Why I am an Evangelist for Coaching

by Ircel Harrison

Have you come to a point where you feel you are stuck? Perhaps new ideas don’t come. Or, you think your leadership has plateaued? You no longer seem to be making an impact. Let me share a story with you.

When Mark Tidsworth, Pinnacle’s team leader, approached me in 2008 about joining the team as a coach, I really did not know what he was talking about. He told me about his own coach training and coaching practice and assured me I had been doing coaching for years, although I did not call it by that name. I agreed to come on board with the understanding that I would pursue formal training as a coach.

Fifteen years later, I have coached over 1000 hours with some 50 clients, held a coaching credential with the International Coaching Federation for ten years and am working to move to the next level. And, I have been able to be a co-creator of Summit Coach Training.

I think you can surmise from that experience, I believe in coaching. I have seen the difference it has made in many lives, but I have also come to understand the value of a coaching mindset in the coach’s personal development and approaches to leadership.

In 2008, I stepped away from a denominational judicatory role that I had enjoyed. When I started that job, my wife said that I was happier than I had been for years! The organization was healthy and financially stable, but I had come to the point where I had run out of ways to move the organization forward. I felt it was time to let it go.

Joel Barker, the author of Paradigms, observed: “You will make a perfectly rational mistake: You will assume that sooner or later the paradigm you are presently practicing (which has been mostly successful) will solve all the rest of your problems. It won’t.” 

Looking back now, if I had embraced a coaching approach in my leadership role, I would have applied a new paradigm to that work and might have stayed around a bit longer.

For one thing, I often came away from conversations with pastors who were struggling with their lives and leadership and felt I was not offering what they needed. If I had taken a coach approach, I would have realized they were more capable and resourceful than I gave them credit for. I would have asked better questions and been a more intentional partner in their lives and ministries.

I would also have adopted a different approach to working with churches. I grew up in a paradigm that the denomination was supposed to have answers for the churches (although they may have been answers to questions the churches weren’t asking). If you had a problem, I had a program. As a result of my work as a coach and training in a more collaborative approach to consulting, I have come to see that the Spirit of God can work with the People of God when the right questions are asked.

A new paradigm—a coaching paradigm—changed the way I looked at both leadership and consulting.

Where are you right now in your ministry? Perhaps you are in a situation where a new paradigm—a coaching paradigm—could enrich your life, your ministry, and your church leadership. You might even extend your ministry with a coaching paradigm. This is a challenging time for church leaders that requires not only skills and personal strength, but new ways of seeing. Coach training can provide that for a leader.

Why I am an evangelist for coaching? Because I have seen and experienced its impact. Want to learn more? Let’s talk.