Coaches often use the metaphor with clients of 'peeling back the layers of an onion' to represent the process of coaching. Coaching starts at the outside of the onion and step-by-step removes a layer until the core is reached.

I would like to offer up a new metaphor - 'Coaching is like renovating a kitchen floor' - truly!!

My husband and I recently became the owners of our new house ... actually the house is very old ... we are simply the new owners. The previous owner lived there for 55 years so there is a lot of history in this house. We bought this house knowing that the kitchen floor may need some work. Some work" is defined as anything between replacing a few floorboards to replacing the entire floor!

We pulled up 4 layers of linoleum before we reached the wooden floor underneath. We discovered that some parts of the floor had totally rotted away and would need replacing and some parts of the floor were still in good condition. The most important thing is that we discovered what was truly there so that we could develop our plan to move forward.

So here is how my metaphor relates ... In coaching you work one layer at a time to reach what lies at the base (just like removing layers of linoleum). Quite often you don't know what you will find until you get there. You may not always like what you find, however, the most important thing is that you do the work to remove the layers because only once you know what is really there can you create what you really want. Once you know the true state of your base you have a point to plan for ... the potential is then enormous.