Creating Confidence #3

The third class of this course was held on Wednesday, April 04, 2007. We started out discussing where we may lose confidence. Many people on the call found that they lose confidence when they find themselves talking too much. I thought this was interesting that this would make them lose confidence.

We moved into a coaching situation with two students. I believe the intent was to help one student come up with some different ways that they could convey confidence to their clients. The man being coached felt like he should not share his own experiences or thoughts about a situation, he has felt like he should only ask questions. The woman that coached him helped him to come up with ways that he could contribute more to the coaching without just asking questions. The woman that coached made a great statement when asked if she was worried about having confidence in coaching, she said “No, because confidence is about me and coaching isn’t about me.” I love that and can learn a lot from thinking from that perspective in coaching.

We also talked about having an agenda, should we or shouldn’t we? Yes, or else we don’t show up. I think that we need to be somewhat flexible with the agenda but we should have an idea about where we are heading at the beginning of the session. We also need to know what our clients believe coaching is. It doesn’t really matter what we think coaching is but what our clients think it is and what they are hoping to get out of the coaching process. The client should do most of the talking. We can talk but we need to help the client move toward their goals, problem solving etc.

Overall I think we can all walk away from the class with confidence by realizing that there are many ways to coach and many types of coaching. There isn’t one way to coach and everyone else is not a good coach. I have confidence in my coaching because I know that I offer survival and hope and a genuineness that I bring to the coaching session. I believe I can offer tools and support to the women I coach.