Coaching skills
One of the very best coaches I ever encountered was while I was travelling to London on a train. I was sitting in a busy carriage opposite a young mother and her five-year-old daughter.
The daughter, we shall call her Annabel, was sitting in the window seat and colouring in a picture of Santa Claus, and the conversation went something like this:
| Mother: | ‘Annabel, that is a beautiful picture. Who is the main person in it?’ |
| Annabel: | ‘Oh, that’s Santa Claus.’ |
| Mother: | ‘And what is Santa Claus doing?’ |
| Annabel: | ‘He is learning to write.’ |
| Mother: | ‘How do you know that he is learning to write?’ |
| Annabel: | ‘Because he is using the wrong hand to hold his pen.’ |
| Mother: | ‘Which hand is he using to write with?’ |
| Annabel: ... |
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