Optimism helps clients believe in change. But the coaches who ask what happens when it doesn’t go well are the ones who help clients stay the course.
How Optimism Can Get in the Way of Effective Coaching
read more
What Gives Follow-Through Its Best Chance
Motivation is a state. It fades when the client is tired or stressed. Why a described preferred future, not motivation, gives follow-through its best chance.
Listen, Select, Build
A client can talk at length. You don’t need the whole story, only one piece you can build on. How Solution-Focused listening works.
Listen for Exceptions. Don’t Dig for Them.
When a client returns saying nothing changed, there is one workable line in there. How to find it and build on what they are already doing.
Stop Going for Action. Go for Description.
When a client returns having done little or nothing, the pull is to move straight to action. But action before description doesn’t take root.
The Solution-Focused Ear: What to Listen For (and What to Ignore) to Drive Faster Results
A good practitioner doesn’t just listen for empathy — they listen strategically. Here’s what the Solution-Focused Ear listens for, what it ignores, and why that distinction drives faster follow-through.
How to Handle Problem Narratives
When a client is stuck in a problem narrative, the trained instinct is to fix it. Dr. Deborah Teplow on the three small moves that work instead: acknowledge, ask coping questions, and look forward.
When Strategy Becomes the Destination
When a client names a strategy, that is not the destination. It is the door. Here is how the Solution-Focused approach uses strategy talk as a starting point for building a real preferred future.
Stop Fighting for Your Client
When a client knows what to do but isn’t doing it, the instinct is to fight for them. Here’s why that backfires, and the Solution-Focused move that puts ownership back where it belongs.