Breaking the Teacher's Trap

For years, my professional identity as a teacher has required me to enter the classroom with a structured agenda, specific learning outcomes, and a plan for how we we get there. But when I started formal coaching training, I quickly discovered that this professional disposition - the 'teacher's trap' - became one of my biggest obstacles.

The lightbulb moment

The lightbulb moment came through useful feedback from my trainer, who'd been watching a practice session. He'd seen how having established the goals with the client, I'd slipped into taking control of the session rather than partnering with them for working towards those goals. His feedback made me realise the teacher in me: I was reverting to a design reflex. As a former school teacher and now working in higher education, I don't invite my students to collaborate with me in defining the learning outcomes or designing the structure for the class or seminar. I was bringing this same mindset into the coaching space: elaborating a structure without sufficient partnership with the client.

Structure vs partnership

In a coaching relationship, the client always leads the way. This is fundamentally different from a directive role.

• The teacher (or manager): Arrives at the classroom with a structure/plan for working towards a predetermined set of learning outcomes.

• The coach: Arrives at the session with trust. The coach trusts the client as naturally creative, resourceful and whole and that the client is best placed to define the path.

The problem with the teacher’s trap is that by imposing a structure, we inadvertently close the space for the client to direct how the session goes, negating the very resourcefulness we're trying to unlock. We proceed to build up the reflective space and then collapse it, instantaneously.

The invitation to partner

Addressing the teacher's trip requires intentional practice: partnership. For me, this meant replacing my "design reflex" with a genuine invitation for collaboration. Now, instead of jumping straight into a framework, I use a simple, powerful question that functions as an invitation toward partnership: “Where should we start?”