“I figured it out myself! I feel amazing!”
That’s what someone said at the end of a recent coaching session with me — and honestly, it made my day.
I’ve been mentoring for a while now. But recently, I started learning coaching techniques and tried using them during my usual mentoring chats. It felt like a game changer.
In mentoring, I’d usually share advice based on my experience as we co-solve a problem or challenge.
In coaching, I take a step back — and help the other person uncover their own answers. It’s less of “Here’s what I think you should do” and more “Let’s explore what you really think.”
And this works better!
One coachee said: “My problems sound so obvious now. Why didn’t I see this earlier?”
Another one: “I feel so good that I found the answer myself!”
Compare that to the usual mentee response: “I’ll try to do what we discussed…” 😅
Long story short — I’m loving this new approach and want to test it more. I’m offering to coach a few people pro bono every week.
