COACHING WITH HUMOR

When you think and talk about the field of coaching, more than likely you are in a business state, a matter-of-fact state, and a serious state. After all, your clients bring to you the things in their life which are serious— job and career, what to do for a living, family, how to raise healthy kids, how to solve conflicts, stress management, negative emotions, ill-health, the purpose of life, and on and on. Add to that, when many clients arrive in your coaching room, they are not in positive states— they may be desperate, they may feel helpless, even hopeless, often they are uncertain and insecure.

Yet if you get as serious as your clients, you definitely will be less effective than you could be. If you get serious, you will not have available one of the most powerful interventions— humor. Does that strike you as incredulous? That’s not surprising. In most cultures around the world, humor, playfulness, fun, laughter, etc. are framed as the polar opposite to being professional and effective. Yet that’s a myth and a significant misunderstanding.