I watched a coach working with a student, reflecting on their interaction and how it compared to the memory replay of my experiences with coaches. The process of coaching is simple yet complex, in the moment while timeless. An astute coach sees in us what we cannot see. S/he offers us insights, many consistent with what we recognize with hindsight in the mirror, yet when they speak we hear them in a way that is fresh, different, and relevant.
The recent observations linked me to the past and present in a way that caught me by surprise.
In every coaching relationship, trust lives or dies. You cannot be in either role without acknowledging the importance trust plays in the conversation, interactions, and relationship. Regardless of where you start, each moment you have together helps it lives and encourages it to die. There is rarely any middle ground.
I had forgotten that a coach’s best insights are heard as wisdom. Rarely do they say something that one has not heard or read before. The different is time, place, and context! It could be one’s stance, weight balance, or movement – whatever it is, an observation perfectly time and delivered to someone willing to hear with an open mind is radically different than reading an article or watching a youtube video.
Great coaches rarely run out of ideas! There is always room for improvement and practice. It is as if “their houses brim with wealth and a generosity that never runs dry.” (Psalm 112.03) The student is the beneficiary; however, it is in giving that coaches find their wells refilled.
The greatest gifts a student can give coach include a listening ear, a willing spirit, and the effort to put words into practice. It starts with listening but lives and grows in freely embraced action.
As I think of coaching sessions, past and present, there is a recurring thirst for more. You could see and feel that the transformation that started in the moment was going to continue if the student’s willingness to learn remained.
Discovery can be fun.
