Coach the Person, Not the Problem Quotes

“People need to feel seen, heard, and valued to have the desire to grow.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry

“Coaching should be a process of inquiry, not a series of questions.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry

“You don’t empower people by giving them tasks and homework. Personal power comes from within, when people feel seen, cared about, and respected.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry

“You don’t have to have all the answers. You are a good coach if you share what you hear and see others express with no attachment to being right.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry

“Coaching mastery isn’t just about improving skills; mastery also requires that you quickly catch internal disruptions and shift back to being fully present with your clients.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry

“There isn’t one right way to coach; coaching is a spontaneous process between the coach and client.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry

“As long as the question furthers the conversation, it shouldn’t matter how it is structured.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry

“If it’s a choice between a difficult truth and a simple lie, people will take the lie every time.”1 The truth often hurts before it sets you free.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry

“Reflections followed by questions prompt us to stop and question our thinking and behaviors. This disruption initiates a shift in how we see ourselves and the world, or at least how we are framing a dilemma. We see a new way forward with a stronger commitment to taking action than if we were told what we should do by an expert.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry

“Choose to be the master of your mind, not the victim of your reactions.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry

“A coaching session can be compared to the creative process of freestyle rap. Neuroscientists at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders scanned the brains of twelve professional rappers with an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) machine. The scientists discovered that although the brain’s executive functions were active at the start and end of a song, during freestyle, the parts of the brain responsible for self-monitoring, critiquing, and editing were deactivated. In this context, the researchers explained that the rappers were “freed from the conventional constraints of supervisory attention and executive control,” so sudden insights could easily emerge.1 In other words, the rappers used the executive functions of their cognitive brains as they started rapping to deliberately set the intention of the composition up front. Once they had a sense of where they were going, they switched off their inner critic and analyzer. This allowed for more activity in the inner brain, where the eruption of new ideas—creativity—takes place. As they moved to closing out the song, their cognitive brains came back online to provide a consciously designed ending to the composition.”
― Marcia Reynolds, Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry