You’re endeavoring to help-but is it working?

Helping others is an excellent thing. Often, like a leader, manager, doctor, instructor, or coach, it’s central to your job. But also the most well-intentioned initiatives to greatly help others could be undermined by a straightforward truth: We almost always focus on trying to ‘fix’ people, fixing problems or filling the gaps between where these are and where we believe they must be. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work well, if at all, to inspire sustained learning or positive change..READING MORE about Helping People Switch: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth

There’s a better way. Within this powerful, practical book, psychological intelligence expert Richard Boyatzis and Weatherhead College of Management co-workers Melvin Smith and Ellen Vehicle Oosten present a definite and hopeful message. The way to help someone learn and change, they state, cannot be concentrated primarily on repairing problems, but instead must connect to that person’s positive vision of themselves or an motivating dream or objective they’ve long kept. This is what great coaches do-they know that people pull energy from their visions and dreams, and that same energy sustains their efforts to change, even through difficult instances. On the other hand, problem-centered approaches trigger physiological responses that make a person protective and less open to new ideas.