“I DON’T KNOW” DOESN’T STOP A META-COACH

How do you answer a client when he says, “I don’t know?” Does that stop you? Would you like to have a way to effectively respond? I wrote the following article for the Meta-Coach Reflections back on June 1, 2011. And we regularly send it out to the new Meta-Coaches. Last week we graduated 34 new Meta-Coaches in Sydney—so this is for them. And if you have lost it or forgotten, it is for you also!

What do you do when a client says, “I don’t know!” What do you do when you run up against the “I don’t know” roadblock? Do you quit? Do you shift to another subject? Do you ask the tormenting question that they cannot answer and which they just told you they cannot answer, “Why don’t you know?” I hope not! Asking that “why” when the person is in an unresourceful state is an unuseful question at best. It is also “irrelevant” and can induce a counter-productive state.