Communicate Like A Coach

I had 'coaching fatigue'. I was feeling disillusioned. It seems as if everyone and anyone calls themselves a coach these days. Sports coach, business coach, managers, trainers, consultants, counsellors, psychologists, etc. And then at a coaching conference last week, I had the privilege to hear Vikki Brock (www.vikkibrock.com) talk about her research on the history of coaching. She gave insight about how coaching developed through a combination of different disciplines and practices, in different countries, gradually evolving to meet a need in the marketplace. It is a testament to how prevalent that need was, that coaching has risen to become such a widely-used term in our vocabulary in such a short space of time. Something Vikki said, reminded me of what brought me to coaching in the first place: "Coaching is not a set of skills and tools. It's a social phenomenon for the twenty first century and a catalyst to the next stage of human development."
Imagine a place of no judgement, where you are accepted the way you are. Where people actively listen and ask effective questions. Where you are encouraged to have wishes and supported in learning how to fulfil them.