Coaches hold clients as their own best experts and as fully empowered individuals. This in and of itself requires developing coaching competency through coach training. Consider this: professionally most of us demonstrate our value by being the expert or the go to person on the job. It is often easier to give the answer than to help someone find their own answer. It simply takes more time, skill, and patience to help someone find their own answer.
The impact of helping someone find their own answers is clear:
- People own their own solutions.
- People figure out how to make the ideas they choose work.
- People follow-through when they are internally motivated.
- People grow and develop through finding their own answers.
Through the coaching process with a trained coach, clients reflect, explore, expand their thinking, and discover new insights. A trained coach then invites the client to choose how to use their new awareness. The coach knows how to ask the questions so that the client designs their own strategies and action plans. During the process the coach may partner with the client to create tools they will use or identify different tools that are available. If a coach is untrained or inadequately trained, they will give suggestions or tell the client what to do and the efficacy of the coaching is limited. For success, and to achieve the desired ROI, in all cases a properly trained coach ensures the client is fully empowered to make all their own choices.
