The Coaching Crowd® Podcast with Jo Wheatley & Zoe Hawkins

What can happen when a coach resists the urge to fix, reassure or move the conversation along, and stays fully present with the client instead?
In this episode, we explore witnessing in coaching: the practice of being with a client as they encounter an emotion, insight or change, without needing to direct what happens next.
We explain how witnessing is related to deep listening, but distinct from it. Listening communicates, "I hear you"; witnessing communicates, "I'm here with you while you encounter this part of yourself."
We discuss the moments when witnessing can matter most: a client's emotion rising as they speak, a realisation they have never voiced before, or a new perspective that is only beginning to take shape. These moments can involve grief or fear, but also relief, freedom and excitement. The coach's silence and presence can give the client room to let the experience settle and find its own meaning. We reflect on how quickly a coach's wish to be useful can turn into action, questions or solutions, and how stepping back can help the client stay with their own learning.
We also explore the difference between witnessing and validation, and how the two can sometimes follow each other in a coaching conversation. Witnessing can help clients feel safe enough to bring more of themselves into the room, including the uncertainty that comes with a changing identity. Whether someone is becoming a new leader, adjusting to a different family role or moving on from a business, the coach can offer space to explore who they are becoming without defining it for them. We reflect on the care and courage this asks of both coach and client, and why presence can be a powerful coaching skill in its own right.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introducing witnessing in coaching
01:47 What witnessing looks like in an emotional moment
04:01 How witnessing differs from listening
06:18 Giving new insights time to settle
08:30 Staying present without rushing to solutions
10:39 Witnessing across the emotional spectrum
12:41 Witnessing, validation and client experience
13:57 Why witnessing helps clients pay attention
15:59 Seeing and accepting the whole person
17:59 Witnessing identity shifts and emerging change
20:08 Tolerating discomfort and staying present
20:38 Developing witnessing as a coaching skill
Key Lessons Learned:
Witnessing means staying present with a client's experience without rushing to change it.
Deep listening and witnessing are connected, but witnessing also communicates that the coach is with the client as they encounter something within themselves.
Silence can give a new insight or emotion time to settle and develop.
Coaches can notice whether their urge to act comes from what the client needs or from their own need to feel useful.
Witnessing can hold many emotions, including joy, relief and freedom, as well as sadness or fear.
Witnessing an emotion does not mean agreeing with the client's interpretation of events.
A calm, accepting coaching space can help clients explore identity changes and build self-trust.
Coaches need to be comfortable enough with their own reactions to remain present with the client.
Keywords:
Witnessing in coaching, coaching skills, coaching presence, deep listening in coaching, emotional coaching, coaching conversations, client centred coaching, coach training, continuing professional development for coaches,
Links & Resources:
https://igcompany.com/, including coach training programmes and the Emotions Coaching Practitioner Training.

What could change in a coaching conversation if we asked a different opening question?
We often fall into familiar habits when a coaching session begins. In this episode, we explore how the first question can shape a client's focus, the direction of the conversation and how present they feel. We share a range of coaching questions designed to help clients notice what matters to them, rather than relying on the same opener every time.
Some questions help a client sort through competing priorities. Others invite them to notice what feels most alive, what they might need to leave outside the room, or where they could make progress. We also explore questions that make room for uncertainty, unresolved issues and the parts of a person that may not yet have had a voice. As we discuss each one, we reflect on how a question might land differently depending on the client and what they bring to the session.
We found ourselves returning to the importance of curiosity, choice and partnership. Questions about courage and possibility can open up new ways of thinking, while asking what the coach should be mindful of can strengthen the coaching alliance. We also discuss the power of a small word like "yet" to ease pressure and invite a sense of possibility.
These questions are invitations, not a checklist. We talk about using them thoughtfully, in the context of the client's goals and the work already underway. Our hope is that coaches and people developing coaching skills will find a question that helps them listen differently, create space for reflection and support meaningful progress.
Timestamps:
00:00 Why coaching openers matter
01:47 Sorting through competing priorities
03:22 Asking what feels most alive
05:15 Making space to be present
06:48 Inviting courage into the conversation
08:29 Focusing on progress
09:43 Making room for the unresolved
11:22 What someone has been trying to resolve alone
12:10 Giving a part of the client a voice
14:10 Exploring what has not yet been discussed
15:04 The possibility in the word "yet"
15:30 What the client wants the coach to be mindful of
19:38 Asking what is possible today
20:31 Exploring an avoided conversation
22:51 Choosing questions with care
23:56 Coaching course information
Key Lessons Learned:
The opening question can influence the focus and tone of a coaching session.
A question about energy or what feels alive may reveal more than asking only about the most urgent problem.
Clients can choose what to bring into a session and what to leave outside.
Questions about courage, uncertainty and possibility can create space for deeper reflection.
Asking what the client wants from their coach can strengthen partnership and the coaching alliance.
A question is an invitation, not a tool to apply automatically. Its value depends on the client and the context.
The word "yet" can reduce pressure and help a client see that change remains possible.
Keywords:
Coaching questions, types of coaching questions, powerful coaching questions, coaching conversation, coaching session, coaching skills, coaching clients, coaching alliance, coaching practice, coach training,
Links & Resources
mycoachingcourse.com, mentioned as a place to take a quiz and explore coaching courses.

Have you ever felt your mind go blank in a coaching session and wondered what you are supposed to do next?
We explore the moments coaches can experience as panic: a client arrives with an unexpected goal, shares something difficult, asks what we would do, or sits in silence while we search for the perfect question. We reflect on how these moments can show up as anxiety, uncertainty, shock or feeling lost, for new and experienced coaches alike.
We discuss how panic can be information rather than a problem to eliminate. When we rush to fill silence, reach for a model, give advice or steer the conversation towards a solution, we may be trying to manage our own discomfort instead of staying alongside the client. We consider how to recognise whose panic might be present, notice what is happening in the body and mind, and question the expectations we place on ourselves. Coaching does not require us to have an instant answer, and the client remains responsible for their own progress.
We share practical ways to work with a blank mind or a stalled conversation, including asking what feels important, what the client is noticing, or what might happen if we did not try to solve the issue yet. We also explore how coaching supervision and reflective practice can help us understand recurring patterns beneath our panic. The conversation returns to a central idea: the coach's presence, curiosity and capacity to sit with uncertainty can be more valuable than having another tool to use.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introducing panic in coaching
02:47 Treating panic as information
04:52 Whose panic is in the room?
06:57 When interventions ease the coach's discomfort
09:25 Expectations and the fear of not knowing
12:00 Questions to use when a session feels stuck
15:33 Moving beyond problem solving
18:24 Exploring recurring panic in supervision
22:02 Building self-understanding as a coach
23:57 Pausing, grounding and returning to the relationship
25:36 Emotions coaching practitioner training
Key Lessons Learned:
Panic can offer useful information about the coach, the client or the wider context.
Before intervening, ask whose discomfort the intervention is trying to resolve.
A moment of silence or uncertainty does not mean the session has failed.
The client is responsible for their progress; the coach does not need to solve the goal for them.
Simple questions can reopen exploration when a coach feels stuck.
Supervision can help uncover the beliefs and patterns behind recurring coaching anxiety.
Self-awareness helps coaches notice activation and return to curiosity and connection.
Keywords:
Coaching panic, coaching anxiety, emotions coaching, coaching supervision, reflective practice for coaches, coaching skills, client autonomy, managing uncertainty in coaching.
 
Links & Resources
Emotions Coaching Practitioner Training: igcompany.com/emotionscoaching

When does a coaching model help us stay present with a client, and when does it start to get in the way?
In this episode, we explore the relationship between coaching models, confidence and the conversations our clients need. Drawing on our experiences as coaches and coach educators, we discuss why coaching frameworks can be so reassuring when we are starting out. Clients rarely arrive with a neatly packaged goal. Their thoughts, emotions and competing priorities can take us in several directions, and models such as GROW, CLEAR and OSCAR can help us find a useful focus. We reflect on the importance of understanding why we ask a question, rather than concentrating only on which question comes next.
We also share how structure continues to support our coaching practice as we gain experience. A framework held in the background can help us notice a missing goal, an unexplored emotion or a conversation that has lost its direction. Sometimes, explaining a structured activity and asking whether it would be helpful gives the client a clearer sense of what we are offering. We reflect on how this transparency can build trust and reduce cognitive load for both people. Referring to notes can be part of thoughtful, effective coaching, and we do not need to perform expertise by pretending that support is unnecessary.
The tension emerges when completing the model becomes more important than responding to the person. We explore what happens when a client discovers something significant, such as recognising that their career has been shaped by a desire to please a parent. Moving immediately to options or actions could miss their need to pause and understand that discovery. This brings us back to the wider coaching skills that make a difference: listening, silence, intuition, ethics, safeguarding and contracting. For us, coaching mastery involves developing the judgement to stay with a structure, adapt it or step away, according to the client and the moment.
We finish by reflecting on how coach development moves from learning models to choosing, adapting and integrating their principles into our own coaching style. Our IKEA furniture metaphor reminds us that skipping the learning process is not the same as mastering it. We also explore why models are never neutral: every framework directs attention towards particular aspects of a client's experience. Whether we are using emotions coaching tools or another approach, we hold responsibility for what we introduce. This conversation invites us to become more deliberate about how we use structure, while remaining curious and responsive to the person in front of us.
Timestamps:
·         00:00 Welcome and the coaching models question
·         01:14 Why frameworks help new coaches
·         02:57 GROW, CLEAR and OSCAR
·         04:31 Using models to refocus a conversation
·         05:29 Offering structured activities to clients
·         06:50 Transparency, trust and cognitive load
·         07:45 Learning and integrating a model
·         09:50 Helpful structure and knowing when to step away
·         11:18 Responding to significant discoveries
·         13:19 Coaching skills beyond models
·         14:31 The journey towards coaching mastery
·         15:58 The IKEA furniture metaphor
·         18:03 Why coaching models are not neutral
·         19:44 Exploring further coach training
Key Lessons Learned:
·         Understand the purpose behind the question. A model becomes more useful when we understand what its questions invite the client to explore.
·         Structure can serve the client as well as the coach. Explaining an activity and checking whether it would help can create clarity, trust and a sense of direction.
·         Using notes does not undermine credibility. How we introduce a framework matters more than whether we remember every step.
·         A discovery may need space before action. The next question in a model may be less useful than pausing with what the client has recognised.
·         Models are one part of effective coaching. Listening, silence, intuition, ethics, safeguarding and contracting all shape the conversation.
·         Mastery includes choice. Developing as a coach means learning when to follow a framework, adapt it or work more emergently.
·         Every model directs attention. We need to consider what our chosen approach brings into focus and what it may leave unexplored.
·         Learn before letting go. Practising and understanding a model gives us a stronger foundation for integrating its principles into our own style.
Keywords:
Coaching models, coaching frameworks, GROW, CLEAR, OSCAR, coaching practice, effective coaching, coaching skills, coaching mastery, coach development, coaching style, emotions coaching, cognitive load, coach training, The Coaching Crowd,
Links & Resources
https://igcompany.com/

What if finding your purpose is less about discovering one perfect career and more about understanding what makes you feel alive?
People often come to coaching at a crossroads. From the outside, life may look successful: a career is progressing, responsibilities are being met, and there is no obvious reason to change course. Yet there can be a persistent feeling that something is missing. In this episode, we explore why that feeling deserves attention and how coaching can help us make sense of it.
Our own experiences gave us two ways to look at purpose. For Jo, coaching became deeply connected to the contribution she wanted to make. For Zoe, coaching is an expression of a broader purpose: being part of a journey that helps someone feel more fulfilled. That distinction matters. If purpose can take more than one form, we do not have to put pressure on ourselves to find the single job that will make everything fall into place.
We talk about the clues that can help when the answer is unclear. When do we feel most like ourselves? What kind of contribution matters to us? Who do we most enjoy working with, and where in their journey do we want to help? Zoe reflects on exploring other people-focused careers before finding that coaching offered the kind of conversations and relationships she was looking for.
We also reflect on how our needs change through different stages of life. Work that once felt fulfilling may no longer fit around family, freedom or the person we are becoming. That does not make the years we spent doing it a mistake. Those experiences can help us recognise our strengths, values and priorities more clearly. For some people, coach training leads to a new career. For others, it changes how they lead, volunteer, parent or relate to the people around them.
Finding meaningful work does not mean finding work that is always easy. Building our coaching business brought uncertainty alongside the conversations and contribution we loved. Perhaps a more useful question than "What would make me happy all the time?" is "What matters enough to me that I am willing to work through the difficult parts?"
If you are considering a career change, exploring coach training or wondering what purpose means for you, we hope this conversation gives you space to notice what already matters. You may find that coaching is your next step, or that it helps you see another path more clearly.
Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome and finding your purpose through coaching
00:37 Why career crossroads raise questions about purpose
02:24 When success on paper does not feel meaningful
04:53 Coaching as an expression of purpose
07:30 The many ways we can make a difference
08:50 Finding the people and work that fit
10:32 Meaning, independence and building something of your own
12:07 How purpose takes different forms through life
16:09 Why coach training does not require a career change
18:32 Training as a bridge to different possibilities
20:51 Why purposeful work can still be difficult
23:09 Exploring your own next chapter
Key Lessons Learned:
Purpose does not have to point to one perfect job. It can be expressed through different kinds of work and relationships.
A career crossroads can be a sign that your needs and priorities have evolved.
The work that makes you feel most alive offers clues about the contribution you want to make.
Understanding who you want to help can be as useful as deciding how you want to help.
Coach training can support self-discovery even if you do not plan to become an independent coach.
Skills learned through coaching can shape leadership, volunteering, parenting and everyday conversations.
Meaningful work may involve risk, uncertainty and discomfort. Those challenges do not make it less meaningful.
Keywords:
Finding your purpose, purpose through coaching, coach training, career change, meaningful work, career crossroads, becoming a coach, coaching skills, personal fulfilment,
 
Links & Resources
https://igcompany.com/