Your coaching style – where are you on ‘the answer is within’ continuum?

There’s lots of opinion out there on ‘the best’ coaching style but something I wanted to draw your attention to is the idea that ‘the answer is within’ and given time the people you coach will be able to find their own solutions and don’t need any ideas from you (this aligns very closely with approaches used in counselling/therapy).

I mention this because I find it helps to shape your coaching style using ‘the answer is within’ continuum – you never offer an idea at one end of the continuum and it’s your job to offer as many solutions as you can at the other.  Once you know where you sit you on that continuum you can reflect on…

• If this is where you want or should be based on your understanding of effective coaching
• If and why you adapt your coaching approach based on context
• What motivates you to use this approach (is offering ideas about a desire to help or a desire to want to be seen to be helping?)

Where do I sit? I feel context is everything.

When I work with someone I carry an image of a 4-piece jigsaw puzzle in my head. Sometimes my role is to let someone create their own puzzle from scratch. Other times I feel I need to offer them 1 piece of the puzzle and they create the rest. Occasionally they might need 2 or 3 pieces.

I never give them the whole thing (unless they’re one of my family and I’m tired and/or in a mood!) and the ongoing challenge is to use the approach that best meets the needs of the individual as they present in that moment. Not easy and learning how is definitely a case of creating your own puzzle from scratch!

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