A Coaching Model Created by Allison Sharpe
(Life and Relationship Coaching,UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)
A client may not even know what’s wrong with him, but can only tell me his symptoms. He feels a sense of overwhelm, unfulfillment, depression, failure. He keeps trying and never gets anywhere. He has a lot of stuff he thought he wanted but now it’s just old and dusty. He can’t figure out how he got here or how he can get to his happy destination. This is where the coaching application begins, setting the destination point to now – Live Center (as opposed to dead center).
At Live Center he isn’t adding new things to his list (e.g. +1, +2, +3, etc.) which is future focused. Live Center also doesn’t look backwards at what should have happened which takes away from the present moment (e.g. -1, -2, -3, etc.)
To get to Live Center, I start by asking the client a few questions:
These questions give us a starting point like the ‘You Are Here’ on a map. This doesn’t mean there won’t be times we look back to where the client was before getting to where he is now, but the fact still remains he is where he is – Live Center.
This stage also allows my client to get to know me a bit to develop trust. A person needs to like and trust me before they are willing to open up and be vulnerable. Each time I open up a safe space by listening and asking non-threatening, non-judgemental questions, the coaching relationship is strengthened.
Once we settle our client into Live Center we guide him through a three step action plan.
Sort
For a client to have something different, they need to do something different. To change perspective it’s important to sort out everything in his life so he can see it all in one place. A good way to do this is with a brain dump.
I ask him to start with a large sheet of paper and write out everything he can think of that affects his life; tangible and intangible. I encourage him to keep each item to words and short phrases so the list doesn’t feel unmanageable at the end.