Claire writes : ‘Give a [person] a fish and you feed [them] for a day; teach a [person] to fish and you feed [them] for a lifetime’ says the proverb. I’d add, show a person how to fish and they’ll learn to be a better fisherperson faster.

In the last couple of years I have tried out paddle boarding, yoga and bookbinding. I will soon be going to try out a pottery class and am confident that the pottery teacher will show me what to do, explain, and then get me to throw a pot myself. And I’m confident that I’ll get beginners’ nerves and that’ll be when my pot starts to wobble, they’ll compassionately offer a tweak that will mean I make it through the day! Hopefully I’ll want to go to pottery again! That’s my experience in the things I have already tried out. Picking up knitting again recently, the pattern required a long tail cast on (who knew that was a thing!). I tried using YouTube but it never really worked until a friend sat next to me and showed me and handed me the needles. I picked it up really fast.

If you’re thinking about more professional development , we encourage you to think about spaces where you can watch someone do the thing in real time and where you can try it out yourself – in real conversations. The discomfort that comes from that (and yes, learning to paddleboard I did fall in!) brings deeper learning, I think.

We offer technical check ins for coaches (of any tribe) where we watch a recording of your coaching and look at what’s going well and where you might develop. It’s a great way of planning your professional development for the next couple of years. Because it’s about you and how you do what you do (and we aren’t expecting you’ll necessarily do that development with us, although you might!). Half price if you’re in the Gold Tier of Claire’s community.