What is the most important thing that a new coach should be aware of? I coach quite a lot of coaches and I'm often asked this question.
This is my reply:
It would have been all too easy to slip into suggesting techniques to use, best practice to follow and questions to ask when answering this question. Fortunately I held back and on reflection it's clear that the single most important thing that a new coach should be aware of is:
"Don't get in the way!"
Successful coaching relies on a very special space between the client and the coach. It's space of trust, empathy, sharing, intensity and oneness to give it a few qualities. It's the place where coaching magic happens. Magic that has little to do with the perfect question, or well-honed technique or best practice.
There is a definite art to creating this space and some definite pitfalls that will prevent it from forming. A key skill of the coach is to hold this space by standing just on the periphery and not filling it by getting in the way.
So how can one go about creating this successful coaching space?
o Pace and Lead your client: Reflect the rhythm and amplitude of their body and voice energy in your own. Initial coaching sessions and the start of coaching sessions will be likely be very 'busy'. Mimic this for a while and then take them to a more relaxed state of mind by slowing your body movement and voice.
o Take your time: Take time to calibrate where a new client is in terms of their own awareness - don't rush things, all things flow more naturally when allowed to start off at their own pace.
o 'Less is more': silence is a powerful coaching tool. Don't feel that you have to break the silence. Give the client plenty of time to access and articulate their feelings.
o Keep your enthusiasm under control: Sometimes a wish to help someone can result in a degree of 'certainty' that you know better than them what they need to do. All you need to do is enable your client to find their own answers.
o Be consistent: The other by-product of too much enthusiasm is that it can sometimes lead a coach to try several different techniques (confusing the issue and the client!) when just one well placed one will do the job much better.
o Leave judgements aside: Leave your own ideas and experiences outside the door. Your experience is not their experience and what worked for you is unlikely to work for them. Every client knows what works for them best. Help them find their own solutions. This will lead to deeper and faster change than providing advice.
o Be aware of timekeeping: it is not unusual when you first start to coach to over run on time quite considerably. Always ask your client how they would like it to be at the end of the session before you begin, in terms of 'when you leave here at ..o'clock how would you like things to be for you?' This focuses the intent of the session very firmly in a time bound way and will prevent drifting.
Mark Spall is a Coach and Leadership trainer and delivers his materials through a variety of innovative mediums. More on Mark can be found at http://www.markspall.co.uk . Mark is the founder of the Agile Leader Network (http://www.agile-leader.com ), a knowledge base and support network for young people who wish to achieve their best in their careers and their businesses.