Coaching is not fixing clients, because coaching clients are not broken, they are creative and resourceful!

One of the most important premises this partnership called “coaching” is based on is that the client is a creative, intelligent, wholesome, resourceful person, perfectly capable of finding their own solutions and answers, capable of change and growth.

This idea that people are inherently good and creative originates with Carl Rogers, one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century and founder of the humanistic approach to psychology in the 1960s, also known for developing the psychotherapy method called client – centred therapy.

Rogers believed that people are primarily driven by the motivation to self-actualize, or achieve the highest level of their potential and development, but they are constrained by their environments, so they will only be able to self-actualize if their environment supports them. That means an environment where the individual is feeling safe, trusted, listen to, understood, supported, accepted and valued. A space where the person feels free to express and to explore feelings, thoughts, beliefs, free to be vulnerable or to be wrong without being judged, labeled, boxed or rejected.

This is exactly how the coaching space looks like

Our job, as coaches, is to fully trust that the client has all the answers, they know what’s best for them, what they are capable of and how their ideal self looks like.

Our job is to hold that safe space for the client, mirror and challenge their thinking, empower and fully support them in their choices. To help them move forward from their actual self to their best self.

The only necessary condition is that they are honestly committed to real change, to grow.

Social sciences tell us that when we are treated as autonomous, wise individuals, we tend to act accordingly

In her book, More time to think, Nancy Kline beautifully articulates the idea of partnership, of seeing the coaching client as an equal thinking partner. 

High quality thinking requires a proper thinking environment, that is a set of conditions that foster independent thinking, innovation, and problem-solving. These conditions are time to think, respect, generative attention, lack of judgement, lack of criticism or interruptions.

By holding this safe and supportive space for the clients, they are empowered to explore their thoughts, express their ideas openly, and find solutions to complex challenges. Moreover, they are able to think more clearly, creatively and expansively. In other words, to think better:

“You need to regard them as an equal. Really, as in cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die. Then you need to show them. One to one, you do this by wanting to know what they think, then by giving them equal time to express what they think, then by listening with generative attention (…). 

Professionals have two points:

First, is to be a thinking environment for the client, so that they can think for themselves brilliantly and discover the best way forward. The second, is to offer information and experience and insight to the client, that may be of value. Because when people go to professionals, what they are looking for first and most of all is a person who wants to know what they think, who they are and what matters to them”.

You got the idea,

a coach is your equal thinking partner. He’s not fixing you, nor consulting or giving you advice. He’s just creating a thinking environment for you to think better, to discover yourself, to find you own answers, to grow. The question is “are you ready to grow?”. Like willing and real committed to embrace good change in your life?

Bad news is you will be doing all the hard work. Good news is you are perfectly capable of doing it, because you are resourceful, wholesome and creative.

And that’s all there is to coaching.