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The Coaching School

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The Coaching School

Using Quotes and Silence to Coach: The Power of a Creative Coaching Exercise

November 27, 2024 • Tim Hagen

0:00 | 3:56

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What if silence held the key to unlocking profound motivation and insight? Join us as we explore the transformative power of creative coaching through a unique, silent exercise that left 90% of participants feeling more inspired than ever. Through a rotating slide deck filled with thought-provoking quotes on teamwork and dynamics, listeners will discover how silently engaging with material can foster deep reflection and personal growth.

In this episode, we recount a memorable session where verbal communication took a backseat, allowing silent contemplation to lead the way. By focusing on carefully selected quotes and introspective questions, participants engaged deeply in self-reflection and connection, purely through chat. Experience the magic of slowing down and harnessing silence as a tool for empowerment, and learn how this creative method can revolutionize the way we coach and motivate others.

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Speaker 1 0:37

You know , one of the things that I love to do more than anything is to creatively coach , and I remember we had a community a couple years ago and I did this , and one of the things I got feedback on and it was really good feedback was you know , tim , when you're leading , you're front and center . You know , you're kind of driving it and I'm not egotistical enough to think it should only come out of my mouth . And what I got was you know , we want to do more thought-provotion , we want to do more critical thinking . I thought , boy , that's really good feedback . We did something on a topic and I forget . I think it was teamwork or team dynamics , and what we did is we had a rotating slide deck and each slide would have a quote about teamwork or team dynamics , and it was one of the most awesome things we've ever done .

Speaker 1 1:34

And each quote would prompt people . You had to answer a couple questions like what is your impression of this quote ? What is your major takeaway ? What are you going to do to take action to support a quote like this ? And people had to put it into the chat and then everyone would see each other's chat messages no interaction , no verbal talking . I think it was almost 40 straight minutes and nobody had interacted or said anything out loud . Yet we were interacting within the chat , we were putting text within the chat and what was so interesting is that it became this opportunity for people to reflect , to think , to not rush , to not listen to somebody . And then at the end I said you know what was your overall takeaway ? The general consensus was that was fun , that was motivational Silence can still be motivational and that was a good aha moment .

Speaker 1 2:37

So one of the things we all have to do as coaches is find creative ways to reach people . So I found these quotes and I think it was 12 quotes . I think we did about three minutes per quote . The quote would come up and it was the same three questions . I forget the questions . It was something like you know what's your impression ? What was your major takeaway from this quote ? What are two actions you're going to take to support this quote ? And by the end people said they felt better . I think it was 90% of the people in that session said they felt more motivated than they did at the start of the session . So think about that 100% silence , just using quotes .