Coaching Metaphors
Technically speaking, metaphor is a figure of speech that compares one thing to another. Metaphor is a convenient and useful tool to explain complex concepts. Princess Anna dialog “Love is an open door” is a beautiful example from a Disney animated movie “Frozen.” We may hear the phrase, “That movie was a rollercoaster ride.” Perhaps the most famous one is from William Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage.” My favorite use of metaphor is “Emotional Bank Account” which describes the amount of trust in a relationship introduced by Stephen Covey in his famous book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. [1] Interestingly etymology of the word “metaphor” itself is a metaphor, originated from the Greek word “metaphero,” which means “carry across,” “transfer.” It is important not to analyze metaphor deeply, which breaks it down.
Coaching is often a misunderstood concept. Besides, there are various terms and expectations for coaching, such as Professional Coach, Agile Coach, Sports Coach, Executive Coach, Leadership Coach, Team Coach, Cognitive Coach, Life Coach, Career Coach, Business Coach, Relationship Coach, Performance Coach, Financial Coach. Here we focus on Professional coaching as defined by International Coaching Federation[2], “Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” [3]
It is no surprise that metaphor is one of the crucial skills for a good coach. It also helped the client to avoid doing problem-solving for the client and, as Chad Hall said, “take a dumb pill.” [4] Another creative use of metaphor is to use it during paraphrasing, like painting the client’s words in a picture. [5] Sometimes it is easy to describe a situation in the form of an image than words; hence, metaphor is a useful tool during the exploring. [6] It helps to express more deeply than a literal description. [7]
Coach as a Snooker Player
Snooker, Billiards, and Pool are very similar games played with a different color ball and a stick. Other than the difference among their rules, one thing is identical that players always hit the white ball and the white ball hits the other color ball. Whenever a player hits the color ball, it considers a foul and has a penalty depending on the game rules. Here coach is a snooker player, the white ball is a coachee, and the color balls are the coachee’s problems. Coach always works on the coachee to solve the problem and never solves the coachee’s problem himself/herself.
Coach as a Blind Spot Mirror
A few years ago, when I saw the small mirror on the top of the side view mirror, I couldn’t understand its purpose immediately. The intent of this is to show the vehicles currently in the driver’s blind spots. I was amazed by the creativity and recalled all the bad memories due to the blind spot. No matter what perspective one has, there is always a blind spot for everyone. It is a coach to remove the blind spot and let the coachee realize it. Like the blind spot mirror, which only makes the things visible in the blind spot but doesn’t do anything, the coach does the same. Coach lets the coachee takes the decisions after removing the blind spot for him/her.
Coach as a GPS
I have a strong sense of direction, and due to that, my friends jokingly call me human GPS. When I started driving several years ago, GPS was not a consumable product. I developed my habits of having limited dependencies on them by then. However, usually, I turn the GPS on without starting the navigation and putting any address on it. It helps me to understand where I am. With this, I will be more creative in making my own decisions about the route that makes me more familiar with the area; thus, I will have less dependency on the GPS in the future. Coach is just like the GPS without starting the navigation; it tells you about your current reality where you are. Conversely, if GPS starts the navigation, it starts playing the consultant’s role instead of a coach, and in the future, I will most likely still depend on it.
Coach as a Bridge
What is the purpose of a bridge? Almost all the bridges move us from one point to another point by overcoming some obstacles. Obstacles can be water, river, height, road, another bridge, or practically anything. There is no point in using or even creating a bridge if there are no hindrances. It is important that you have to take action to move towards your goal. The bridge only helps you to reach the goal but will not move you. Similarly, everyone in the world has some obstructions towards his/her goal; it can be a lack of clarity, ambiguity, triviality, or anything. A Coach works as a bridge to overcome impediments and sabotages to reach the goal, but like the bridge, the coachee has to do it, not the coach.
Coach as a Control Tower
For a long time, I don’t understand what the role of a control tower at the airports is. A few years ago, while reading a book about design patterns, they explain the concept of a mediator design pattern and present it with a control tower’s example. Control tower has no idea about different types of airplanes and how they operate; they just help them land without telling them how. Similarly, the coach doesn’t work for the coachee and doesn’t take the burden of accountability; however, it makes the coachee accountable for the commitment. I explicitly add this example to show the use of deep analysis when it breaks down the metaphor. In the case of the blind spot mirror, the mirror is not taking any action. On the other hand, in a control tower, they instruct the pilot to land or not at the airport. This deep analysis breaks it down because a coach is never in the driving seat.
Reference
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
- https://coachfederation.org/
- https://coachfederation.org/code-of-ethics
- The Coaching Mindset by Chad Hill
- Coach the Person Not the Problem by Marcia Reynolds
- Co-Active Coaching 4th edition by Henry Kimsey-House, Karen Kimsey-House, Phillip Sandahl, Laura Whitworth
- The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
