Reflective entry : first coaching experience by Agata

This first experience as a coach was really interesting in terms of reflection. I have to admit that I was pretty nervous before doing that exercise because as I described it in my definition of a coach, being a coach is not something that everyone can do, you have to be a good listener and guide your coachee in a way that is going to help him without giving advices!

First, I played the role of the observer. It was very interesting to see how my teammates get along with each other. The discussion was so natural between the two of them that I was really impressed, and it made my level of stress go up! Then I had to play the role of the coachee. It was difficult at the beginning to well summarize my thoughts and ideas so that my coach understands what my point of view was. And I was really nice surprised, because my coach was able to help me in finding my words when I wasn’t able to find them, and she was summarizing my ideas in her own words that even helped me to find some new reflections. Finally my last role was to be the coach. When my coachee started to talk I had a lot of questions to ask her in order for me to better understand her thoughts and I sometimes didn’t know if it was a good thing that I was interrupting her. But at the end, I figured out that it even helped her to find her way of thoughts and to be sometimes more specific.

I have to say that this first experience was very instructive and it makes me want to learn more about the role of a coach. But I also came up with the conclusion that listening is the key point of being an effective coach.