Your Coaching Test-Drive Opportunity

The InstituteofCoaching.org states, "The benefits of coaching are many; 80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence, and over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills."

Let me share a short, true story that illustrates the power of the coaching process to almost immediately improve performance.

Tim Gallwey, former tennis pro/instructor, and author of the international best-selling book, The Inner Game of Tennis, tells the story of the coaching breakthrough he had while observing one of his students.

Gallwey talks about being somewhat bored during the lesson, as he watched this player continue to hit the ball too high over the net, repeatedly. Then at some point, he became curious, and rather than tell the student, "you're hitting the ball wrong!,", instead, he asked questions, such as, "what do you notice about how you just hit that tennis ball?", and, "what do you think you could do differently next time to get the shot you want?"

Seems like fairly basic questions, right? Well, here's the point. By asking the player those questions, and others, the player was required to go inward- to think about what he was doing throughout each step of his swing. This internal review process created an awareness within the student as to what he was doing ineffectively, and what the could possibly change.

Gallwey was surprised to see a fairly immediate, and sustained improvement in the student's swing, and thus, his game overall. He then tested this epiphany around the power of asking questions with his other students, only to find similar success.

In its simplest form, that is the power of the coaching process! To quote Tim Robbins once again,