In an earlier blog, I think the first, I talked about what ADHD/ADD coaching was. What I didn’t go into detail about is what actually happens during the coaching conversations.
Questions! That is what kicks off the conversation. What would you like to work on today? By the end of our conversation what would you like to walk away with? Those two questions or ones like them establish what the client wants to talk about and what they want to take away at the end of the conversation.
The next part of the conversation is a discussion on how to get where the client wants to go. Through open ended questions and direct statements the coach is a conduit for the client to discover for themselves the answers they seek.
Two parts of the conversation are left. What did the client learn and how are they going to implement what they have learned into action.
Coaching is about future action. That is one of the differences it has with therapy which often focused on the past or pathology. So each conversation ends with the client coming up with a specific actionable plan of what they will do from now until the next coaching session.
This includes the coach asking what type of support the client will need to succeed in their plan, homework or fieldwork, depending what you choose to call it. Support can make the difference as to whether a plan is successful or not. Sometimes the client only needs themselves as support or they may plan to have their spouse, friend, co-worker or family member support them in their goal.
During this whole process, the coach is often reframing what the client is saying. This means that the coach is repeating back, usually using the client’s words, what they are saying so that the client can really hear where they are going with their thoughts and conclusions. This is especially important for people with ADHD/ADD because our working memories are poor so we often lose track of what we are saying and may miss some “golden nuggets.”
I hope this post has helped those of you who have never had a coaching conversation be able to envision what it may be like and how the experience could be transformative. When looking for the right coach for you it is perfectly valid to ask what is the coach’s model for a productive coaching conversation.