Learning Cycle

I remember the time when I bought a small bycycle for my daughter when she was three and a half. She never rode a tricycle even. 

On day one I helped her get on to the bycycle. You need to visualize a person riding a bycycle. she pushes one foot down; the cycle moves forward and stops... because she does not push the other foot down (pushing the foot down helps complete a rotation, right?) I realised that she was finding it difficult to complete one rotation.

I literally held her feet on the pedal with my hands while she was trying to learn how to pedal. While I wondered why she was unable to complete a rotation pedalling with both feet, she found it difficult to understand why she had to complete the whole rotation.

I realised I was losing it when she was unable to get it ... that cycling is all about pedalling with both feet. Somewhere wisdom dawned upon me and I told myself to relax and let her go through her motions of learning.

Trust me three days later when I reached home I saw her excited... and jumping in joy... she got on to the tricycle and showed me that she was able to do it on her own.

Learning: As a coach we need to give the coachee the time to go through their learning curve... else we may cause confidence issues or kill interest in the initial phases itself. Of course, you train them on the basics and allow them time to figure out the why and how... You can only provide a perspective....It's a Learning Cycle.. One has to go through the cycle on his / her own.

  

Coaching... an Opthalmologist's Perspective

I recently took my son to an opthalmologist for an eye-test. The doctor was carrying out routine checks. It came to a point when the doctor was trying to assess the lenses for (near) accurate vision. The doctor kept changing the lenses and checking how comfortable my son felt with that lens. I got curious with this step.

When my son felt one of the lenses was comfortable, he tried out another lens and asked for the difference he felt between those - which one was more convenient and comfortable. It then hit me... that's exactly you do as a coach. You can help coachees view their situation(s) from various perspectives (lenses) and decide which one is more convenient for them. Let them view if from that point of view and decide on an action plan....

No opthalmologist ever suggests which glasses are good for an individual. He will only indicate the challenges of (not) using certain lenses and how to use the lenses. As a coach help your coachee decide which perspective and solution is more convenient for him / her. When coaching wear the hat of an opthalmologist..... Coach as an opthalmologist.