The International Coach Federation recently announced a change to their list of core competencies. The list and descriptions for each competency help coaches know what’s expected of a coach. The new list has eight competencies while the previous list had eleven. The only somewhat surprising change? The new list drops “Powerful Questioning”. Hmmm. Brian

  In my ebook The Language of Coaching, I compare learning to coach with learning a new language. It’s not that we learn new vocabulary, syntax, grammar and alphabet, but we do learn a new way to speak the language we already know. For new coaches, one of the most challenging aspects of learning this

  One of our mantras at CAM (and we have many) goes like this: “the brain is an incredible pattern-matching machine.” We say this often because coaching relationships often bump up against this truth. Sometimes it’s a friendly bump and other times it’s a hurtful collision. The human brain wants to match the novel to

  The modern proverb “Curiosity killed the cat” showed up on the scene in the late 1800’s. It was a warning against investigating too deeply into things. If you didn’t heed this wisdom, it was going to kill you! That’s a pretty dire warning. But when it comes to coaching, curiosity is the key. Having

  How does innovation happen? Usually by surprise. We often say, “You’ve stumbled onto something,” which means you got there by accident. You meant to step one direction, but something unseen made you step in a new direction. Then when you looked into this new direction, you were overwhelmed with all the possibilities. Helping people

Coaches dread hearing these three words from their client: “I don’t know.” It is the anthem of the client who is stuck. The words are often accompanied by a heavy wet blanket feeling that expresses the client’s low worth. Here are five good responses for the coach when they hear these painful words.