Coaches coaching coaches
I recently caught myself having a coaching stance when working with a group of coaches. And after realizing my own shortcoming I started being observant to how other people acted, and I realized many of us had the coaching stance. The consequence was we all spent time trying to observe and coach each other, and not much was being done in the meeting. Instead there was endless discussions, temperature readings and efforts to help each other.
I realized that going into this team I have to leave the coaching stance behind, and go in as a team member. Participate fully, and call on the other members to do the same. To be able to do this as a coach you have to be firmly rooted and be explicit about when you apply the tool of coaching, and when you should not.
I posted this on twitter
and it started an interesting thread. Some of the jokes of how many coaches does it take to change a lightbulb made me laugh, while others backed up my observation with their own stories.
I believe this challenge is very common among coaches and I personally find it challenging to shift context. I think this is a skill to be trained, and I want to make sure I never forget what it means to be part of a team delivering value.
As I will share this with my team, I will also try to be more explicit about the role I have when I am with a team. There is a time to coach, and there is a time to be a team member.
