Margaret, what an excellent piece - absolutely true. AI can speed up research for us and even be a thought partner on ideas but, just as Carl Rogers proved that person centred therapy reaps results because it is centred on the human connection, the degree of success of a mentoring or coaching engagement rests in the quality of that relationship more so than any other single factor.
"At any one time, I mentor CEOs or senior leaders of very large, usually global businesses. I also mentor a few entrepreneurs. I’ve worked in both settings and the contrast is always interesting and complimentary. In both cases, I frequently think that the biggest gift I provide is time to think. This is what leaders are paid for but their diaries rarely give them the time. Our appointments ensure that the thinking is scheduled. And thinking with a partner who can challenge, question, and draw connections can be much more valuable, and enjoyable, than thinking alone. That I don’t work in the business gives me a degree of objectivity and my experience, running other businesses and working with other clients, gives me a different perspective.
But what I don’t offer is a prescription or an orthodoxy. In the best conversations I have, clients find their own solutions to their concerns—theirs, not mine."
My work is also with leaders of large, complex organisations. I typically talk with them most weeks for an hour on video, that hour normally being the only time in their diary set out for them to think. I provide a thinking partner in ways that you echo.
One additional note is that, compared to even the mightiest AI, a capable and empathetic coach or sounding board will always be able to read the energy of the other person and so know the right direction to guide the conversation, the right questions to ask. This is not about intellectual intelligence but energetic connection.
Brilliant piece, Margaret, but I read it with my jaw hanging open. I can’t begin to imagine what this coach thinks he (it must be he) is doing, but it clearly doesn’t have much to do with coaching as a human would understand it. WTF? But thank you for your wisdom, as always.
Margaret, what an excellent piece - absolutely true. AI can speed up research for us and even be a thought partner on ideas but, just as Carl Rogers proved that person centred therapy reaps results because it is centred on the human connection, the degree of success of a mentoring or coaching engagement rests in the quality of that relationship more so than any other single factor.
Love this, Margaret:
"At any one time, I mentor CEOs or senior leaders of very large, usually global businesses. I also mentor a few entrepreneurs. I’ve worked in both settings and the contrast is always interesting and complimentary. In both cases, I frequently think that the biggest gift I provide is time to think. This is what leaders are paid for but their diaries rarely give them the time. Our appointments ensure that the thinking is scheduled. And thinking with a partner who can challenge, question, and draw connections can be much more valuable, and enjoyable, than thinking alone. That I don’t work in the business gives me a degree of objectivity and my experience, running other businesses and working with other clients, gives me a different perspective.
But what I don’t offer is a prescription or an orthodoxy. In the best conversations I have, clients find their own solutions to their concerns—theirs, not mine."
My work is also with leaders of large, complex organisations. I typically talk with them most weeks for an hour on video, that hour normally being the only time in their diary set out for them to think. I provide a thinking partner in ways that you echo.
One additional note is that, compared to even the mightiest AI, a capable and empathetic coach or sounding board will always be able to read the energy of the other person and so know the right direction to guide the conversation, the right questions to ask. This is not about intellectual intelligence but energetic connection.
Brilliant piece, Margaret, but I read it with my jaw hanging open. I can’t begin to imagine what this coach thinks he (it must be he) is doing, but it clearly doesn’t have much to do with coaching as a human would understand it. WTF? But thank you for your wisdom, as always.
I appreciate how you articulated the value we add as coaches of providing the safe environment to reflect, think and be.
Margaret, you prove that it is all about being human, no matter what you do or what technology you use. Thank you.