Interpretation: Someone who volunteers is better in terms of commitment and delivery than a number who are made to do something.

There’s a big difference between people who elect to coach and those who are pushed to coach with a guillotine dangling over their heads

Organisations sometimes misuse coaching. I know because I’ve experienced it. Occasionally, organisations push people towards coaching when they have performance problems and or because their colleagues are all “ON THE PROGRAMME and the person thinks they should do it otherwise they will look like they’re not a team player, a player, intelligent, or some such thing.

As a consequence, what you might get is coaching with limited COMMITMENT.

Coaching requires a commitment to coach on behalf of the person being coached. Just like when people get married, there are a series of expressed and unexpressed promises between the coach and coachee. These include..

I coachee take thee and promise…

• To arrive on time and use our time well.
• To be ready and willing to be coached in my time with you.
• To work on real things that are important to me and which I want to improve, remove or adjust.
• To work with you as my coach rather than as my boss,my prescription provider in life, or my excuse for not doing whatever it is that I or others want me to do, to be, or believe.
• To complete things outside of our 1:1 time (assignments, experiments and tasks) which I have agreed to take on.

I coach take thee and promise…

• To arrive on time and use our time well.
• To give you 100% of my attention and an absolute focus on you in my time with you.
• To work on real things that are important to you and which will assist you in finding solutions and get you to where you want to go in a way that you want to go there.
• To work with you as your coach and support you to grow and develop your key asset- you. This means I will challenge you and give you some useful insights that you can’t see and which other people may not tell you.
• To extend your coaching experience outside of your 1:1 time with me by giving you appropriate assignments, experiments and tasks which will stretch you and enable you to realise it’s an ongoing journey and that it’s all about you.

It’s simple. If you are intent on allowing the very best of you to show and YOU commit to that, chances are you are more likely to deliver that in this lifetime.