Mastering Coaching Readiness and Client Thinking with Lessons from Cultivating Coachability by Clare Norman

What does it really mean for a client to be “ready” for coaching? And how do we, as coaches, avoid stealing the learning by inserting our own insights?

In this episode of the Coaching Book Club Podcast, Christy Stuber and Ken McKeller dive into Cultivating Coachability by Clare Norman—an essential read for every coach’s bookshelf. Together, they explore the coach’s responsibility to prepare clients for coaching, redefine the purpose of chemistry sessions as compatibility meetings, and hold space for independent thinking without hijacking the client’s process.

You’ll walk away with practical strategies to strengthen your coaching agreements, support client readiness, and deepen your understanding of the coach-thinker partnership. Whether you’ve read the book or this is your first time hearing about it, you’ll leave with fresh insights to apply in your own coaching practice.

Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and connect with us on LinkedIn to share what you’re taking away from today’s conversation.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Coaching Book Club podcast, the show that empowers coaches through books. I'm Kristy Stuber here with my friend and co-host Ken McKeller, and today we're talking about cultivating Coachability by Claire Norman. I. This book sharpens how we as coaches can foster deep, independent thinking in our clients. And here's what you can expect in this episode. First, we'll start with a quick overview of the book. Next, we'll break down some key takeaways that stood out to us and share how you can apply these insights to your coaching practice. And then Ken, and I'll explore how we're gonna connect these concepts to our real world coaching challenges. Whether you've read this book before or hearing about it for the first time, you'll leave with actionable insights to strengthen your skills. Let's get started. Hi, Ken. Hey, how you doing? How's it going? Good. So Ken, what was important about this book for you? Well, first of all, first of all, heavy D. Heavy D right? He's, he's an artist. The late great heavy d that before I listened to any of his songs, I'll go out and buy his album or his, uh, uh, recordings or his disc. You know, I would go out and buy it just without, I didn't have to. Hey, hey, heavy D has a new his, his album's out. Boom. I'm going to get it right. Um, Denzel Washington. Denzel Washington. He has a movie. I don't need the previews. I'm going right. Viola Davis. Viola Davis has a movie. Boom. I'm going right. Don't, I don't have to see the previews. I don't. You don't have to talk about it all. I just know that she has something coming out for me. Claire Norman is in that category for me as far as writing books and the stuff, the material that she has coming out, because when she did the Transf transformational Coach, boom, I loved it when she did the mentor coaching a practical guide. I was like, Ooh. And now. This book right here. Ah, is the next level. So what she writes, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get it now. I'm gonna have to go out and get that other book has out there. Uh, being a Sun Bean. I didn't read that. I'm gonna have to go check that out now because this book right here is a, should be on every single coach's bookshelf. Mm-hmm. I agree with you. I, I mentioned, I think in the first episode that the Transformational Coach is my favorite book that I've read lately by Claire Norman and, um. The reason why was it really aligned with how I wanna think about coaching. I really like how she talks about, um, coaching is we have a thinker, we have somebody, our client is doing the thinking and we are creating the space to do that. And it's all about learning. And that learning element really resonates with one of my, um, values and one of my strengths about how much I love to learn. So, um. So I agree with you. I, this book came out and I picked it up and I also was like, oh my gosh, this is changing further. Shifting how I'm thinking about my responsibility as a coach when working with my clients, including my responsibility to communicate that with my clients, um, even before I start working with them. The quote that she says in this book that I loved so much is, um. The coach doesn't run the race, the athlete does, and so we as coaches aren't the thinkers. We need to support the thinking process and that quote, I just continues to sit in my head as I find myself wanting to jump in with my clients, with what I think about what's going on, or how I wanna process what they're saying, and then stopping myself to say, Nope, it's not my thinking that matters. It's their thinking that gets them where they wanna go. So, Ken, can we dive into some more takeaways from the book? Yeah, we, we, we can go ahead and get into that. Shoot. I, I thought that's what we're doing. Yeah. Well, we're now, so well what, well, even, even kind of piggybacking off of what you just said as far as the thinking, I mean, I, I don't know if we're doing Nancy Klein's work or not. Mm-hmm. Um, a time to think, but I mean that Nancy Kline. Sees that person as the thinker. And I think, um, Claire Norman has gotten some of that wording from Nancy Klein. And it if fits, if fits beautifully. Um, so I mean, the biggest thing that I got from this particular book is first of all, folks read the book because we we're going to give you little problems. A crus, a half a crumb of what this book has to offer. So read the book. But I mean, readiness, I mean, the whole concept of instead of coachability, you know, we get, we just go right into coachability. But what I like what she does, he says, whoa, whoa, whoa. Ken, before we, before we determine coachability, let's back up a step or two and let's talk about readiness and what that looks like. Inform, this is before the coaching starts, right? The information that the thinker has been provided, the information through, whoever, however they're coming, whether they're coming from a platform, whether they're coming from your own personal thing, or whether they're coming from a different stakeholder. Like what kinds of information and conversation about coaching. Have they been given to be ready for coaching? And I was like, stand up, slow collapse ovation. All right. All right. That's, that's one of my, well, only even crumbs, right? So that's a half a crumb. It, it, it's true about the crumbs because this book is. So full of tools and resources that I'm gonna find really useful in my practice to, to adapt and make mine. Uh, but the key takeaway for me was about readiness. That was my number one that I had on my list. Um, I really love this quote, coaching readiness isn't passive or reactive, you know, that we need, we have a, we have a role in helping our clients get ready. Um. This is competency 3.1, right? Explains what coaching is and is not, and describes the process to clients and stakeholders. And I think about how many times I sort of make the assumption people know if they're coming for me for coaching, they know what coaching is. And I don't always slow that process down to check in on that, to see what they think it's gonna be so we can make sure that we're, um, we're aligned on it. Yeah, that, that was big for me too. Um, I like that. What I also like is the coach's role in a thinker's role, right? She said a couple times in the book, the coach is in charge of the process. The thinker is in charge of the content. And the value. You know, she, I mean, she said that at one chapter there of, of, Ooh, she, we, I know where she stand, Claire, I know where you stand on that, right? Mm-hmm. The value belongs, or what this person's gonna get outta the session, what they wanna bring to the sessions, how they wanna, uh, to navigate the session. All that, that, that is the thinker, right? So at the end of the session, coach, Ken's not gonna say. Yeah. I, I really made that happen. Mm-hmm. No, you didn't. If you, if you, if you're saying that, then you, you got to rethink, oh, lemme just say real quick. One of the other things that I loved, I loved, I loved, I loved about this book was the reflections after every chapter, right? And she says, one cool thing of, and even like, like how that hits up against your values. That gave me an opportunity to disagree or to explore in a different way with what I just read in that chapter, I was like, now I am being not only educated, but taking this education for test spin. How does it work in my coaching thinking? How will I use it? What kind of alterations do I need to make to make this suit of coaching fit? On my style of being a coach. Yeah, right. Absolutely. It's not, I I love that too. It's not about, um, you have to do it a certain way. I mean, I mean, Claire's an m MCC C for a reason, right? And she's, she's demonstrating that even through the book that she wrote is, I'm not gonna tell you what to do. I'm gonna give you some things to think about and you can then decide what works for you. Um. That's what I love about the tools in the book. Like I'm really can't wait to pull them out and start figuring out how to make them suit me. To your, to your metaphor you used before. What do I need to tailor, what do I need to let out, you know, what maybe needs to change now, but maybe changes again in a year because I've changed. Um, I really, I think I, the thing that is really connecting for me as you're talking is. One of the concepts in the book about coaching as a learning experience, and that needs to be rooted in adult learning principles. And I think because I mentioned how the transformational coach stood out to me because it really framed coaching as learning. And it's a way I talk to people and it really connects to my, um, one of my top Clifton strengths, which is a learner. For me to see coaching, um, structured through a learning principle evolution makes it make sense in my brain and then makes it easier for me to explain. I also understand that doesn't work for everybody and I'm not attached to that for other people, but for me it felt like, oh, this makes sense. And one of the key points of this is that it is, um, reflective and it's generative. Um. So there's a parallel process going on here. As I'm talking, I'm realizing between how I am learning, how I'm thinking about coaching, and how I wanna create coaching, um, environments for my clients to learn about themselves. How does any of that resonate with you? I. Don't steal the thinkers learning by jumping in with your own insights. That's one of, that's one of the quotes from the book, right? Mm-hmm. That's what, that's what stands out. Mm-hmm. I mean, allowing that process to unfold. Mm-hmm. And, and by getting out of the way, I, I like what Nancy Klein says in, in her book. One of her, her books was, um. Is what you have to say. More important about what they are about to think. Yeah. I mean, sometimes you give an offering of a question and you step out the way and you let it cook, let it cook. It's such a gift for our, our clients, our communities, our worlds to help other people learn how to think for themself. I, I, that's really for me, resonating with me as a, almost as like my purpose statement for why I do coaching, which is I wanna help other people learn to trust their inner wisdom and think for themselves, and I think the world. We better off for it. Um, Ken, the third takeaway was something that you and I were talking about before we started recording, which was chemistry sessions and re redefining those as compatibility meetings. And I, I also really love this idea that it doesn't have to be about choosing to work with somebody isn't about just the gut instinct. There might be something there, but it's not just about that feeling you get. It's also. Can I collaborate and partner with this other person in a thinking space? Again, really reframed how I think about those initial sessions. Meeting with somebody. It's not about do they like me in air quotes. It's about do they think they can work with me to help them achieve their goals and vice versa. I need to think about how I can work with the other person. And another thing that she. She does provide language and kind of more thinking around how to have these compatibility meetings, like what, what, what to say and who should have the compatibility meetings, um, whether it's a stakeholder, um, and what that looks like, whether it is you as representing your, your brand or, or your, your company. So that was. Lemme pause here and say generous. I mean this whole what Claire Norman is generous in her offerings. She's generous in the templates that she gives out. She's generous in the, the work that she's producing. She's generous in even her appreciation to the other people that's in this field that she pulls from and gives credit to and gives insight to so you can also bounce and go see their work. Everybody's work, I mean, that generosity, that generosity is just, um. Inspiring. Mm-hmm. In, in full disclosure, Claire Norman is mentoring me right now, and that's how I experience her as a mentor as well as so generous, which gives me the space to continue my learning as a coach and my skill development. So, Ken, what are you, what, what, what, what, what question real quick. Yeah. How did. How did you come to learn about Norman? Oh friend, you know the answer to this. I want them to know. I want them to know, yes, Ken McKeller, you introduced me to Claire first with the book to Transformational Coach, and I'm grateful to you, more than grateful to you for that. I text you in the middle of night. You gotta read, you gotta read this book. You gotta read this book. Yeah, I got a cover book she said about. Let this one butt the line. You gotta read this book. They said, I dunno, you gotta read this book and then you call, you text me back, Hey, I'm, well this is, oh my goodness. Yeah. That was, no, you, you were absolutely right to do all that.'cause it, it did, that book really made a shift from my brain, especially as I'm still on my MCC journey, right. Working towards that next level of certification. The transformational coach shifted how I think about coaching and this book, cultivating Coachability is, is another step in that process for me. So can we do wanna talk about, or I wanna talk about how I'm gonna apply this to my coaching practice. I'd love to hear from you. What are you gonna be taking away, well, not taking away, but what are you gonna be actually applying to your coaching practice from the book? No, I, I'm, I'm, and, and, and lemme explain. Lu, lemme explain, right? Uh, there's a lot of good stuff in here. So this is not a onetime read for me and is not a first time understanding for me. There's some stuff I wanna go back like. Try party. Like that whole concept, I wanna go back and reread and really engage in it. There's some stuff that I like, but it's not quite me. So I wanna explore how can I engage in that, build a relationship with that thinking so it becomes a part of my coaching. DNA. So man, I. Really have to give this thing a reread and sit with it a little bit differently because I was reading for education and I'm a CLA fan, so some entertainment too. Right now when I go back and read it, I'm reading it for personal coaching, transformation. Transformation. How does this change Ken McKeller as a being? Not a coach, but as a being. And that is what I wanna go back because I mean that her thinking is layered, not just in the arena of coaching, but also in the arena of navigating life, as always, such wise, um, thoughts that I really hadn't even considered. I was going very tactical with what I was gonna take away, and I'm still gonna go there. I'm also gonna layer on what you said about, this isn't just for coaching, this is for, this can be for any kind of relationship I'm entering into in any part of my life. Specifically. I'm thinking a lot about the tools that she provided for my coaching intake and compatibility meetings. Uh. The ones that come to me directly. My clients also thinking about, um, a coaching program that I manage where I support the coaches who get connected to students in a master's program at the University of Pittsburgh. And thinking about that process, how can we build some of the things that I learned from Claire into that process to. Encourage more coaching readiness from the students, and, um, a more clear handoff when we make the match between the student and the coach so that they can get started, um, maybe a little bit more smoothly in that relationship. Uh, I'm just gonna end my thoughts with this quote from the book, uh, which I think is also really powerful. She says, clients who understand and embrace their role. As thinkers, we'll experience deeper, more sustainable change. And I think about how many clients come to me and want me to think for them and how if I can set them up to understand they are the thinker, and then support'em in that journey, they're gonna get what they want in a more sustainable way. Any last comments from you before we wrap up for today? Well, I know folks listen. To a podcast, and as a result of, a lot of times they go out and, and get the books. And they read the books and they have a lot of good things to say about the books. I'll also invite folks to, you know, reach out and, and leave, um, leave. Leave a. What is it? I think you're asking people to leave, uh, comments maybe on our, our LinkedIn page or our reviews on review site. Right, right. Okay. Yeah. Well, I invite people to leave comments on our, on our page, leave reviews on the author's page, and, and let people know. How this work is impacting them. Mm-hmm. Definitely. I love to hear from our audience on what they're taking away. So for today, this wraps up our discussion on applying, cultivating coachability to real world coaching. We've covered some powerful insights from Claire Norman from redefining our role as coaches to making our client journey more intentional. And we hope these takeaways have marked new ideas for your practice and inspired you to dig deeper into this incredible resource. Thank you again for spending your time with us today. Your commitment to learning and growth is what this podcast is all about. If you enjoy today's episode, make sure to subscribe to the Coaching Book Club podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. We'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn, follow us for even more coaching insights and updates about upcoming episodes, and we're always in the lookout for new books to review. So if you have a favorite coaching book that's made an impact on you, let us know. Maybe it'll be featured in an upcoming episode. Thanks for being part of our community. And until next time, happy coaching.