Two Natural Responses that are NOT Coachy
Coaching is defined as a set of conversational tools (and even conversational rules - or best practices) that can be used to aid someone as they discern their next steps.
In faith-based coaching, that means believing the Holy Spirit IS guiding the other person, and our job is to create a safe space for them to focus on one area and talk it out.Ā
In our initial training, Life Coach Certification, we build on the foundational pillars of Active Listening and Asking Powerful Questions. That's one of the reasons our tagline at Bridges is: making disciples, not dependents. We don't want to tell people what to do; rather, we want to help them feel confident about pursuing the next step in their personal faith journey.
We encourage these trainees to practice their coaching skills by doing 3 things.Ā
1- Guiding their coachee to choose a singular focus.
2- Talking less than 20% of the time in a coaching session.
3- Completing the session with an agreed-upon action step - even if that step ...
Coaching For Everyday Conversations
If you know coaching,Ā you probably know at least some of the basic tenets. In our Coaching culture training, we dig into the pillars of Active Listening and Asking Powerful Questions. This alone is most often an intense culture shift. It's much more common to offer a solution based on our own education or experience than to be present for someone and offer a space for them to talk through their situation.Ā
And yet we all love to be heard.Ā
And most of us prefer not to be told what to do. (Check out the blog on the "instawall".)
In our Life Coach Certification, we give trainees three goals for their first coaching sessions:
1. Ask the person being coached to come with a focus.
2. Ensure the person being coached does most of the talking (80% goal)
3. Complete the coaching with an action step of some sort - even if it is to come back to the next session with a list of possibilities
All these are valuable practices, but not very common.Ā
*Try it! If you are not yet coach-trained, ...
How Are Your People Doing?
We all have people. Think of your circles. You have co-workers, neighbors, friends from your past, current friends, and family members younger than you and older.Ā
You interact with them in different ways. Maybe some you just wave to, but most you have some sort of conversation with. Those are the ones we are talking about today.Ā
Conversations make up the majority of our interactions with others.
How are your conversations going?
Are some repetitiveĀ - where they share the same "things" over and over, and you wish you could help them get unstuck?
Are some wistful - where they talk about their dreams, but they don't seem to be moving toward them?
Are some shallow - where you wish you could go deeper, but you aren't sure how?
Are some sad - where you want to offer hope, but they can't seem to break through?
The Coaching paradigm can help!
Coach training isn't just for aspiring professionals (but we set them up well too). Coach principles have shifted many stale conversations and...