Inflection Points

7WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

Imagine you're waiting in the exam room of your doctor's office. The room is silent but for the crinkle of exam table paper beneath you and the hum of the fluorescent lights above. You hope the doc arrives soon—you've been experiencing some mysterious physical pains and you're looking to get some answers.

Finally, after a long wait, in walks the doctor. But before you can even explain your symptoms, he gives you the once-over and announces, “Looks like lupus.” He tosses a prescription paper at you and tells you to call him in a week.

“Sorry, Doctor,” you say, “shouldn't you run some tests? I didn't even explain my symptoms!” But by then, he's already out the door.

This would be a weird way to assess someone's health condition (bordering on malpractice!). The first step to proper treatment is always a well-reasoned diagnosis. Coaching is no different. In coaching, as in medicine, there can be no prognosis without a diagnosis, and there can be no diagnosis without a careful evaluation of the patient's current state. This means that I listen carefully to my clients.

This diagnostic process is the first phase of coaching, and, as mentioned in Chapter 6, provides the foundation for the entire engagement. Patiently, I gather thorough information about where the client stands now in various aspects of his life, and what he hopes to achieve. This is how we devise the Game Plan System, which is the second phase. The third phase is executing the plan, which I'll discuss ...