FROM GOOD COACHING TO GREAT COACHING

Coaching looks simple from the outside—two people simply engaged in a conversation about goals and potentials. But as you well know, good coaching actually is hard. It’s tough. It’s challenging. It can also be confusing and frustrating. It is a conversation, yet it is so much more than just a conversation. It is a very special kind of conversation.

What stops regular people from “coaching” (and many Coaches) is that we humans fall too easily into poor habits of half-listening, distracted by other things on our minds, reactive to things another person can say that we might disagree with, all too quick to give advice and cut things short by telling them what they should do to make things better, and unable to distinguish evaluations from descriptions. Ordinary people who have not been training will fall into mind- reading, judging, interpreting (as if they are psychoanalysts!), and storytelling. That’s one reason why people seek out a Coach; they can’t get the life-changing and life-enhancing conversation at home or in the pub.