Overview

In this chapter you ll read about three levels of coaching interventions, from a single conversation to complex, multisession programs. The proposed structures have been tested over time and are meant to be used as a way to keep practicing and improving as a coach. How can you use them in your coaching efforts?

He has to see on his own behalf and in his own way the relations between means and methods employed and results achieved. Nobody else can see for him, and he can t see just by being told, although the right kind of telling may guide his seeing and thus help him to see what he needs to see.

John Dewey

As was said earlier, probably the only activity you will do as a coach is speak to your client. Sometimes you may demonstrate, at other moments you ll be listening, but the form your coaching mostly will take is speaking with your client. That s why the earlier section on language has been included. So what do you say to your client? The most abstract way to answer the question is to respond that you say to your client something that will allow him to make a new observation. A more everyday way of answering is that you will speak with your client so that he will be able to see something or understand something or appreciate something that he couldn t before. But the job of a coach is beyond this way of speaking because the test of...