If you've ever walked away from a coaching conversation wondering, why didn't that land?

Or why did my client shut down?

Then this episode is for you.

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Bright Morning Podcast.

I'm your host, Elena Aguilar.

And in each episode, you will learn how you can lead

conversations that build connection and spark change. Today, we are talking about one of the

most powerful shifts that you can make in your coaching practice, which is coaching from strengths.

So let's get into it.

I want to start by telling you about a conversation that I had early in my coaching career,

one that changed how I support what it means to support someone else's

growth. So I was working with a teacher who had just finished a really challenging lesson.

And as we sat down, I went straight into problem-solving mode. What didn't go well?

What could you try next time? What didn't work for your students? I thought I was being helpful.

I thought I was being efficient and focused. But I watched this

teacher's body language and her shoulder sank. Her responses got shorter. And eventually she said,

honestly, I feel like I can't do anything right. And my heart broke a little bit. That moment was a

turning point because I realized that I had completely missed the opportunity to see her,

to recognize what she had tried, and to help her reflect on the courage

that it took just to get through that lesson. And that was the moment that I began to shift.

So I didn't become really good at strength-based coaching overnight, but I did commit to figuring out what I could do to prevent this kind of interaction from happening again.

Here's what I learned. Every person you coach already holds the seeds of their own transformation. Your job is not to fix them.

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