Coaching Diverse People
by Dr. Keith E. Webb

It's getting tougher to effectively help people grow. I'm getting older and think differently than younger generations. Plus, I'm living cross-culturally. What I used to do isn't as effective with a diversity of people. Coaching has given me new tools.

Post-Modernism
While I'm not an expert on this topic, I understand some of the main tenants to be: the questioning of everything, interactivity, and a bent towards hands-on involvement. Sitting and listening to a lecture is no longer acceptable. Today's learner wants to ask questions, share their ideas, discuss, and most of all experience. Consider the popularity of reality shows with high audience involvement like "American Idol" or the craze of blogging and commenting on blogs. People these days want to interact and participate. Coaching as a communication process is highly interactive, questioning assumptions, creating immediate learning and action steps. Coaching is a full-participation style of learning.

Cross-Cultural
Many leaders view themselves as solution-providers. Tell them your problem, they'll give you a solution. You can go a long way with this kind of leadership style, but not cross-culturally. A common solution to interpersonal conflict in the USA is to go directly to the other person, tell them your feelings, and hash it out. After a bit of wrestling around the two often come out friends. That advice in many Asian cultures would be like throwing petrol on the fire - it would make things worse! Advice is very culture-bound. Coaching isn't. Withholding advice and instead asking open questions will produce options generated by the coachee - and from his or her cultural perspective. No need to hope our advice will fit all the unknowns of the cultural context.

I'm Not You
You've heard the advice before, "If I were you, I'd ..." The trouble is, I'm not you. I have different values, beliefs, goals, strengths, background, priorities, and on and on. God uniquely created each of us. There is NO ONE exactly like me, or you. I believe this is why many people tire of cookie-cutter discipleship programs that assume to know what we want to learn. Coaching is personalized learning. The coaching topic comes directly from the person being coached, not the coach. Coaching is the process of learning whatever the coachee wants to learn, when they want to learn it. The coach's role is to facilitate that learning, not to teach.

I Live Way Out There
When I lived in the Japanese countryside in the 1990s I longed to be closer to Tokyo where all the seminars, conferences, and experts were. Who could help me where I lived? So, I'd travel to Tokyo or even to the USA or Singapore to learn something new. Mostly what I took away was two-weeks worth of motivation! I had difficultly applying the conference content to my situation for the same reasons as in "I'm Not You" above. In the 90s regularly using the telephone was cost prohibitive. These days you can call around the world for a few cents or even free. Why don't we use the telephone more to develop people? Because we're still stuck in a face-to-face mentality.

Coaching, on the other hand, works very well over the telephone. I have one-hour coaching calls every two weeks with those I coach. Together we talk about her situation, raise awareness, generate options, and create a few action steps. Two-weeks later we review what she did, what she learned, and what she wants to do next. This process is hugely developmental and all done over the telephone from anywhere in the world.

How are you meeting the challenges of a growing diversity of people? Let us know at our blog.

How About You?

• How do you evaluate your current ability to develop a diversity of people?
• Be honest, how unique do you believe people really are? In what ways is this helping or hindering your efforts to develop others?
• What are three ways you could practice asking powerful questions rather than providing solutions?

Do you have something to say? Join the dialogue at our blog here.

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Copyright © 2007 Keith E. Webb & CRM

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Dr. Keith E. Webb is a trainer and experienced cross-cultural leadership coach helping organizations, teams, and individuals multiply their cross-cultural impact. Find free articles at http://www.CreativeResultsManagement.com.