ARE YOU A KITTEN OR A TIGER?

I have often observed kitten coaches. And to do so is, at the same time, a delightful sight and a frustrating one. On the delightful side, the coach is so careful, so gentle, so caring, and so compassionate that the client is very well taken care of. On the frustrating side, the coach ends up soft-peddling so many of the things that makes coaching dynamic—especially the challenging, the sudden insights, and the Aha! discoveries as the “coaching moments” are seized.

I have seen kitten coaches take all of 25 or 30 minutes in a coaching session and not even get to Question #7. They seem so fearful of getting the subject or outcome wrong that they just keep asking general questions and open-ended questions until they co-create dozens and dozens of potential subjects. They just won’t ask a series of definite questions that lock-down the subject and hold the client’s feet to the fire. “Is that what you want? Really? Are you sure? Are you willing to devote this coaching session to this?”