Seth Tries Defining Coachable
June 9, 2007 · → 2 Comments
For the many clients and friends of mine that are or have been professional coaches (or been trained but have decided to follow another path), you will take great interest in Seth Godin’s very recent post looking at the characteristics of what makes someone coachable, or more precisely un-coachable.
In particular I found the following comment from one of the world’s most respect commentators on marketing and trends very interesting.
The ICF brigade wouldn’t be happy with this. But then many coaches would tell you that the truth can hurt.
Yep, nice short article. Reminds me that somewhere along the line there is a teaching component to coaching.
Thanks Leah.
When I was starting out, I’d try to figure out if someone would be coachable on my own, and I’ve learned to trust in my own intuition about it. However now I just ask people outright if they feel they can be coachable or not, and what they think they may struggle with. Accepting feedback is difficult for everyone, and it helps when they know I’ll be expecting to get some back from them too. Without mutual trust and care for each other the coaching isn’t going to happen.
I think that Seth Godin did an exceptional job talking about getting people used to fast feedback loops (versus so-called constructive criticism) as part of an organizational culture in one of his early books, Survival is not Enough. I know you’re a Seth Godin fan Leah, have you read that one?