I had a wonderful experience today, thanks to Abby Yanow, President of the Boston Facilitators Roundtable, and several members of her group.  She and I conducted a highly interactive webinar to discuss the lessons of Goal Play!, tying the conversation to each person’s own experiences interacting with coaches they have had and also his or her experiences as a coach in a variety of settings.

The BFR is a professional development organization for facilitators, trainers, coaches, and organizational development professionals.  As such, the group is very attuned to the matters covered in Goal Play! and people were able to offer terrific observations from their own work and professional lives.

Abby used an Adobe platform for the webinar that permitted her to survey the audience on several questions.  Also, we maintained an open chat forum, on which people responded to questions posed.  For example, the participants were asked to identify the attributes of a coach who had a positive impact on them. Here’s are some of the responses that were shared on the screen:

Encouraging–Pointed out both what was good AND what I could do better/differently; Offered a framework, left me to figure out the details; Asked me thought provoking questions and pushed me beyond my comfort zone; Helped you examine your psychological handcuffs–what thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions are you holding that stop you from doing things; Answer is within–giving you an answer is a disservice.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, people cited unhelpful characteristics of bad coaching:

Demoralized, demotivated, decreased self esteem, autocratic, closed to any other ideas; Too much telling me the same thing over and over, not helping me see my block to progress; Very rarely gave positive feedback; got angry when things were not going well.

These observations prompted a great discussion.  The time flew by, and I am grateful to Abby and her colleagues for a rewarding and engaging session.