The Business of Coaching is Change

Change is happening all the time

We all know that change is happening all the time.  This means that the coach is not so much a change agent but has the job to help clients find useful change already present in their life and to amplify it as the difference that makes a difference.  These positive differences serve as the seeds to progress in the direction of the emerging future according to the client’s own choice.  The role of the coach is also that of creating expectations of beneficial change.

Enhancing Progress and Positive Change

 We acknowledge the problem but the focus is on the solution and not the problem.  We believe there is no link of necessity between the problem and the solution.  We do not analyze or diagnose but look for the shortest road to the solution.  We ask the client: What do they want to change?  How would that be different? What would be the benefits of the change?   Hereby we translate problem descriptions into goals and objectives.  We never ask “why” but “what” and shortcut many hours of fruitless delving into the problem.  We use tools to elicit specific and concrete descriptions or examples of the beneficial change that is desired.  We ask the client to imagine a time in the near future where the problem has disappeared and the desired progress to change has taken place.  What would then be the first thing they notice?  What would they do differently?  What would significant others notice?  Our experience is that this creates hope and that the projected solution becomes more tangible and therefore more possible.

Do more of what works

We then like to discover what works already well and do more of it as seeds of the emerging future.  We use scaling questions which help clients to evaluate their current position in relation to the desired future.  Then we investigate what strengths and competencies are present that they can build on?  Next we investigate what small steps clients can take to make progress up the scale?  Small steps are easy, it can be done quickly, and it creates hope and has a snowball effect towards the desired emerging future.  The combination of a clear direction and small next steps is amazingly potent in difficult and complex situations.