Problem Not the Problem: Transformational Coach

What does this pattern protect? What does it provide? At Level 4, the Transformational Coach asks the coachee what she gets from being the person everyone can count on. Her answers move from stress, to feeling useful, to feeling important, and then to a long silence when she is asked who she is if people don’t need her as much. Michelle explores why changing behavior is so difficult when it is tied to identity, and how the same system can provide both pain and reward. A powerful distinction emerges: beingvaluable and being needed are not the same thing. As the coachee begins to see leadership as building people who no longer need her for everything, delegation, boundaries, and time management all change meaning. Michelle also cautions against replacing complexity with a neat coaching story, because tools, workload, and the organization may still matter. Have a question or a coaching moment you’d like Michelle to explore on the podcast? Email [email protected]. Why wait until January to start growing? Join the Coaching Academy now, and we’ll send you weekly resources to help you begin developing as a coach today. Visit CA.GrowBy1.com. Reflection Questions When someone keeps struggling with a practical issue despite having practical solutions, what might the behavior be doing for them? How could I explore what a pattern protects or provides without implying the person wants their own struggle? Where in my own life might I confuse being needed with being valuable? How do I respond when a coachee says “I don’t know” to a question about who they are? How do I stay humble enough to remember that tools, workload, and the organization may still matter after a deeper layer appears?