Cathy Liska This is the third post in a series and it looks at the second question posed in the first post.
Question 2: How could a coach in this situation provide perspective without providing the actual plan?
Providing a plan means giving a complete idea and steps to implement.
Providing perspective includes sharing related examples, talking about similar situations, brainstorming, and both eliciting ideas and adding ideas to the list of possibilities.
Now go deeper and consider what is behind the value of giving perspective rather than a plan.
* How is perspective different? After exploring multiple stories, examples, and ideas, the coach asks the client how the client wants to move forward. The client develops the actual plan.
* Do clients use ideas and tools the coach provides? If and when the client chooses, yes. The client then decides how to use the ideas or tools in their plan.
* In the story given in the first post, could the coach have given the client the idea in a way that works? During a brainstorming session, multiple ideas are listed. When giving perspective, multiple stories and examples are used. The idea could have been one of many.
* If the idea were one of many, how might that change the outcome? When a client chooses which idea they want to use, they make it their own. When they make it their own, they tweak the idea, create their plan, and buy in to their plan.
Because the client is the expert, the coaching client is the best person to choose ideas or parts of ideas, then develop the concepts and formulate the plan. The coaching client is the person taking the action steps. Ownership, buy in, and follow-through start with choosing ones actions.
Do you prefer to be told what to do and how or do you prefer to know the end goal and figure out how to get there?
