Overview

Coaching provides space for exploration so that the right goal can emerge, the solutions to enable the goal are identified, and the resources to be applied in their achievement are found. This chapter is concerned with supporting the process of building solutions. It is an exciting stage. A stage that has an ease to it, provided that:

• The right target for that individual is found.

• The right amount of stretch for that individual is defined.

• The right resources from that individual s experience pool are applied.

It is a stage at which the Manager Coach is offering support for thought, through offering frameworks to help the process of solution-finding. It is the time when all the hard work that the Manager Coach has done in Stages I and II reaps its rewards. When that work has been done well, any anxiety that the coach had at the beginning of the conversation that they will be expected to produce answers disappears, since it becomes clear that the coachee is able to, and wants to, produce their own solutions. The Manager Coach can enjoy the momentum of cruising downhill; still mindful of their role but feeling comfortable that the coachee is in control.

The need now is to hone the coachee s thinking through helping them to establish what needs to be different if...