David: Well, I think you’re pretty much there. It’s just details now. So I would love it, when you get a moment tomorrow, to send me a quick email, just letting me know how it went. You know, however it goes, that’s how it’s going to go. Also, would you please email me with what you would say to your grandparents? You’ve just done some awesome communication here with me. So, similar vein: what is there; what can you be responsible for; what can you ask for? You know, just the truth for you. Get it out. Send it to me in a way that feels powerful to you and if I can add anything to it, I’ll get back to you on it.
Client: Okay. Sounds really good.
David: You’ve got two weeks to do some stuff, so it’s great that you said to me, ‘Look I’m feeling pretty empowered and I know what I’ve got to do.’ So, you’re going to work on the ‘clean sweep’. Keep getting it moving – keep cleaning up. I’m going to send you something called the ‘Who Am I’ questions and that’s for you to start looking at who you are as a coach. You’ll have some time to look at that. Do it early in the week, so that you can then think about it and readdress it over the next seven days. Then you can send it to me with your self-coaching form.
Ingrid: You speak with people perhaps once a week for a half an hour, or an hour. How do they carry that through to all of the other hours in their week?
David: Right. Well, most of the work actually occurs off the call. Someone comes to me, we’ll spend thirty minutes on the call, and we’ll agree on homework. So I’m asking them, ‘What are you going to do in the next seven days?’ I’ll come up with a list of things, and then I might suggest some things. How about this? How about that? So they’ve actually got a list of actions to carry out. Then when it comes time for the call in the next week, they’ll sit down and do some preparation. They look at what they’ve achieved, what they meant to achieve but didn’t, and they might even create some action steps for the following week. Then they’ll decide what we’re going to work on that week. It’s actually amazing – even before they come to the call, they’ve coached themselves, and they’ve really covered a lot of ground.
The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.
It is true that people receive value from growing awareness, or insights about their life. I am sure there are coaches who help their clients gain clarity during the session, and then leave it to the client to decide what, if anything they will do before the next session.
However, a generally accepted principle of coaching is ACTION. Without action, results do not occur — and many of your clients will be seeking results. Also, action provides the opportunity for new insights — it’s not until you go and ask three girls for a date that you can learn more about your fear, including how to get past it.
It has been said: “If the client is not left in action, coaching did not occur”.
A strong statement, but I tend to lean in this direction.
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If you would like further information about how to coach, then I recommend you view our coach training libraries at:
http://www.CoachingClips.com
