Barnabas File

In her very helpful book   Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry , Marcia Reynolds makes this powerful statement: “There is a difference between  doing  coaching and  being  a coach.”  She shares how her practice of coaching changed her perspective and the way she related to people including close friends. To take this a step further, she writes, “When you are being a coach, people feel seen, heard, and valued.  Acknowledge your impact so it becomes part of your identity.”  I have found that many people who becomes coaches--and I am talking here about life, leadership, executive, health, etc., coaches--were already oriented to be encouragers in their relationships with others, but training as a coach deepened those inclinations as new skills were acquired and practiced. Reynolds’ book reminded me that coaching is a dance between client and coach, but one in which the coach does not always le...

When I teach coaching classes for Central Baptist Theological Seminary, I use texts that come at coaching from different perspectives. Some are by strictly secular writers, while others are oriented toward churches or the business community.   Usually, the author or a text will have a particular model (often shown as a schematic) that depicts his or her approach to coaching. In evaluating the books we used this semester, one student pointed out that a couple of the models seemed to focus on coaching as a process while another looked at coaching as a relationship.   This raises an interesting question:   “Is coaching a process or a relationship?” From one perspective, there is a clearly delineated process in any coaching model.   Although I often say that every coaching conversation has three parts—a beginning, a middle and end—most models propose a way forward for the coaching conversation with several parts or steps to be accomplished.   Sometime...