Episode #44: Claire Pedrick – Cutting Through Complexity and Simplifying Coaching
Claire Pedrick was speaking at the ICF Conference in 2019 when a publisher approached her and said: “Have you got a book in you?”
That book is Simplifying Coaching, and in it Claire offers a rallying cry for filtering out the noise of the coaching industry and honing in on the very human essence of transformative conversations.
In this episode of The Coach’s Journey Podcast, Claire traces the steps that led her into a burgeoning coaching landscape around the turn of the century and reflects on the precious lessons learned from moments that sometimes felt like missteps.
She shines a light on the “guru-ing” and “pedestal-ing” that can lead to problematic power dynamics in coaching, and shares the foundational values such as equity and fairness that underpin the success of 3D Coaching and saw her recognised with the 2022 Outstanding Contribution to Coaching Award from Henley Business School.
Claire is a master of the art of communicating complicated things simply, but admits it took a long time to have the confidence to cut through complexity and offer straightforward truths when coaching or mentoring coaches.
Listening to her speak, you cannot fail to appreciate the fundamental importance of her approach, which is explained with refreshing clarity.
In this episode, we talk about:
Whether we have to be the things we want to develop in people
The impact of modelling the boundaries we set
The holy ground in the coaching space and how to interact with it
Being wise about how many coffees to have with someone and still call it work
Learning how to be silent and how to wait while coaching clients are doing good work
Claire also talks about how to value your time, how to balance delivery and business development, and the importance of – as coaches – telling the truth about ourselves.
To learn more about Claire, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairepedrick/
For information about my wider work, my writing or to buy my books, visit www.robbieswale.com.
Music by My Good Man William: listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KmeQUcTbeE31uFynHQLQg
To support the Coach's Journey, visit www.patreon.com/thecoachsjourney and to join the Coach's Journey Community visit www.thecoachsjourney.com/community.
Things and people we mentioned (that you might be interested in):
- Robbie’s upcoming event, How to Be More Productive (and why time management won’t help you): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-be-more-productive-and-why-time-management-wont-help-you-tickets-470005598397
- Claire’s podcast, The Coaching Inn https://thecoachinginn.podbean.com/
- Sarah Cartwright https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-cartwright-28659815/
- Claire’s book, Simplifying Coaching https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56199938-simplifying-coaching
- Alex Swallow http://alexswallow.com/about/
- Robbie’s 100 podcast challenge https://www.robbieswale.com/writing/2022/2/4/the-12-minute-method-100-podcasts-challenge
- Transforming Conversations https://www.3dcoaching.com/transforming-conversations/
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3228917-outliers
- Ed Watson https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-watson-training
- Good Housekeeping https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/
- Thomas Leonard https://coachville.com/connect/founder-thomas-leonard/
- Coach U https://www.coachu.com/home/
- 3D Coaching https://www.3dcoaching.com/
- Moneypenny https://www.moneypenny.com/uk/
- Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/54785515-four-thousand-weeks
- Phil Bolton and Inga Umblija on The Coach’s Journey podcast https://www.thecoachsjourney.com/podcast/episode-28-inga-umblija-phil-bolton-abundance-formula
- Barry Ennis on The Coach’s Journey podcast https://www.thecoachsjourney.com/podcast/episode-9-barry-ennis-follow-the-fire
- Reid Hoffman https://www.reidhoffman.org/
- Robbie appearing on The Coaching Inn https://thecoachinginn.podbean.com/e/in-conversation-with-robbie-swale-how-to-start-when-you-re-stuck/
- Vegard Olsen coachingpartner.net
- Tony Robbins https://www.tonyrobbins.com/
- ILM https://www.i-l-m.com/
- John Blakey https://johnblakey.co.uk/
ABOUT CLAIRE PEDRICK
Claire Pedrick is, in her own words, a human who facilitates other people’s thinking. She is a business owner. A mother. A friend. A volunteer. An MCC Master Coach with over 13,000 hours of experience. And she is the author of Simplifying Coaching and host at The Coaching Inn podcast.
About these descriptions, Claire says: “All of these are true and each will impact how we start a conversation. With some definitions you might assign me power which I do not deserve.”
Claire established 3D Coaching in the 1990s to bring together the simplest and best learning from coaching, to support people in organisations to have more effective conversations with an edge. Coaching for more than 35 years, she believes that the essence of coaching is simple and that it takes time to learn to work that simply.
Claire’s current focus is on developing internal and external coaches through training, masterclasses and mentoring. Every so often she goes for a very long walk – in 2022 it was 600km on the Camino in Spain.