DEEP LISTENING

When it comes to Coaching, listening is the critical variable. Having just completed two ACMC trainings, one in Brazil and the other in the Dominican Republic, everybody involved became significantly aware that, again, listening is the central issue in the coaching sessions. After a few of the experimental sessions, most became aware that they were not hearing so many things—central points of their clients. Yet try as they may (and they did try), they still could not deepen their listening. Why not?

As noted in some earlier posts, there is too much noise in their heads. The coaches are doing too much self-talking, sometimes talking to themselves about their evaluations, sometimes judging themselves, sometimes talking about what the benchmarker was doing(!), etc. Sometimes the coaches are trying too hard to get the outcome or to fix something or succeed. For these, the patterns “Releasing Judgment” and “Decontamination Chamber” are recommended as patterns to quiet the inner voice and make the coaching about the client instead of oneself.