Thoughts on Coaching the Person and Not the Problem

One of the things I really like about the coaching business is that it doesn’t really take a break. Sure, there’s a slowdown during the holidays and some weeks off here and there during the summer, but there is no clear peak season and trough. Once you build up your practice, you can expect to have steady work all through the year. That means it’s primarily up to you to establish boundaries and take the breaks you need to stay recharged. Don’t expect the market to do it for you.

How important are breaks? Incredibly important. Being a tired coach doesn’t lead to great coaching. A rested mind and an energized spirit does. The lesson here? Know thyself. Do you tend to push yourself too hard? Do you tend to overcommit and always have a little too much going on? I call that living on the edge and I made a video about it on my other YouTube channel, which is mostly dedicated to salespeople recently. You might get something from it.

If you lean more towards procrastination and taking it too easy, that’s a different kind of issue. You’ll probably want to spend more time focused on your “why” to generate the fervent desire to get more done to build up your practice.

Do you notice what I’m doing here? I’m coaching the person and not the problem. The person pushes themselves too hard or regularly misses deadlines. The problem is being unprepared for meetings and having a business that’s not growing.

If I was coaching the problem, I’d focus on the symptoms of being unprepared for meetings and talk about tactics you could employ to be prepared such as look at your week ahead on Sunday afternoon and start putting material together for each upcoming meeting. Or, for the lackluster business we might look at your ideas for upping your marketing savvy or sales skills.

In the world of coaching, there seems to be a premium put on the ability to coach the person and not the problem. If we are able to go deeper with a client, then we are making a greater impact. We may be helping the client make a sustainable change that has long-term positive effects. This is worth more, right?

It’s not that simple though. For one, the coachee may not always be ready to have the “person” coached. They may want to start with the “problem”. Why? Because they’re not ready to confront the underlying issues. Or, they have an immediate need to tactically tackle the problems they’re facing today. They have a meeting coming up tomorrow they need to prepare for and want to talk about what they might do to ensure it goes well.

I believe in being prepared to coach the person AND the problem. As you get better at coaching, you’ll start to gain a feel for what is the right approach for a coaching session. There will also be times when both approaches happen in the same session!

Want to learn more about this? I made a video recently that’s garnering a lot of attention. You can watch it here.

We hope this post has been helpful to you on your coaching journey. If you’d like to go further with our instruction, consider joining the Center for Executive Coaching. We have 3 levels of enrollment and payment plans to suit your pace and budget. Learn more here.

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