Yesterday, I had the fortunate opportunity to attend the ASTD-NRC presentation by Carl Dierschow, a business coach with Small Fish. I was pleased to find the close connection in his presentation “If I’m leading, why is nobody following?” and my recent post, “What makes a motivating instructor?”
In his presentation, he outlined five principles:
- Trust the client
- Partnership
- Building from possibility
- Presence
- Accept, blend, create
I noticed how closely the principles aligned with the five pillars that Wlodkowski presented in his book, Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn.
Dierschow emphasised that clients bring experience to the coaching session and that everyone should respect it. Wlodkowski also pointed out that you can not really begin a learning session until you understand the experience the learner brings to the learning session. Part of being the “expert” is knowing when to sit back and listen to the experience of others.
Shared Experience
The idea of partnership is about being equal in the relationship. Again, this is similar in a learning environment. While people often focus more on the instructor’s experience in a learning environment, learners contribute their experience to the session and help broaden the learning environment.
Building From Possibility
I enjoyed the idea of building on possibilities. This really emphasized the idea of rather than presenting a formal, sterile learning situation to instead staying open to ideas. A novel approach may result in a more exciting learning opportunity for all involved.
For me, the idea of presence was more than just being a skilled listener. It also incorporates the ideas of empathy, enthusiasm, clarity, and cultural responsiveness. It means being respectful to everyone in a learning situation, reserving judgment, and allowing ideas to flow.
Finally, the idea of acceptance, blend, and create is a realization that learning is social. The advancement of ideas typically comes through dialogue. Being open to ideas will help develop and build new ideas.
I regard coaching and instructing as closely related. The principles of being an excellent coach and a good instructor overlap. Where do you see the difference between the two?
Additional Reading
Thanks for the kind words, Stan!
In my mind, the primary difference is that an instructor has a specific objective agenda to teach, while a coach’s agenda is to adopt the client’s agenda. But many times that’s more of a theoretical distinction than practical when you realize that the agenda of the instructor teaching isn’t nearly as important as the student’s agenda to learn.
Even to the extent where it doesn’t even matter if the instructor teaches if the student learns. You realize then that the instructor becomes more of a facilitator of learning, which then allows for a much more coach-like attitude and approach. The two roles start looking more similar than distinct when you start taking that perspective.
Carl