By S.A. Hussaini
Coaching is not telling, it is not even helping someone by providing a solution. Coaching is all about empowering people to find solutions to their own problems. The most difficult part of coaching is to refrain from advising. We as human beings are innately supportive and helping in nature but not everybody needs our help all the time.
Sometimes the struggles we go through are really important for our own growth and confidence.
I believe every parent, manager, and leader should learn to coach themselves as well as others. All we need is a strong conviction in the ability of the coachee to find a solution and patience to see them struggle and develop. Many parents as well as managers break down and offer support during the most critical time of development of the individual. This leads to low confidence, which means self-reliance.
This reminds me of the story of a caterpillar that couldn't fly, a young boy once had a pet caterpillar whom he used to take good care of.
One morning when he woke up, he saw his pet caterpillar stuck in a cacoon, he got scared for his caterpillar and quickly got a blade and cut open the cacoon, out came an underdeveloped butterfly that limped on the desk and dropped on the floor, it crawled but just couldn't fly.
Do not be that boy help people around you to strengthen their wings and fly!
Download the deck of Coaching cards and remember, Coaching is not Telling.