Coaching’s here to ask questions – Aboodi Shabi
Coaches need to be bold and ask the questions others dare not ask – that’s when we best serve our clients, said Aboodi Shabi in his keynote address on whether coaching still matters, writes Kate McGuire.
“Coaches have to navigate between working in and challenging the status quo. The coach represents in some way a shaman who helps people to question and go beyond what we take for granted,” said Shabi, head of coaching and training at Newfield Network Europe.
“Coaching’s here to begin to ask questions. I don’t think we have to have quick solutions, but to be introduced to different possibilities. (Clients) say we need to work together to meet deadlines; we don’t think to ask why. (Clients) say we have to do what we’re told; we need to ask why. Ontological coaching talks about the difference between pleasing or serving the client… if we don’t ask these questions, we are doomed to more of the same.”
He said it is important for us to explore what really matters to us and what brings us to coaching. “I can’t be with my client if I can’t be with myself. We have to work with our own moods. What are my concerns and what work do I need to do on myself? If we can live in that question, the profession still matters.”
Coaching at Work, Volume 7 , Issue 5