Johanna Rothman is reflecting on coaching in When to Speak and When to Be Quiet
If you're coaching someone, make sure you think about when to speak and when to be quiet. It may not be your preference, but make a conscious decision for the good of the coaching relationship and for the coachee. It's worth it in the end.
This is a big challenge for me: I love to provide the "answer" when a topic arises and I think I know something. Sometimes I'll tell you, even if you haven't asked a question. In learning more about facilitation skills from my Goldratt Schools experience this summer, they prefer to always have the participants answer questions. This means knowing how to ask the right kinds of questions to help a coachee see their path to an answer. As Johanna says elsewhere in her comments, the job of the coach / facilitator is to help the other person develop their own understanding of the topic at hand.