A Coaching Model Created by Michael Cadrette
(Life Coach, UNITED STATES)
The word CURRENT comes from my love for stepping into a stream in search of those ever illusive trout. The metaphor creates a great visual in describing my coaching model, fits my personal interests, and provides a great set images for future marketing projects.
The goal of this model is to help a client keep facing upstream, negotiate the changes in current, and prevent them from “going with the flow”…..because in a stream, once you end up going with the current instead of facing it, the only thing you become is somebody’s lunch.
However, I also do know that trying to swim upstream can be an exhausting process, lead to discouragement, and a lack of progress. But in watching trout navigate the current, they know the current is what brings them their food, cleans their environment, and helps them build endurance. They also know when to rest, how to find a quiet eddy, and restfully lay low behind some large rock as the water rushes by.
While we will utilize a linear approach for the sake of explanation, this coaching model is designed to help clients wherever they find themselves in the current of life.
The first step into the CURRENT begins with a Check your situation.
What is your current reality? This can be done through various current reality exercises:
- SWOT analysis
- Emotional Intelligence 2.0
- DISC profile
Awareness is often the beginning of any real change. At this point in the CURRENT time is taken to create a safe space where the client can be assured of the coach’s focused attention, ethical behavior, and commitment to confidentiality.
Also, here the client discusses what they learn about themselves from the tools used in the first step.
Things like underlying beliefs and values are identified and prioritized into goals as the conversation directs.
At this point in the CURRENT there may be some awareness that flows out of the constant attempts to swim upstream.
Feelings of futility, lack of progress, exhaustion, frustration, and limiting beliefs to name a few, can be identified at this point.
Here the coach partners with the client in discussing how these roadblocks have been tackled in the past, the subsequent level of success or failure, the potentially different ways that exist to approach them in the future.
- Direction - Am I facing upstream or downstream?
- Stamina - Am I beginning to yield to the current?
Self-care – Are their rocks I can rest behind or eddies I can pull into to rest in away from the current while I recollect/regain some strength?
Here we take a look at the big picture. On the trout stream all kinds of details go into a successful trip. Things like:
- Temperature - Am I hot or cold?
- Time of day - Am I just getting started or am I struggling at the end of the day?
Season – How does my season in life impact my decisions, my goals, my desires, my energy level…..etc.
Equipment – Am I bringing the right tools to the stream, the ones that match the variables above?
In this conversation there are things that the client has no control over and some things that they can change.
Out of the many things you could do……..
What top 3-5 tasks do you want to focus on first?
- Specific
- Measurable
- Action oriented
- Realistic
- Time oriented
- What are the tasks the client would like to identify as a result of the conversation up to this point?
- Is there a preferred order?
- Which one will you do first?
- What makes this one the most important?
- When will you start?
- How do want me to hold you accountable next time we meet?
Celebrate along the way, regularly acknowledging progress whenever it is noticed.
The goal of this coaching model is to provide a visual that assists the client in:
- learning to live successfully in the CURRENT of life,
- to learn to use the CURRENT as an advantage rather than a hindrance,
- and to learn how to prevent being swept down by the CURRENT and becoming somebody's lunch.
As with any stream, you can enter at any point. There are however, places where it is easier to enter than others. A paved and maintained boat launch is what the arrow at the top represents. The lines from the side indicate well worn paths that others have taken that lead to the stream as well. Perhaps a client comes to me as the coach and has done the hard work of any of the steps before meeting me. A simple review is all that is necessary rather than a rehashing of what the client has already covered. Ultimately, the client chooses the entry point. The model is designed to illustrate our starting from the beginning. The circular nature of the cycle also attempts to indicate that as situations change, we may need to run through the process again. This may pertain to the big picture, or the master list of action steps, or a closer examination of just one of the tasks at hand.
