Coaching Tip: Early Expectations
Category: Coaching Secrets (CS71)Originally Submitted on 5/9/99.
Introduction
Most people do not know how to be coached. It is important that the coach take responsibility for teaching them.
The Coaching Tip
So as to avoid misunderstandings and disappointments, the coaching relationship is greatly helped if the coach sets out expectations and boundaries at an early stage.One of the reasons that student coaches are expected to have their own coaches is so that they will know what it is to be coached. Through the process of being coached they learn about both being the client, and being the coach.
In the early days of a coaching relationship both coach and client are on new, and sometimes tentative ground. The client needs to learn what s/he may expect of a coach, and what is beyond the bounds. For the coach, there is a vast yet deceptive difference between giving
extra value and allowing a client to be overly demanding. Sometimes it is too easy to allow insistent requests from a client early on with the thought that they probably will not continue, that one wants to give extra value, and so on. However, if this happens there is no way that the client can know that what s/he is expecting is not appropriate. It is to be expected, then, that if the proper boundaries are set at a later date, the client may feel hurt.The coach must establish policies and procedures at the very start of the coaching relationship. Any special exceptions and extra values need to be clarified as just that, not as something that is the everyday norm and to be expected in the future, especially in the beginning of the coaching process.
About the Submitter
This piece was originally submitted by Diana Robinson, Ph.D., Personal Development Coach, who can be reached at Diana@ChoiceCoach.com, or visited on the web. Diana Robinson wants you to know: My two e-mail newsletters are free. To subscribe, and to learn more about my coaching, please visit my web site. I also offer you the gift of a half-hour of free coaching by phone, with no obligation, and would love to talk with you soon.
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