, ‘Do I really need a specialty in my coaching?’ Let me answer that with another question, ‘If we’re coaching the person, not the problem, do we need specific knowledge?’
Good coach training focuses on drawing out of the coachee what is most important to them. The focus rests on the coachee’s discoveries, thoughts, ideas, hopes, actions, and plans. The coach supports as clarity builds for the coachee.
Jonathan Reitz in his book ‘Coaching Hacks’, highlights an important guiding maxim for a coach, ‘Coach the person. Consult the problem. Mentor the experience, Counsel the fallout.’
These four postures give a framework for an optimal working relationship in a coaching setting. New insights become possible when the relationship centres on the coachee. Coaches commit to building clarity and meaning through coaching interactions. But coaches don’t do the work! That’s up to the coachee.
So why is experience so important to coachees in the early connecting stage of a coaching relationship? A coach’s specific experience rarely changes the actual conversations, but working with a coach can be a daunting prospect, especially early on in the process. Experience can put the coachee at ease as they are considering signing on with a particular coach. Coaching the person during the actual session is what coaches do, but the door won’t always open without specific experience.
So experience matters, but it matters most BEFORE the actual coaching begins. Don’t hesitate to talk about your experience, outside of coaching. What you’ve been through has made you who you are, and that’s one of the reasons your coachees come to you. Your experience both informs your questions and guides your listening, and also accelerates the introductory process because it puts the coachee at ease. You’ve changed because of your experience but your coachees change because of their experiences and your coaching.
This blog has been adapted from ‘Coaching Hacks: Simple Strategies to Make Every Conversation More Effective’ by Jonathan Reitz, Director of Training/CEO at CoachNet.
Colin is the Director of ResourceZone International. He has 30 years of ministry experience as a pastor, college lecturer and consultant/coach to consultants, denominational leaders and local church pastors. He can be reached at info@resourcezone.com.au
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