What I Learned Letting Go of the Answers

Before I became a coach, I spent over a decade mentoring leaders across high-growth organisations. I knew how to scale teams, manage complexity, and navigate strategic decisions. I was used to being the person with insight - someone others looked to for answers.

So when I began training as a coach, I brought that instinct with me: to advise, to offer solutions, to be helpful.

And I quickly learned that coaching required something different.

Coaching is not about knowing. It is about noticing. It is about staying present, listening deeply, and trusting that the client’s own insight matters more than anything I might contribute.

Letting go of the need to advise was uncomfortable at first. But it led to something deeper. I began to witness what can happen when a client is given time and space to think - without interruption, without direction, without someone solving for them.

For senior leaders, this kind of space is rare. Most are surrounded by people with opinions, advice, and expectations. In coaching, they find something different: a place to hear themselves think - often for the first time in years.

Letting go of the answers made me a better coach. And in many ways, a better leader. Because the most powerful outcomes I have seen in coaching have not come from what I said - but from what I was willing to leave out.