Getting the Most Out of Your Coach

After two disappointing appointments with my coach, I was beginning to wonder if my time investment in meeting with my coach every other week was beginning to wane. I brought this up with my coach with some fear of offending him. After all…no one likes to here that their interaction as a coach is not producing what was expected! I was surprised at his response. He was very open and wanted to explore the potential reasons for the discouragement. By the end of meeting, I had discovered (he did not tell me this), that was investing very little time in preparation for our meeting together. I am not that great at administration, so I found myself sending in my agenda for the meeting and the needs that I wanted to discuss, at the last minute. Honestly, I gave about 5 minutes to this preparation. Then it dawned on me that I must take responsibility to think through more clearly the issues that I need to process with my coach. I did this at our next meeting, and I had one of the best coaching sessions to date that led to great strides in building a master plan for the District. The next time I find my coaching experience slipping in effectiveness, the first place I will look to address it will be with myself. Having been a coach for many others over the past 7 years, I believe there has been a corrolation of successful coaching, to pastors who came hungry and prepared to talk about issues they were seeking to address. Key principle: I must take responsibility for the success of my coaching relationship.