MIS-DIAGNOSES GO UNCHALLENGED

Your client walks in, plops down in your coaching chair, you ask the question, “What do you want?” and off you go on the coaching adventure. Simple. Obvious. Your client, who does not need therapy, is there to make his or her life better. And you are there as a “making life better” facilitator. It’s a happy marriage. Right? What could go wrong? Well, actually lots of things.

The most obvious thing that could go wrong — right from the start— is that your client begins with a mis-diagnosis of what is needed in his life to make it better. To then complicate that, he mis-diagnoses what he thinks will make his life better. And then to triple the complication, you accept those mis-diagnoses at face value(!). You just run with it. You don’t question them, reality test them, or clarify them. Now we have three mistakes back-to-back.