Reflection on My First Experience as a Coachee

Rachael, my coach, and I started our coaching session by getting to know each other. We had communicated via e-mail, but this was the first time we got to see one another via a video Skype call.

Rachael had just finished work and was at home. She had driven through a bad thunderstorm. We talked about the winter weather. The night before, we were scheduled to have our coaching session. But, I contacted her to ask if we could reschedule. I couldn't get my car out of the parking space where I had parked, because it was parked on ice. I told her the story of how I used a garden shovel to try to break up the ice, spread a bag of road salt under the tires, pushed the car while it was in neutral, and finally had success by putting the floor mats under the front tires. We laughed, and I felt comfortable with Rachael.  I felt that we had created a safe space for our work together.

I talked with Rachael about the vision of coaching I had written. I realized that my vision didn't completely coincide with the recommendations of "Coaching from the Inside Out: Creating Exceptional Results." I realized in talking with Rachael that coaching is different from some aspects of very prescriptive academic advising that I do, such as telling a student "these are your required courses; you have to take these classes."

So, I realized that the coaching role is more to facilitate the coachee's own inquiry and solution-finding.

I shared a recent story about an experience I had with one of my advisees that really felt like coaching. The student was brought to me by her thesis advisor, who said that the student really didn't understand the concept of a thesis. She said that the student was in danger of failing her thesis preparation class. The student and I began to meet weekly. She showed me and explained to me her concepts and ideas. I asked questions, which spurred her to ask questions of herself and to change the direction of her inquiry. Through this process, the student came up with a very strong thesis idea that was completely different from what she presented when we began meeting. (She also earned a high grade in her class.)

The new thesis idea wasn't my idea.  I didn't suggest it to her. It was through our conversations that the student engaged in an ideation and problem-solving process and created something new. I told Rachael that this process felt like magic, and that I'm not even really able to describe what happened in each session.

In talking with Rachael, I realized that I will need to refrain, in coaching, from sharing solutions. Rather, I will need to ask questions and summarize to help my coachee reach her own conclusions and find new paths to solve problems.

In the beginning of my session with Rachael, I told her that I did not understand the "catalyzing" portion of the role of the coach. I thought that I would need to talk more with the instructor, or read additional articles to learn about this piece of coaching.

By the end of our session, I told Rachael, "maybe it's the process of coaching that is the catalyst."

I learned a great deal in the session and found it to be valuable. I look forward to continuing to work with Rachael.