Thesis: Coachees want to work on themselves, not just on the “problem”.
I have learned something surprising in the last two years of business, namely that coachees, especially those experienced in coaching, are less and less willing to use the relevant coaching methods to find a solution to their problem. Instead, they are concerned with a good dialogue close to their question, especially close to their person with their patterns of behavior and thought that they try to decipher.
As formulated as the coaching methods have become, they reveal a weak point – methods bring a noticeable distance into the coaching relationship and sometimes overaccelerate or overstructure the joint process of finding solutions. The methodological tools are placed between coach and coachee and the coachee’s desire to explore and recognize himself. In this respect, if one equated coaching methods with a hammer, then the sentence would apply:
The hammer only knows the nail, not necessarily the client.
What instead?
Rather, it is about opening up the space for reflection in coaching. Coachees increasingly appreciate simply speaking freely, questioning themselves, associating, creating images, expressing hypotheses, taking solution paths cross-country. Without the pressure of having to get from A to B quickly, because they know this pressure well enough from their daily business.
Quite competent; because in the search for oneself, solutions usually come all by themselves.