Leadership Coaching - Can the Talent hear you?
Using your Coach’s Voice means finding that special language which resonates with the Talent, which causes him to sit up and really hear what you are saying. In a leadership coaching moment, the Coach’s Voice is the catalyst that challenges the status quo, sees possibilities, and demands change. Without using the powerful, quiet, provocative, and sensitive vocabulary of the leader coach, the conversation will remain perpetually on the 
surface, and the Talent will never really be forced to register and respond to what is being said. Of course, each of us responds to the complex implications and nuances of the English language in different ways, therefore no one defined set of leadership coaching words works for everyone. Hence the need for you as a Leader Coach to develop and expand your use of the English language – drawing upon concrete business terms as well as abstract and highly personal words. Your challenge as a leader coach is to unlock the Talent, to engage in high-level listening, to learn who he is, and to discover the particular language which provokes, excites, and inspires him to effect change in his life. The actual words you use will be different for each individual you work with, but for you, the principle of being able to use language in a variety of ways remains the same.
So how do you adapt your language so that the Talent can hear you? I like to think of this process as akin to working alongside people from different cultures. When we know that not everyone in the room attaches the same meaning to words and behaviors, we don’t take for granted that our intended meaning will be evident to the person we are speaking with. We know that we need to draw carefully and skillfully on words, examples, and anecdotes in order to communicate effectively. The same is true in a leadership coaching relationship. Our job as leader coaches is to offer a different perspective, to get the Talent to see something which she had not recognized or acknowledged when looking at herself through her habitual lens. Language is our pivot point, the hinge we can use to turn the Talent’s gaze to a different angle, to help her see herself from a different point of view. If we use words that fit in her comfortable perspective, if we don’t provoke a response with unanticipated words, we are not coaching.
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