Coaching to Flourish Live Season 2, Episode 18

Live Questions and Answers

Welcome to Coaching to Flourish Live Season 2, Episode 18! Coach Training EDU founder John Andrew Williams and CTEDU Assessor and Master Coach Raj Anderson dive into discussions on how to recognize coaching as a calling, things coaches can do to prepare for their next session and share very powerful personal stories about the most impactful coaching sessions they experienced as the client.  

Great Takeaways/Sidebars:

• John talks about his personal coaching mission.
• The opportunities coaching offers in learning and development.
• What makes coaching so magical or fulfilling.
• The importance of health and rituals for the coach.
• John and Raj share powerful, personal stories about their most impactful coaching sessions as the client. 

Quotes

“I think that coaching skills, and coach training in general, is basic human life-useful training.” -John (0:47)

“One of my main goals is to have every student, every teacher that works in academia, to have basic life coach training, specifically in empathetic listening and active listening, curiosity, understanding different perspectives, and motivation styles. This is what needs to happen in terms of education in the future. Absolutely.” – John (0:58)

“It’s useful for everyone to have some basic life coach training.” – John (1:33) 

“I kinda stumbled across my coach, which was in belonging & value work. It felt like magic. I couldn’t explain it. I thought, ‘What is happening here?’. And the more sessions I had with her I thought this is what I want to do. I would love to make this kind of impact on other people.” – Raj on discovering coaching as her calling. (5:42)

“I wear a number of different hats. I am a consultant in corporations, a mentor and facilitator, yet nothing fills my soul the way a coaching session does.” – Raj (6:10)

On why coaching is so fulfilling, “After [coaching] it feels like I made an authentic connection with another human being. I’ve had the experience of seeing another human being reach insights and new territory and explore new areas they’ve never explored before . . . to me it is the connoisseur of human experience. It’s the best. It’s meaningful and I think a lot of people are yearning for that kind of connection.” – John (9:04)

“I just really appreciate when people lean as much into curiosity as they lean into the generosity of advice.” – John (11:00)

“I remember getting into coaching and realizing we really truly are professional listeners. For how many centuries, human beings have really prized speaking over listening. And here is a profession that says, ‘No. No. It’s listening. Let’s do this and see what happens.’” – John (23:57)

“In the world there is a beauty of having a profession that feels like you are connecting with people in an authentic, non-judgmental, curious, open way that once you experience both sides of it as a coach and a client, I think there is a profundity to it, a natural awe that gets generated.” – John (24:30)