Coaching Guides Change in Clients
Do you remember the statue game? Someone would be It. The rest of us children would become the statues taking our positions around the yard. At an undetermined time, the It person would shout out ‘change!’ Then the children statues would change their position very quickly. Someone would be out – I think the one thrown out wouldn’t have heard the command or would be too slow or didn’t change enough. The winds of time have blown the details away.
What I remember though was the importance of changing. It was a physical shift that counted in the game. If I changed my mind it wouldn’t have counted. Who can see a changed mind?
People living with ADHD seem to have problems with change both mental and physical. Either they change behavior or their mind too much, too fast, or they change in ways that irritate people around them. The world expects their change to be smooth and easy and NOW.
Who is taught to change?
My Irish grandmother called every new behavior a stage. ‘Oh, it’s just a stage she’s going through.’ But stage or not, change is the point of living. Coaching teaches people how to change in ways the client chooses. Reported in an article on coaching in the ADHD Coaches Organization newsletter:
Coaching helps people in three ways:
1.A coach allows leaders to reflect about their decisions, and about themselves. A great many coaches used the term ‘awareness’ in describing the benefits of coaching.
2. People usually avoid difficult truths. Coaching brings reality front and center. As one coach put it: “Executives [ed. note: and many people with ADHD also] don’t have anyone to trust and tell the truthabout where they need development. ”
3. People don’t know how to change. A coach can guide a client to find replacements for behavior that’s not working.
Are you ready to change? Now? Now? OK, then when?
For ‘Change!’ call Maureen Nolan, LPC, Your Attention Coach