I received the following snippets in a recent coaching website newsletter—
The market is saturated with coaches who can ask good questions, create safe spaces for clients to speak their mind, and then listen actively so clients feel heard. These are essential skills, but they're no longer enough to stand out. The coaches who are building thriving practices have something more: the ability to challenge their clients while maintaining deep connection.
…
When you move from transactional to transformational coaching, everything changes. Your clients experience profound shifts instead of incremental improvements. They leave sessions energized and clear instead of simply heard.
Now this quote is focused on Professional Coaching, but I also considered it from the perspective of Agile Coaching, keeping in mind that there is a difference between the two.
This made me think of a corollary—
If the professional coaching market is saturated with coaches who can ask good questions, create safe spaces for clients to speak their mind, and then listen actively so clients feel heard.
Then the Agile Coaching market is saturated with coaches who can ask good questions, create safe spaces for clients to speak their mind, and then listen actively so clients feel heard.
Implying that Professional Coaching is no longer a sufficient skill or stance to be an impactful and valuable Agile Coach.
You need MORE. I would argue, much more than this specific skill set. Unfortunately, many Agile Coaches still lean too heavily into their Professional Coaching stances.
But I’m also seeing the market self-correct and wondering why it took so long…
Stay agile, my friends,
Bob.
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Great post, Bob. Yes, what both Agile Coaches and other Professional Coaches need to do is stop focusing on trying to land the "best" questions and start focusing on the ownership and actions the clients/co-workers need to move forward. Insight is great and integral for coaching, but without ownership and action, they are an extremely expensive self-help book. If coaching doesn't translate to something positive in the real world, then it is a waste. The full power of coaching only happens when they take what you did together and apply it in real time.