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| Charlotte Randall |
One of the things that tested my resolve the most during my training as a coach was learning that coaching sessions may not always leave you with an instant gratification of the influence your facilitation has had on the clients thinking.
I understand now that you may not
receive the real-time positive feedback you are hoping for from your client, and
that the expectation of this can leave you over-analysing your performance.
My
first experience of this came when coaching a client who was extremely
challenging in their behavior and mannerisms. I left every session drained,
feeling like I was an inconvenience to them and not really sure how much I had
really facilitated their thinking.
At this time I turned to my supervisor for
support. We planned an observation of a session with the client and debriefed at
length afterwards. Within the supervision environment I was able to speak
frankly and accept feedback about my approach and discuss the best way forward.
Without a shadow of a doubt this supervision enabled me to maintain the
professional coach/client relationship, reflect on my practice objectively and
to ultimately stay the distance with this client to a beneficial end.
I still
didn’t receive much gratification through verbal or body language communication
from my client in subsequent sessions, but as a consequence of the support from
my supervisor I was able to manage my own emotions better.
A little while after
their final session I received a message from the client thanking me for
everything I had done to challenge their thinking and develop their learning,
and still receive intermittent communication of how they continue to put their
learning into practice!
Charlotte Randall
British School of Coaching run coaching and mentoring training programmes up to Masters- level. Programmes are currently being delivered in the UK and the UAE - see if there are any courses that might benefit you here
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