Imagine my dismay!
In the early days of developing my Coaching skills, 14 years ago I decided to implement my new scaling skills with Nadia! It was the first time she had attempted a turn in the road. (Still in the test at that time though always valuable as a skill)
Following her first attempt… I eagerly asked her the question. I was so excited!
“So Nadia, on a scale 0 to 10, 10 being excellent and zero being totally rubbish, what would you say?”
She beamed a huge smile at me and triumphantly announced….
“That was SO an 8!!!
My heart sank! I’m convinced and orchestra hidden in the bushes burst into dramatic sympathy by playing ‘duh duh dahhhh!!’ music!
My heart sank through the tarmac!
She said 8!
I mentally replayed what had occured in the eternity of that manoeuvre.
The first bit was fine… she turned and it was controlled and slow… then we went over the camber of the road and we rapidly hurtled toward the LARGE kerb at hunting-falcon speed. I asked her to stop – she did. Then to my dismay she took her foot off the brake before securing the hand brake! :O Thank goodness for dual controls… right?!
… and relax… right?…… STAMP! She put the handbrake on and THEN found the biting point! … THIS time!!!
We went nice and steadily once more looking through the car… but wait… she did not change to look over the other shoulder at the point where the car is going to touch the keb first!… [gentle bump!]
Then she went forward once again, nice and steadily… no problems….. until “Nadia stop!”
“Oh I didn’t see him coming! Glad you said!”
Then we finished as planned at the side of the road.
As I said earlier… I could not believe that she thought THAT fiasco of a manoeuvre was as high as an 8!
I was devastated! I thought it was not going to work but I decided to just act neutral and ask her to ‘tell me more about that please.”
She was animated and bobbing about in her seat!
“Yeah, so! I went forward and then shot down the hill towards the kerb because my clutch was down. So you had to tell. me to stop. Then I didn’t put the handbrake on so I shot forward again! And then I didn’t change to look over the other shoulder and touched the kerb…. and then you had to tell me about the guy on the motorbike – I’d have hit him if you hadn’t said anything…. but other than that it was SO an 8!
It was at this point I totally relaxed!
It was perfect!!
… and I realised the number is totally irrelevant! I doesn’t matter!
So I said…. ‘Brilliant! Want another go then?”
“Yes,” she said! And nailed it. She did it all to perfection!
Just to note she asked to do the manoeuvre unaided unless dangerous if anyone is curious. Risks managed!
What I found compelling was her enthusiasm and the instant fixes….
…. what would have happened if I had contradicted her ‘8’?
What would have happened to her joy and ability to trust her own judgement?
Our rapport would have been ruined!
I would have undermined her in so many ways.
There are so many more techniques in the ‘Scaling Technique’ I was trained to do! It is a technique I have adapted and honed over the years and now have my own workshop on the topic as it is ‘the key to Coaching conversations’ in my opinion.
If you want to move away from Q & A towards Coaching conversations it is not Coaching Questions you need to seek – The key to unlocking Client Centred Training Sessions is through conversation.
The use of Q & A is to manipulate the questions so you hear your desired answers.
Coaching Conversations unlock deeper thought, critical thinking skills, risk management processing and self awareness. These are the skills we need to develop in our new drivers so that they are less likely to become statistics.
To finish the story of Nadia – she came up in my news feed recently…
Nadia passed her test with zero faults on her first attempt!
We had a great rapport – she worked things out in her own way. She scaled high but what did it matter when she knew exactly what her mistakes were and solved them instantly!
The learning was deep and permanent because her learning was self motivated!
… and now I have my own Scaling Workshop amongst others… with more to come!
The use of Scaling, in my opinion, is the key to Coaching conversations.
I give my blog an 8 out of 10!!!
Thank you for reading 
Fiona Taylor
#ScalingForDriverTrainers