Despite your willingness to make progress,you can often find yourself up against a series of external obstacles that appear to be insurmountable and are beyond your control.  It is difficult to understand why they are there.  There are many rivers to cross and many mountains to climb, and at times, it is like banging your head against a brick wall.  This excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules hinders or prevents action or decision making.

Examples of questions you might use when coaching around barriers to progress.

– How best can you deal with the barriers and red tape that get in the way of you making progress?

– How real are these barriers?  What is your reaction to these barriers?  How can you preempt these barriers and prevent them from causing delays?  What do you need to do to overcome these barriers?  Maybe some red tape is necessary.

– How can you plan for this?

– Often it seems like you are banging your head against a brick wall. What makes you feel like banging your head against a brick wall? What causes you to become frustrated?  How do you react to banging your head against a brick wall for a long period of time?

– How can innovation and creativity help you?

– What other ways are there of dealing with barriers?  What innovative ways can you think of to deal positively with these barriers?

– What is your reaction to planning?  How do you go about planning? How detailed are your plans?  What outside factors have you built into your plans?  What contingency plans have you put in place? How realistic is the strategy and subsequent plan that you have chosen?

One of a series of 18 images from the coaching toolbox – Images of Resilience – available from RSVP Design.

Images of Resilience is a collection of metaphor cards representing a range of experiences and emotions linked to the theme of resilience. They explore different facets and connections with stress, change, challenge and learning.

Each image is accompanied with a range of suggested coaching questions to explore situations where resilience is needed, and the qualities or skills that can be developed to strengthen resilience.