Leave It At The Door

I did some facilitated learning via the web this afternoon - Always a hoot when trying to marry up training and technology!

The session comes with some accompanying notes to support me in building in some structure and ensuring we run to time.

But there's enough room to simply allow dialogue to take place freely and naturally amongst my delegates - And that can often be quite powerful.


As a coach, my individual sessions are much different.

I need to suspend my own agenda and leave it at the door.

Every time.

Even if I think I know what's best!

Admittedly, that's very difficult for me.

Rocking up to a coaching session with an agenda - written or otherwise - has the potential to close things down on a massive scale.

It can stop us hearing things....

Did you know that there are different levels of listening?

Giving something or someone your full attention 100% of the time takes practice - and energy.

Entering into a conversation with a planned agenda moves it away from being a two way process.

It means we often only listen for the things that are important to us or 'hear what we want to hear'.

This is true for coaching.

Could it also be true for some of those conversations we have with others as we go about our day to day lives?

How well do you listen?

Do you become disengaged when a conversation isn't going your way?

When was the last time you gave someone your full and undivided attention?

Are you listening?

I mean - really listening?

How do you know...?