Accelerating Your Development as a Leader: A Guide for Leaders and Their Managers

Avoid These Coaching Pitfalls

When attempting to implement coaching during this step, be alert to the following pitfalls and take the recommended steps for addressing them:

Fuzzy Communication

At the start of their planning process individuals tend to describe their development goals and plans in vague and fuzzy ways. As coaches we can unintentionally exacerbate this problem when we take the same verbal shortcuts. The result is that, as we engage in a coaching dialogue, we run the risk of drifting further away from understanding the person we are coaching, because we make assumptions about what the coachee is thinking that are untested and unfounded. Here is an example:

Coachee: “One of the ways that I want to develop is to become a stronger ...