Overview

In giving time to the Set Up phase of the conversation, the coach is showing that they are offering support for the other s thoughts, and that the agenda is in their hands. In moving the conversation forward the coach continues to show that support, but they have to do more if the other person is to be helped to change. The coach needs to enable them to examine their situation and the tangibles they have attached to it. In this way, they are able to discover if there are other tangibles they have overlooked in their telling of their story. In Einstein s words, Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one . The Manager Coach offers the opportunity to discover alternative realities.

This means moving from the rapport-building listener to the listener whose purpose is to wipe the steam off the mirror, so that the other person can see themselves and their situation more clearly. When a member of staff tells of a difficulty they are facing, they will have told the story to themselves many times. It will have been crafted into a final version that is crystallized in their mind. The task of the coach is to unfreeze that version so that they have the opportunity to look at it from another perspective, and in so doing be able to find a viewpoint from which solutions can emerge.

The skill base of the coach now has...