Coaching and failure

Category: Editorial

I was talking to a colleague the other day and she commented on how hard she had found it to learn because the Indian culture did not recognise failure. The focus for young people was always on success. Then Andrew Halfacre submitted his thoughts on the value of failure. I am delighted, therefore, to feature his contribution below.

I had an interesting demonstration of the difference between consultancy and coaching last week. In our business we offer a package of consultancy, coaching, facilitation and training on the basis that for consultancy to lead to change, all four are likely to be needed.

I had been talking to an executive about how he could expand his activities when he was already overworked. We had his support team into the room and they explained that they had been doing more than he realised in terms of keeping his customers informed of progress. We ascertained that his real 'problem' was worry about things not being done, being allowed to slip. What was needed to remove his concern; if anything was missed? How long before it became critical? Solution: a monthly review meeting would cover his concerns and ensure that he was briefed and customers properly served.

Fine. So what?

This is where consultancy became coaching. If I had left it there he might have managed a review at the end of the month - and he might not. Would he have kept it up? A few follow up questions of "So?" led him to realise that there was one step missing. In front of his 'coach' he then made an entry in his electronic diary for two hours on Friday 24 February, with an automatic repeat every month. Now we all know that change will happen.

Last week I also went to an NLP open evening organised by NLP School Europe. ABL World has organised one for Tuesday 7 February. These are a very valuable way of discovering that NLP is a practical subject, not one to learn from books. Robbie Steinhouse has submitted an article about the application of NLP, which I publish below.

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