Coaching is a privilege. Coaching is a benefit too – the coach is in a place of learning from their coachee. In the last blog this concept was explored and now the focus is on application of the concept.
One great tool is to make a list of questions that remind you to require of yourself the ability to be both teacher and student at the same time. Keep the questions easily accessible, on an index card, in your computer, in a handy notebook. If upon reading this, you are inspired to start your list of questions, please allow me to offer you a few questions to start:
- What knowledge do I want to review from a different perspective?
- How do I best remain open to learning from others?
- How do I want to capture and apply new learning?
Another great tool is to reflect on the information in the ICF Comparison Table on how coaching competencies are evaluated:
- The coach’s invitation to exploration precedes and is significantly greater than invitation to solution.
- The coach appears as much an explorer as well as client.
- The coach has not concluded what awareness should be (coach is willing not to know).
- The use of the client’s greatness invited and welcomed. There is no evidence of “fixing” a problem or the client.
- The coach allows client to make coach aware and the client’s voice more prevalent than coach’s.
Experience the value of being a student when you are the coach and you maximize the value of the relationship for everyone involved.
