How can you apply problem-solving skills to your life outside of coaching?

What an extraordinary question to consider! If you have a life outside of coaching, what are you doing when you're in coaching? And if you take problem-solving as your raison d'être in coaching, how are your clients going to develop and grow? This question implies teaching, directing, managing, mentoring - maybe even a little leading. But not coaching. Not the way I coach, anyway.

Problem-solving goes like this: 1. Spot the problem. 2. Get information. 3. Brainstorm ideas. 4. Pick the best one. 5. Make a plan. 6. Keep tracking it. 7. Change as you go. 8. Learn from it!

A simple yet powerful method for identifying the problem is to separate the facts from the story. The facts are things outside our control: other people, our past, the weather, etc. The story is the meaning we give to those facts. The good news is that while we cannot control the facts, we can control what we decide to think about them. For example, if someone presents the problem, 'My boss doesn't appreciate my work,' the first step is to gather the facts behind this story. The facts might be: 'I completed a challenging project. I expected my boss to congratulate me, but he did not.' When we make this distinction, we realize that many other interpretations could be possible for the same facts, and often the problem lies in our story.

In modern culture 'life' itself is often viewed as a problem. Specifically the pressure felt by life as an external experinece that we must navigate successfully via the power of our choices. Choice has become the new superpower and it is marketed aggressively in every area of daily existence. However increased choice equals increased anxiety because we believe that our choice will decide our fate. This is overwhelming. A common apporac from coachees to to view problems as opportunities, that however this pushes clients to turn a so called negative into a positive. I use this question, "what is the change that wants to happen right now". A problem signals a change that we are resisting. The 'gold' is revealed in unpacking the resistance.

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Multitude of simple yet powerful tools are available to solve any problem. Most of the tools like SWOT, Brain Storming and the like help you to broaden your horizon of thinking and take away some of the biases. Helps build a common understanding in a small group setup too.

Consider the bigger picture. When considering what to do in a given challenge, one must attempt to envision the implications to the choices available to him. Will a choice he is considering bring him closer to his values and the person he wants to be or will it take him away from that? The second question is: how will this choice potentially impact the life around him?

The biggest issue I see with this stage is people trying to fix multiple things at the same time. Remember those science lessons back in school. How many variables did we have each time? Only ever one. We can only fix one thing at once so once we've identified the one thing we want to work on, let's isolate that and work on that on it's own. Don't stress if other stuff gets worse in the short term, we can repeat and put that under the spotlight the second time around. One thing at a time

Options are always a plenty around us. Evaluating carefully while avoiding the biases is the key for anyone to take the problem solving in a step-by-step approach

Ask yourself this: What do I want for myself and orhers. Does this option potentially lead to me being where I want to be? If it leads you outside your comfort zone it probably is a win either way.

The choice and available options are very important. One must consider and weigh the advantage and disadvantage of each option and take what works best for you and yours.

Biggest issue here is becoming emotionally detatched. I coach rock climbing and can coach anyone... except myself. When I'm climbing, I get too emotionally invested in the climb I'm trying and that affects my ability to make clear decisions. Being able to take a step back and evaluate things clearly enough without being invested in the process/outcome too much is really hard and quite often, it requires a third party to allow a clear evaluation

I was fed up of my car always being dirty on the outside in the winter months. So my goal was to have a mud-free car. I didn't have the time nor the cash to go to the carwash 2 or 3 times a week, and I needed a solution that wouldn't take me long to do as my time had many other demands. I went to the car accessories shop and bought a brush that attaches to my hose. It literally takes me 5 minutes to run the brush over the outside of the car to make it clean enough. It is so easy to monitor the outcomes by looking at the cleanliness of my car! And it makes me happy to have found a solution to this problem!

Usually the easiest part for many people, although subtle changes to existing habits can be tough. The biggest issue is forgetting what we're trying to achieve; what I call The Big Question. Coming back to this repeatedly can be very important and if it's written down, putting this firmly at the top of the page can keep us on track

I‘ve always found it very helpful to consider not only what was problematic but what was not problematic up to the point of no return (the incident or situation which gave the spark to think about change at all). That way the little cracks which tend to become huge problems over time become visible.

When running coach education sessions or mentoring, I stress that if you don't do a summary/reflection afterwards, you might as well have not learnt anything in the first place. While clearly this is a bit extreme, the point still stands. Remember to reflect on what went well and not only on what we change next time, as boosting confidence can be as important as learning what changes to implement next time

Any tool you use with your client is useful for you too !! This is why its very important to have a coach and mentor for the self, who could guide you like you guide your clients.

When engaging in problem-solving, it’s crucial to allocate dedicated time for reflective thinking. This deliberate pause allows for a thorough examination of the situation, discerning whether it’s a novel challenge or an ongoing, unresolved issue. Repetitive cycles may arise when we overlook the necessity of comprehensive problem evaluation and solution exploration. Regularly revisiting challenges and successes through journaling provides a valuable tool to identify behavioral trends. This introspective practice unveils patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed, fostering a deeper understanding of oneself and enhancing the effectiveness of problem-solving techniques.