View this issue online at www.todayscoach.com/2003/102403.html

Friday, October 24, 2003

Today's Coach Evolving as a Coach (and as a Person) - Part II Continued

During the past several weeks, we have been exploring the pathway to Masterful Coaching. At the beginner level of coaching, the focus is typically on asking questions and listening for answers in order to solve a problem. You may remember I labeled this "Pavlovian Puppy" coaching. This is a great place to start in coaching, but many coaches find themselves yearning for more.

In last week's issue of Today's Coach, we introduced Collaborative Coaching. At this intermediate level, coaches begin to look for the source of the problem and then discover ways to collaborate with their client to find solutions. Collaboration shifts the burden of coach from problem solver to partner.

In the latest installment of Today's Coach, we explore the power and possibility behind this distinction of problem solver vs. collaborator. We want to thank all of you who have sent your comments to letters@coachville.com. We've included a few of them at the end of the article. Keep 'em comin'! 

Keep playing,

Dave

In making a shift from problem solver to collaborator as a coach, there are some key distinctions. First of all, when a coach operates from the beginner level of solving problems, the focus is on the symptoms of a situation or problem, not the source. For example, say you have a client that dreams up a really big goal to create a strategic alliance with one of the largest franchise chains in the country. The client loves the idea of what the alliance can do for his business. But he always seems to find a reason why he can't make that phone call to initiate the alliance. When you discuss this with him, he states that he's been too busy, that there's just "not enough time in the day", that he's disorganized, and on and on.

A beginner level coach might latch on to the client's disorganization and procrastination and assign a time study to solve the problem. After all, that's a great tool! Let's help the client manage his time! And yet even after these efforts the client still procrastinates, and the goal is still far from attainable. This is because the lack of organization is a symptom, not a cause. In this case the cause, or source, turns out to be the client's deeply rooted fear of showing up-having to actually step up and be the person that such an alliance would require. (More about this in a future issue about Core Dynamics.)

Problem solving is often more about coaches' need to prove themselves and their value than it is about serving the client. The desire to package the situation into a nice little box and check it off as done serves the coach's need for completion but often doesn't leave the client with a real solution. This creates a performance burden for the coach and it removes the true responsibility from the client where it belongs. Tips and strategies act as a band-aid. It becomes less and less about the client, requiring a tremendous amount of energy. Most importantly, it's a huge burden to try so hard!

We must become the change we want to see. - Mahatma Gandhi

If problem solving is such a burden and collaborating is so powerful, why don't we do it? The reason brings to light the most profound aspect of living the coaching life. That is, we tend to attract clients with the same problems we have. To collaborate with the client requires us to be truly present to the client's life and the problem. Due to the reflective nature of the coaching process, we have to be willing to face these problems in ourselves.

This brings us to the most perplexing part of collaborative coaching. That is when the best efforts of client (and coach) result in little progress toward the desired goal or experience. The big question: "What is REALLY going on here?" becomes a daily challenge for the coach. Why don't people do what they know they need or want to do? Why are the most obvious action steps so hard to take? When the desire to find the answers to these questions becomes strong enough, the coach is ready to plunge into the world of masterful coaching!

In Part Three of this series, we will explore the next step in the evolution of a coach . . . Causing Problems.

Letters to the Editor

"I loved it when you said in Today's Coach: 'The reason most people struggle with their goals is because the goal isn't right for them in the first place.'

If coaches keep this valuable nugget in mind, it will help them enormously. I had to learn this for myself, and it is one of the evolutionary steps in the life of a coach. Hearing it earlier will hopefully save other coaches lots of time and energy on an 'old technology' learning path."

Lea Belair PCC, Leap Coaching

"CoachVille has become the professional society for coaches and as such, has redefined longstanding disciplines such as consulting, advice, and mentorship into a comprehensive new field. You have given substance to a previously undefined category. By causing coaches to be respected, desired and incorporated into day to day business and life, you will have advanced our society to a higher level of consciousness and made business relationships more profound." 

Jim Cathcart, Lake Sherwood, CA

"I'm walking away from this edition of Today's Coach more aware of why my coaching practice is starting to feel draining and how I can evolve myself into a more engaging life journey partner."

Julia Menard, B.A., Cert. Conflict Resolution - Contemplative Coach

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