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Coaching and Facilitation
By Singapore Man of Leisure  •  February 16, 2015
When I attended my first Leadership workshop more than 10 years ago, part of the module is Coaching. And that's one module I struggled with a lot! Took me a few years before I can internalise it. (You mean after attending one workshop you all can become instant gurus? No wonder I always feel I am the slowest in class...) Anyway, the question was posed to me what is my understanding of coaching? The immediate word association that came into my head were the NBA games I've watched - Larry Bird from Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson from LA Lakers era - with the coaches shouting instructions and plays from the sidelines. Hence I answered accordingly. I remember the instructor looking at me with a wry smile. I think he must be thinking this one may take more time... LOL!  Coaching Coaching in paedagogy terms is the art and science of supporting the person answer or get the solution to his own question himself. I only attended school till 16. So I can only say there's little coaching involved in my first 10 years of academic studies. Those of you who went on to tertiary institutions - were there at least some coaching thrown to the mix with "wa kali gong" (I tell you so) so? I don't know about you, but the local fresh graduates I've worked with have a tendency to wait for instructions compared to graduates from Western universities. Or maybe it has nothing to do with our academia.... It's more to do with our local milieu where we tend to expect big daddy to solve everything for us... My bad!  Facilitation Facilitating is akin to coaching; its just done in a bigger group environment. You know what? Instead of me describing in words, why don't I provide an example? (Note: I never said good example OK?) Take a look at previous post: Here's a question to Value Investors "I tell you so" is writing a blog post on what I see are the common fallacies of Value Investing. Instead of "control", I let it go. I put my faith and trust in the readers to paint the canvas provided. Which also means I've no clue how the end result would look like? That's why most people are terrified of coaching. How the hell do I set goals and do planning now!? LOL! I may only influence. And how do I influence? On one spectrum it's to provoke, poke, kick. The other end can be cajole, encourage, compliment. At the end of the day, we want the commenter to express what he/she really feels or thinks. And not hide behind "that's what they all say"..... Note again I never say "right" or "wrong" answers; our focus is what we really think or feel. Very often, when we know what we really want, the answer or solution is quite self-evident. Or?
Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google it!)
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