CoachNet Campfire

First the good news: today two different leaders asked me to become their coach. Now the bad news: neither of them could tell me exactly what it was they wanted me to do for them. Not one of these two could tell me what their goal was or in what they wanted to be coached. They could not answer the simple question, “What do you want me to do for you?” This was astounding. When we break it down to it’s most fundamental level, coaching is about helping someone else become more effective or fruitful at what they do. While I agree both of these individuals will certainly benefit from an intentional coaching relationship but I bring this up for the sake of illustration.

I believe many people are learning or, at least, hearing about the power of coaching and therefore conclude they need a coach but don’t actually know why. Herein is a quality coach’s hard word: to help a person discern what is most important to them, their degree of commitment to that which is most important to them, the nature of the obstacles they are facing, the quality of the resources they have at hand and the beginning of a feasible strategy to act upon that which is most important to them. This is arduous work. And this may be some of the most important and over looked work of quality coaches. To empower someone to discern and act upon what God is calling them to do.

You’ve all heard of Bob’s dad Sam’s maxim for success, “Find out what God wants you to do and do it.” The problem with many leaders is they simply do not know what it is God want’s them to do. Sometimes they will turn to a coach in hopes that coach can tell them what to do. And, in so many words, look to the coach rather than to God for their direction. A quality coach will keep the individual pointed to God and to inwardly reflect on His direction. Again, this can be very hard work. Especially when God may be silent during a coachee’s desert experience. I’ll save desert experiences for another blog entry so I end with this: what questions do you employ to help the ones you are coaching discern what it is they want to do in the first place? Or how do you help coachees develop goals?