Coaching through open ended questions
“Hi I just read the book ‘Coaching for Performance’, it is a classic.” Tommy told me excitedly one day, “I learned the GROW framework - Goal, Reality, Option and Will. I am ready to coach!”
“Ah I heard about that book too. But what are you ready to coach for?” I asked.
“It does not matter what!” Tommy claimed proudly, “The beauty of the GROW framework is you can use it on anyone for anything. It is based on the belief that individuals have the capacity to find their own solutions, and the coach's role is to facilitate the discovery process, by asking open-ended questions without providing answers.”
“Is coaching really that simple?” I laughed, “let’s give it a try. Suppose I want to improve my freestyle swimming pace for my 1 mile swim, how would you coach me?”
“Let me see how to apply GROW on you.” Tommy paused for a bit, “What would you like to achieve?”
“I want to get my swimming pace below 1 minute and 50 seconds.” I said.
“Nice. The next question is about reality: Where are you now in relation to your goal?”, Tommy followed the runbook.
“I am 5-6 seconds away from that pace.”, I said.
“What are the different approaches you could take to reach your goal?”, Tommy followed along.
“I will try to swim more, with sprint intervals, and I have been working on my catch and kick.” I said.
“Ok. Last question: How will you track your progress, and what support or resources do you need?” Tommy asked finally.
“Well. I have my COROS sport watch to track my progress and I need my coach to tell me how to improve my catch and kick.” I said.
“But as your coach I can’t give you answers. I can only ask you more questions. I don’t even know how to swim by the way.” Tommy laughed too. “I just helped you discover what you already know.”
“Yeah but do I really need you to ask these questions to know what I already know? I can read that book myself!“ I protested, “I understand sometimes we need a coach like this to help us discover ourself. But coaching by asking questions has its limitations too. In our career and life journey, we need different roles at different time to help us grow:
Expert: someone we look up to for their achievements and mastery. Teacher: imparts us knowledge and skills within a structured learning environment. Mentor: offers guidance, support, and advice to help a less experienced person develop personally or professionally. Coach: facilitates our personal or professional growth through a process of powerful questioning. Sponsor: advocates for our career advancement by leveraging their power, connections, or resources.
In my current phase of swimming for example, I need someone who can show me what I am doing wrong, and how to do them correctly. Maybe I don’t need a ‘coach’ that only ask questions, I need a teacher to give me answers and help me learn some new drills!”
“Now it is time to pay your coaching fee.” Tommy put out his hand.
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