TO COACH EFFECTIVELY, YOU HAVE TO BE PERSUASIVE

When you coach, you persuade. The reason you pace, pace, pace is so that you can then lead. And as you do, you are leading your client to where that person wants (or needs) to go and you do that by using the Well-Formed Outcome process. Doing that, you co-create the place “where” your client wants to go. In essence, your client is paying you to influence him so that he can then, in turn, influence himself.

Persuasion is built into the very fabric of coaching inasmuch as it is an inherent part of communication. It is also an inherent part of every relationship. You and I inevitably influence and persuade as we communicate and relate. The choice is not between persuading or not, it is in the kind and quality of persuasion. Is it healthy or unhealthy; it is respectful or manipulative; it is ethical and promotes well-being or it is unethical and creates hurt and pain. It is because of all of this that I wrote the book, Inside-Out Persuasion: Unleashing your Authentic Powers of Influence (2017) as the 15th book in the Meta-Coaching Series.