Hi John,

Powerful listening indeed.

I recently graduated from the CTI coach training program. That program consists of five 3-day sessions, each one with its own theme and focus. I can tell you from personal experience that each and every day we were pushed into listening at level three, by CTI coaches who each had at least a decade of experience at level three listening. What an experience.

We were also pushed to listen with all of our body. If I am in the middle of coaching someone and suddenly my knee hurts, test it out with the client. "My knee hurts right now--does that mean anything to you?" When we did this in training I was astonished at how often the "client" across from me related to what it was that I asked them when some feeling showed up in my body.

At the same time, if it didn't resonate for the client, it was time for me to let go. This is true of everything you try in CTI coaching. Try, check for response, if you get none, try something else. Letting go of our preconceived notion of how a coaching session should go was a lot of the experiential training I got from the CTI program. But now we're beyond just listening skills and into more of what Co-Active Coaching is about.

Thanks for sharing your insights on the book. It was a great reminder to me of ways that I need to show up every day to be a better coach, husband, father, and friend.

Cheers,

David