March 2010 report

A short report from our March meeting at Balls Brothers, Ludgate Hill.

As well as lively round of what was going well, we discussed the degree of structure that was important for SF conversations, and how much departure from our structures we tended to use.  

We also discussed how to approach coaching sessions with two clients in the room together.

In the case presented, one partner in a business was speaking during the session a great deal more than the other.  This did not appear to concern either partner, but the coach was sensitive to the possibility of a lack of balance or fairness, and was wondering how to address that.

Among the tips offered were:

• Explaining that time was limited, and so each partner would be offered say 3 minutes to answer a question – with an added advantage of keeping them on track with the question asked
• Offer them separate sessions as well as the joint sessions
• Interrupting the client that’s taking up a lot of time, and turning with authoritative body language to the other
• Address the concern directly – “I notice that one of you is saying more than the other – is that OK with each of you?”