A quote from John Gardner that has stuck with me since reading it a about a month or so back is “Don’t set out in life to be an interesting person; set out to be an interested person.” Reading this quote was one of those “aha” moments for me. Stop worrying about impressing other people with who you are, what you know, or what you do. Start learning more about other people by being interested in them - who they are, what they know, and what they do.
To me, this links back to the coaching competency of curious questioning. As a coach, you shouldn’t worry about being interesting to your client, but rather, you should focus on being interested in your client; ask them curious questions to learn the information you need to best guide them. They should be the most interesting person in the room!
Since I don’t have any formal coaching clients yet, I am going to challenge myself to ask more curious questions when colleagues or friends come to me with something that’s bothering them. This will help me figure out how I can best help them to get them to their intended goal.
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