Coaching Hurdles and How to Tackle Them

When we invest creativity and energy in the process of coaching internal clients to higher levels of career success, we realize that we are making a difference for that individual and for our organizations. There’s a lot of satisfaction in that! But making progress often includes addressing obstacles and challenges.

The voice coach is retained to teach the singer how to produce richer, fuller tones while singing the Italian opera. The batting coach shows the baseball player what to do to get more range on his hits. The business or professional development suggests strategies to her client for specific situations so that he/she may obtain better results.

These three examples focus on improving the performance of a particular skill. The implication is that current performance or behavior has not yet reached an optimal level. The lawyers we coach are used to doing well and being highly successful. Most challenges that arise in the coaching process seem to have their roots in fear of failure and fear of change. Note that these issues do not arise in every coaching situation and with every client; many clients – typically because they are success-oriented and because we have done an excellent job establishing the coaching relationship – accept coaching and move forward efficiently. With others, we have to become adept at identifying and addressing the challenges to the coaching process so that our internal clients may achieve the results they seek.

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