Chad Hall - The Coaching Mindset: 8 Ways to Think Like a Coach

Coaching is afast-growing profession as well as a proven way to boost your ability to lead,manage, and even parent. More people are turning to coaches becausecoaching works. Or at least it works in proportion to the coachs abilityand the clients willingness to work hard and grow.

I learned aboutcoaching in 1999 when I became a staff member of a large denomination. Myjob was to help churches and leaders be more effective. The problem wasthat my approach was all wrong: I told people what to do and watched as theydidnt do it. Such is the life of a consultant.

When I stumbledupon coaching, I quickly realized this was a different and far more effectiveway of helping. Rather than tell people what to do, I helped people tellthemselves what to do. Rather than deliver my expertise, I drew forththeir expertise. Rather than stand by and watch as they did nothing withthe plans and goals I gave them, I stood amazed at the progress they madetoward their own goals.

Whether youwant to start a coaching practice, add coaching to your consulting orcounseling practice, or use a coaching approach in your current role, you willadd a tremendous amount of value to those you coach. But the value youadd will only come in proportion to your ability coach. Not all coachesare great coaches. Some are not very effective at all, while others aresimply amazing.

My bet is thatyou want to be a great coach. Thats a wonderful goal, and one thatpretty much anyone whos willing to learn, grow, adapt, and stick with it canachieve.

Ive beencoaching for over fifteen years now and have even been recognized as a MasterCertified Coach by the International Coaching Federation. That makes meone of about 700 MCCs in the world. But I didnt start out as a mastercoach; I started out as a terrible coach. I did a lot of things wrong andI was a bit hardheaded in thinking that whatever I did was right and however Icoached was what real coaching must be.

My journeytoward being a masterful coach took me through a lot of changes and required alot of growth. The most significant aspect of my growth was mytransformation from doing coaching at the skill level to being a coach at thedeeper level of how I think.

As you makeprogress toward your goal of being a coach, let me offer some advice: doingcoaching is one thing (a good thing), but the high leverage shift is not inyour doing its in your thinking. You might even say its in yourbeing.

Too many timesIve seen new (and even seasoned) coaches get in the way, do it wrong, and justmake a mess of the coaching relationship. More times than not they do itwrong because they think wrong. When I give these coaches feedback, they mostoften want to know what to do differently:

whatquestions to ask

howbest to interrupt

whento offer an insight

howto create space for the other person to think

whatto say in response to a client whos stuck

Those are allgood things (when the time is right), but those are techniques. The righttechniques in the wrong hands will produce the wrong results. As a newcoach what you need most is not simply a change of techniques, its to changethe way you think. When you think like a coach, the techniques just click,the conversation flows smoothly, and you bring tremendous value to those youcoach. Thinking like a coach requires not just a change in what you do,but also a change in who you are. When that deep-level change occurs, theproper techniques and skills come naturally and fluidly.

Mytransformation to become a masterful coach hinged on a huge change in mythinking. In this book my hope is to help you experience a similarchange. This short e-book is designed to help you understand the coachingmindset, to notice your mindset, and to actually inhabit a coaching mindset sothat it becomes a part of who you are, not just something you can do. Imgoing to share 7 ways the coachs brain works and help you get your brainworking in that same way. Lets get started.