Flashback: Can This ADDer Be Saved? – Part 4

— Ten Points from Katy —
Finding the Right Coach for YOU

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

Different Strokes for different folks

I hope that those of you who have read the story to this point did NOT read it as my attempt to “motivate” you to do what they did (either one of them!)

My strong belief is that much of what passes for “motivation” is actually make-wrong under a thin veneer of self-help.

In other words, they seem to say, if you would only learn to do it somebody else’s way (especially their way, of course) you wouldn’t be such a Limp-along Cassidy.

I want your take-away to be that we each need to work around our personal challenges by leveraging our personal strengths — even you!

Think back on how differently our two example clients approached life:

• Katy would have been an anxious wreck had Donna attempted to encourage her to “go with the flow” and move away from her reliance on lists and structures.
• Barb’s creativity would have shut down on her had Donna insisted that she had to learn how to move forward in the linear style that was “Katy-native.”

One of my mentors – the late Thomas J. Leonard, [life] Coaching field founder – once said something to me that has come to inform my life (and my coaching approach):

“Most people spend their entire lives attempting to bring their areas of inadequacy up to adequacy. What could you achieve if you spent that energy bringing your areas of adequacy to brilliance?”

Before you move on to the final part of the Katy and Barb story, I want to leave you with two more quotes:

Found HERE

“Never attempt to teach a pig to sing;
it wastes your time and annoys the pig.”
~ Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“There are many good ways to get things done –
but none of them involving sight will work well for the blind man.
No amount of ‘wanting to’ will change that reality.” ~ mgh

Remember that you can always check out the sidebar
for a reminder of how links work on this site, they’re subtle ==>
HOVER before clicking – often a box will appear to tell you what to expect

A few Coaching Results stories from Clients themselves found HERE

A Coach-finder Checklist for SOME of you:

Hyper-organized, list-makin’ Katy suggests you make sure you can answer yes to each of the following ten points as you interview coaches to work with your own precious life.

“Life is where you find it,” says Barb.
“Interview, schminterview, go with your gut!”

Click HERE to read PART 3: “Onward and Upward”
(links to ALL below)

My Coach is:

1.  Thoroughly knowledgeable about brain-basics and ADD, especially my kind of ADD, with some depth of experience behind him or her.

2.  Able to share information readily and in a charge-neutral fashion.  Never makes me feel “stupid” or “intellectually lazy” for not already knowing.

3.  Someone who never pressures me into a quick decision or makes me feel like it is important to him or her that I take his or her suggestions or agree with anyone else’s point of view.

4.  A good strategizer — can explain a systematized way of working clearly, yet is flexible enough to adapt to my preferences. (My coach may be the expert on brain-based coaching or ADD, but I am the only expert on me and what I need and am able to do.)

5.  A good fit for me — we both enjoy each other’s communication style.  When we don’t communicate completely, s/he requests more information from me or explains him or herself to me in another way.

6.  Willing and able to work in some format that works for me.  If I’m not sure, I have taken the time to  interview two or three other coaches who work in at least a few of the different formats that appeal to me — email, phone, face-to-face or combination, weekly, brief calls daily, etc.

7.  Someone I can trust — enough to try things s/he suggests and to tell the whole truth, even in areas where I have developed “well-rehearsed cover stories.”  I know s/he needs “nothing but the truth” to tailor the Coaching approach to adapt to the results I report, and I feel confident that s/he will keep our sessions strictly confidential.

8.  Truthful but gentle.  I feel in my gut that I can trust my Coach to work with me in a way that keeps me challenged without making me feel shut down, embarrassed or shamed.

9.  A brain-based resource, and a source for materials developed especially for ADD and ADD coaching.  S/he knows how to help me track my medications on a log I can take to my doctor.

10.  A well-trained ADD professional —

• s/he clearly articulates practice standards,
• reminds me gently when I oops,
• has well-developed, focused listening skills,
• endorses more than s/he corrects,
• always listens from belief, even while s/he articulates a feeling that something seems a little “off” or incongruent, and
• knows a lot of different ways to get things done and doesn’t try to fit my square peg into someone else’s round hole!

Only the BEST

Both Katy and Barb wish you every success in your life, and especially in the search for your ADD coach — and send wishes that your days become as enjoyable as theirs.  

If money’s tight, don’t be like Barb.  Check out Peer Coaching Basic Training – don’t let lousy finances keep you from the wild success we ALL deserve!

If you are interested in working with ME (even if you don’t have ADD), click on the Brain-based Coaching link below.  There’s a contact form at the bottom.

If you are in the U.S. I will call you to schedule a time to talk — everyone else will get a response by email, with my contacts included so that you can call me.

BE SURE to click the appropriate category or categories or it won’t file correctly and THIS ADD Poster Girl might NEVER find it in the e-glut!

Sorry, but due to the technical skills of spammer narcissists,
I can’t post my email to make the process more ADD-friendly

More info in story format?

If I continue to get positive response about Katy and Barb, I may add new articles and turn it into a Series. (Sign up for notification so you don’t have to track coming back to check).

You DO realize that these are not “real” people, right?  Katy and Barb are a compilation of many of the items and issues that more than a few of my clients have brought to my ADD coaching table.

ADD Coaching is STRICTLY confidential.

It would be a violation of client confidentiality to disclose “real client” details in any manner that might allow anyone to be able to figure out who I’m talking about.

If you want to read something from actual clients, Click HERE.

Response to my male commentors:  If this series continues, we’ll zap a few lucky guys with an ADD diagnosis too; PARENTS and PARTNERS; maybe I’ll bring in a whole ADD family!

Indicate interest in the comments section below.

Meanwhile, I’ll be spending my time writing articles covering so-much-MORE about ADD/EFD, functional challenges of non-ADDers, short-term memory challenges as we grow older, Brain-based Coaching, and the entire Attentional Spectrum.

Can this ADDer be Saved?

• Flashback: Can This ADDer be Saved – Part 1
• Flashback: Can This ADDer be Saved – Part 2
• Flashback: Can This ADDer be Saved – Part 3
• Flashback: Can This ADDer be Saved – Part 4

(The entire coaching story, illustrating how coaching works in narrative format)

© 2010-12, 2017, all rights reserved
Check bottom of Home/New to find out the “sharing rules”
(reblogs ALWAYS okay, and much appreciated)

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If you’d like some one-on-one (or group) coaching help with anything that came up while you were reading this article (either for your own life, that of a loved one, or as coaching skills development), either scroll down to the Brain-Based Coaching link below, or click the E-me link <—here (or on the menubar at the top of every page) and I’ll get back to you ASAP (accent on the “P”ossible!)

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COACHING LINKS at end of all posts

• Brain-based Coaching with Madelyn Griffith-Haynie
• Brain-based Coaching Fees & Formats
• The Group Coaching LinkList – explaining how this format works

Related articles here on ADDandSoMuchMore.com

• A Bunch of Words about FIT (#1 of 5)
• ADDerWorld – Folks Like US!
• ABOUT Boggle
• ABOUT Black & White Thinking
• Reframing: Escaping the Frame changes the VIEW

A few Articles in the Attention series:

• ADD Overview 101 (#1 of 5)
• A Little ADD Lens™ Background
• The Link between Attention and Action
• The Dynamics of Attending
• Symptoms of Attentional Struggles
• Distinguishing Distractibility

More from the ADD Coaching series:

• 10-Step ADD Coaching
• Brain-based Coaching Paradigms
• The ADD-ADHD Coachability Index™
• What to Talk About in Your Coaching Call
• Until they believe they can, they can’t
• ADD-flavored Coaching
• Key Tasks for ADD Coaching
• 10 Essential ADD Coaching Concepts
• Ten Basic Coaching Skills used most often with ADDers
• Distinctions: Coaching vs.Therapy

Related articles ’round the ‘net

• Finding balance in your life: The coaching wheel
• Different Kinds of ADHD, Different Kinds of Coaches (psychologytoday.com)
• Coaching, out where the ADHD rubber meets the road of reality (Dr. Charles Parker’s corepsych blog)
• 5 reasons why you need a Wealth and Success Coach (janebussenschutt.com)
• The People’s Coach Guide To Social Confidence (sucertt.wordpress.com)
• The power of listening. (sevencoloursfactory.wordpress.com)
• Why do I need a Life Coach? (seedscoaching.wordpress.com)
• Coaching or Training – what delivers the best value? (radtac.wordpress.com)
• Defining Coaching Pedagogy (crossfitcambridgeshire.wordpress.com)

BY THE WAY: I revisit all my content periodically to update links — when you link back, like, follow or comment, you STAY on the page. When you do not, you run a high risk of getting replaced by a site with a more generous come-from.