The Coaching Habit

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If  I   couldn’t    do  all of  this,   but could   do  just    a   part,   what    part
would you have me do?
What do you want me to take off my plate so I can do this?

Being willing to stay curious like this will likely provoke one of
four types of responses, three of which might be helpful.
The first response, and the one that’s not useful, is that the
person tells you to stop with the annoying questions and just get
on with the task. Depending on the person, the culture and the
urgency of the task, sometimes it’s clear that you’re expected to do
what you’re told.


Saying Yes more slowly means


being willing to stay curious


before committing.


The second response is that he has good answers to all your
questions. That’s a win for you because it means that the request
was thoughtful, and he’s not asking you just because you have a
pulse and yours was the first email address that started to
populate the “To” address line.
Third, he doesn’t have the answers but might be willing to find
them for you. That’s good. That buys you time, at a minimum, and
it’s quite possible that he’ll never get back to you.

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