The Brain Has Three Gears – Park, Discovery, and Regurgitate A peek into the client’s brain reveals a gear shift. There are three gears marked on the dashboard. One starts with P, another with D, and the last with R. Just like on a car, the P stands for Park. We need to get

  Much of what we do as coaches involves helping clients make decisions and then take action. Typically, the decision is some form of “What should I do about ___?” The coaching relationship creates a powerful space in which a client can consider an issue, really focus on the core concern of the issue, and

  Mark came into the coaching relationship very excited about his goal of earning a promotion. He was a year into his role as a production supervisor in a manufacturing company and he had his sights set on becoming a plant manager and eventually a director of operations. Mark wanted the career advancement, but two

  I just got done having breakfast with one of my favorite people in the world. Ken and I have been doing breakfast every other week for over ten years. We share about our lives – the challenges we are facing, the blessings we are experiencing. We bring problems we are facing and talk about

  Charlene is a good manager, but not great. She knows the business (furniture manufacturing) inside and out, can run pretty much any piece of equipment in the plant, and has an uncanny grasp of materials, costs, and personnel. So what keeps her from being great? Her preferred method of motivating is negative. Charlene is

A “maybe capacity” allows us not to get too attached to our client’s story or to our own internal responses. There is a discomfort with not forming an attachment to the client’s topic. Without a “maybe capacity”, I’m listening to the client waiting to hear my internal voice exclaim, “Oh, I know exactly what the