TABLE OF CONTENTS In coaching, timing is everything. Knowing when to start may well determine if you get anywhere. Since most people aren t walking around soliciting coaching, it s the coach s job to determine when the correct moment occurs. Of course, we can only find an opening by knowing what it is and then looking for it. Here s a chance to begin both activities. The underlying principle of this chapter is from Heidegger. He claims in Being and Time (1962) that the artifacts and routines of our everyday life are transparent to us until they break down. For example, we normally don t notice the flow of traffic until it jams, and we don t feel our shoes until the heel becomes loose, etc. Similarly, most people don t seek out and are not ready candidates for coaching until their everyday life is interrupted. Also see Flores and Winograd (1986) for a lucid explanation of breakdown.
An opening for coaching is an occasion: an event that makes it more likely that the potential client will be approachable for coaching. Undoubtedly, there is a certain percentage of people who are always open to coaching, people who are open to ideas and input from everyone else nearly all the time. One category of such people may be folks who feel guilty all the time and are attempting to settle their feelings by going off in as many directions as people want them to go in. Other people don t seem particularly attached to any way of doing something and...
