Curiosity: The Coach's Secret Weapon?
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Are you naturally a curious person? Are you fascinated by people, in why they think what they think and do what they do?
If so, you might be a great coach.
A great coach is curious to discover who you are and how you interact with others. Curiosity leads a coach to explore your thoughts and ideas. A curious coach helps you discover a better path, and always believes that there is one.
Curiosity is the skill that sets human coaches apart from their AI counterparts. Some Coaches suggest that we will soon be replaced by AI but I believe that AI lacks the individual, intuitive and multifaceted curiosity of a human coach.
Curiosity in Executive Coaching?
Curious coaches are better listeners, being genuine in their wish to understand their clients. Listening creates the space for the client to explore their thoughts and feelings.
Curiosity leads to clarification, and curious coaches will listen, but then ask insightful and probing questions. By not defending their position or expertise, a curious coach will be able to explore areas outside their experience.
Curious coaches with more developed emotional intelligence can better understand and respond to their clients' needs. They will identify stress in their clients, and will encourage them to develop their own emotional intelligence.
Curious coaches are self-reflective but also encourage client reflection, which is essential for their personal and professional growth.
Curiosity keeps coaches open to new coaching techniques and methods.
Why is AI’s Curiosity different?
AI has made significant progress in many areas but its "curiosity" differs fundamentally from human curiosity.
AI's learning is extrinsic, focusing on specific tasks or goals. Human curiosity is free-flowing and intrinsically self-motivated.
Human curiosity relies on hunches and instincts, leading a coach to serendipitous discoveries. AI curiosity is impersonal, digital and algorithm led. It and lacks the intuitive leaps that often lead to astonishing insights.
Human curiosity is personal and specific. It analyses the client’s emotions, ethics, and experiences. AI is designed to be impartial and generic. It lacks the personal context that drives meaningful exploration and discovery. It is the antithesis of true curiosity, by being a ‘one size fits all’ process. It will give the same answer to the same question no matter who asks it.
While humans value knowledge for its own sake and find joy in creative exploration, AI’s curiosity is exploitative, focused solely on finding specific solutions to defined problems. AI cannot experience joy from its ‘curiosity’.
If you have ever dialled NHS 111 – even if you spoke to a person - you may have experienced a conversation which followed a written script. This is essentially a form of AI which allows an unqualified person to reach a generic conclusion without having the clinical skills to evaluate the individual. Usually it is a triage tool rather than an intervention. It is merely a flow chart to a possible solution, rather than a route towards one.
AI cannot replicate the nuanced, intuitive, and personal nature of human curiosity.
Executive coaches demonstrate their superiority over AI by cultivating and utilising their innate curiosity. Indeed, curiosity is the skill that sets us apart from AI. As coaches we celebrate the power of human curiosity and its power to promote change and growth. We still have so much more to offer than an algorithm.
If you would like to explore coaching with a curious coach, who is interested in finding out who you are and what makes you tick, please consider a free no obligation 30 minute on-line conversation with me. You can book your session here. If I am not the right Coach for you, I will recommend somebody else who might be.
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