Trust

A friend and I have been texting back and forth much of the day.  She let me know I was not being easy on her, to which I agreed.  Friends don't say what we want to hear, they say what we need to hear.  I appreciate friends who will banter with me.  Not argue, but banter.  That is what a good coach does.  They have developed the trust within the relationship so that truth can be spoken.  To share ideas, frustrations, successes, hurts.  We must trust that we are both reaching for the same goal, the best instructional practices possible, and then we can banter.  When coaching is viewed as telling or correcting, automatically defenses go up and conversations are lost.  Yes, there are different stances that I take when coaching, depending on the given situation, but the ideal one is where we move forward in our practice because we have been open and honest.  We have trusted and thus we have grown.