How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 128

3.14 ADVISING
Coaching is a professional service that attracts clients who want to
make big changes in their lives or overcome obstacles. Many clients
assume that they are going to work with someone who can give
answers or solutions.
Persons who seek help in improving their life or business might then
believe that they will be receiving advice from a professional. When we
begin to have coaching conversations with prospective clients or
contracted clients, we as trained professional Life Coaches (aka
personal and professional coaches) must really be clear that giving
advice is not really part of the coaching paradigm.
Advising (the act of giving advice) according to the Webster's collegiate
dictionary is "to make a recommendation regarding a decision or
course of conduct," and it "implies real or presumed knowledge and
experience" . Coaching is to empower, to motivate, to enrich, to co
create with our clients. In fact, I believe that effective coaching is even
more than problem solving or being solution focused. Coaching is about
the creative process of designing one's life to be more like they really
want it to be. That is creation — bringing into being what does not now
exist. Problem solving is about symptoms and fixing, not creating.
"The trouble with advice is that you cannot tell if it is good or bad until
you've taken it."
— Frank Tyger
Advising then, should be omitted from the coaching conversation and
as coaches, we also need to "train" our clients to not expect advice, even
though we might be capable of some very good advice.
Many of us as coaches would also qualify as advisors or consultants,
which are focused more on giving direction and recommended action.
Part of the joy I experience as a coach is that I do not have to wear the
"expert" hat — my job is to evoke the brilliance of each of my clients

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