IN A WORD....

The Missus and I have spent an enjoyable, stimulating and rewarding two days together. Unusually we've been working as a team on the same assignment - a coaching skills training programme with a very receptive, very charming and very skilled set of people. During the programme we set up a debate, asking the participants to name a single minded intention for coaching. Their responses were thoughtful as well as various, encompassing SUPPORT, BUILD, DEVELOP, UNDERSTAND, ACCEPT, AWARENESS, CONNECT, and EMPOWER as coaching intentions.
They were only allowed one word, in order to push the debate. It is, of course a cheap trick. No one word really captures the range of intentions in coaching, though the exercise bred very good thinking. I can't say any of the above are in any way wrong. One's character determines (I think) whether one is further towards the challenge or support end of the spectrum.
Inevitably they asked me for my word. I plumped for the understand / awareness area with appropriate "no one word gets it" caveats. On the way home from the event, though, I wondered if I'd flunked it, and thought more - was there one word? The word I came up with, which perhaps for me bridges the 'challenge, understand and support' spectrum was APPRECIATE.
Am I confident in it? No.
But it feels close, at least, to an authentic descriptor of my coaching behaviour.