Mentor Coach: Colin Lee
1st Mar 2023
Last night’s coaching lesson was another great one.
Coach Colin explained the differences between coaching, counselling and mentoring.
A counsellor guides his counsellee, a mentor grooms his mentee, while a coach grows his coachee.
During a ‘live’ coaching session, I saw the difference between giving advice (a.k.a. telling) and asking questions.
Telling versus Asking. No prize for guessing right into which category I fall.
My first takeaway last night was what Coach Colin said:
We have to be comfortable with the unknown.
I suppose giving advice is safer since I won’t open myself to the unknown.
When I tell, I’m saying what I already know. But when I listen, I may hear something I do not know, so I may put myself in a spot not knowing how to carry on the conversation.
As a coach, we must ask questions more than we give advice. However, giving advice is my default mode. So, I must work hard to tame the Advice Monster in me.
My second takeaway was when we needed to tell, Coach Colin said:
When we tell, we must strive to affirm instead of giving advice.
Another challenging thing for me to do.
The consolation thing is at least I get to tell at times. ?
This telling thing is new territory for me. So, bear with me if you still catch me telling more than asking.
