Curious coach

Forces:

• ‘Coaching by asking’ is often more effective than ‘coaching by telling’.
  • Ask questions—don’t just tell—when helping others to develop their skills.

Socrates believed that one could help people understand, but that one could not make people understand—just as a midwife delivers, but does not give birth to, the child. The coach is a ‘midwife to skill building’, not typically a highly didactic teacher.

The coach’s most important decision is whether to issue an instruction or to ask a question. The pivotal question is more powerful than the instruction, as Socrates knew.