In every conversation a coach enters with a client, the coach anticipates joining that person on their life’s journey. The person will have been on that journey for some time and the coach is now being invited, if only for a short time, to join them as they continue travelling. Lots has already happened to the person which will lead to the coach wanting to ask questions. What is she saying? What is he doing? What is going on?
The coach has to constantly remind themselves that they are the person’s journeyman. When the coach meets with the person, they are not so much wondering what they are going to do or say that will be ‘professional’ as to being alert and observant for what the person is doing or saying that makes for a good journey of their life. The coach is always coming in on something that is already going on. Sometimes they clarify a word, thought or feeling. Sometimes they raise an awareness about a troublesome issue. Sometimes they encourage a healthy taking of responsibility. But always the coach is dealing with what is happening on an existing journey, already brought into being. And a journey that the person needs to be able to continue by themselves. So, the coach slips away.
For a coach to do anything other than this is to lead a person to a dead end.