DRIVING BLIND

On Graduation night of ACMC 2018 Sydney, one of our Team leaders, Mark Moon started his inspirational moment by recommending to the coaches that they should drive blind. Shocking! Then noting that this idea may seem really strange, he explained what he meant by “driving blind.” “In coaching,” he reminded everyone, “you as the coach do not determine the direction of the coaching conversation or program, the client establishes the agenda.” As a coach you guide and facilitate a client yet at the beginning of the coaching you do not know where to take the client. So regarding where you are going to take the client, you are driving blind.

Hearing that I thought— what an insightful and rich metaphor! And given that, we can infer a lot from it. First because you are driving blind, you have to ask, “What do you want to achieve in the coaching experience?” That’s also why you keep checking out your client’s words, “What do you mean by ‘leadership?’” “How are you using the word ‘development?’” You ask such questions to enable and to facilitate your client to provide you with the directions as to where to take the coaching.