I’m often asked by my mentor coaching clients, how to stop clients who speak a lot, including if, how and when to interrupt a client. That’s a great inquiry! Here are some of my thoughts and different ideas, which have...
Blog
Improv-ing to better coaching skills
I wasn’t sure what I was going to write in this blog article. I had a general idea, and I trust the process of starting to type into a Word Document, with the intention of writing a short article that...
Vacation Empathy Trust and Connection
You may be wondering what a photo of an idyllic, remote, small Tahitian island resort has to do with empathy, trust and connection! This time last week, my husband and I were on vacation in this idyllic location and I...
Helicopter coaching views
I’m always searching for new and interesting ways to describe coaching skills to the coaches I’m mentoring toward their ICF credential. This is one metaphor I’ve used for a while, so thought I’d share it here too. It involves a...
Normalizing Conflict
Hands up anyone who enjoys being in conflict with someone? Conflict is a serious disagreement or argument with someone where there is often a ‘winner’ and a loser’ mentality. Maybe some people enjoy conflict, yet for the majority of people,...
Coaching is like playing tennis…
I’ve recently been using this metaphor with mentoring clients, to convey how a coach engages with their client. Metaphor is a direct form of communication, as it cuts through a lot of words and mental churn. Through metaphor, our client...
Strategies for coaching verbal processor clients
I added a new article that adds to this article, called Coaching verbally expressive clients I’m pretty sure every coach has had a client who speaks a lot. And then speaks a lot more. And then some. You may have...
Surrendering the mind
There’s a paradox present for coaches; simultaneously to know and practice good coaching skills, and yet not knowing how those coaching skills will best serve our client, in this coaching session. I’m working from the premise that we believe that...
Why am I still writing?
When I first began coaching 20 years ago, I was like every other new coach; trying to figure out how to use questions as a main way of drawing out knowledge from my client. This was so different than the...
Effective use of visual language
Imagine you are walking down a path with beautiful trees on either side. The sun is shining through the trees, creating a soft glow of light on the path ahead. There’s a puddle and you easily jump over it. As...