Once upon a time there was a young boy, whose grandfather was famous in their village, and was recognized as one of the wisest people around. As a result of his reputation, people from all over the village and in fact from other villages too, came and met him to seek answers about their problems. The boy’s grandfather had a unique style of dealing with people. He would take these people to a nearby Art gallery, where various paintings were on display. Nobody knew who the artist of these paintings was. Every week on Sunday morning, one new Painting would appear in the garden, and the care taker of the gallery would take this painting and display it inside the gallery. The boy’s grandfather would show multiple paintings to the people who had approached him, and ask them, “What is clear to you now?”.  Surprisingly, all these people would come up with amazing answers as a solution to their problems, and the look on their face would show how great they were feeling after that. The boy would watch this daily, and would be perplexed by this phenomenon, however, he could not muster the courage to ask his grandfather how what he was doing was possible.

Time flew by and the young boy completed school, then went on to university and graduated in Computer Science. Post this the now young man, sought work at a Company as a Consultant.  In this organization this young man was recognized as a very smart person, who would be innovative and had great rapport building skills, and would get along very well with the people in the organization and also with his clients. Years passed by and this young man went on to become the Manager in this organization, handling a large number of projects with a lot of employees working under him. These employees would come and discuss their personal, as well as business problems with this man, as he was very approachable.

One day this man was having a conversation with his HR director about a new recruitment drive that was about to start, and on how to manage employee issues. The HR Director told him, “I recall what my mentor once told me – hire the best Coach and your worry will be over as a manager”.  This sentence was so powerful that the man immediately thought about his grandfather who did not try to solve the problems of the people who approached him, yet these very same people would find their own perspective, their own unique answers. The man immediately packed his bag and went to meet his grandfather as it had been a while since he had seen him, and also to find an answer to ‘how to be an effective coach’

The man took a train to his village, and the journey was amazing.  He saw large farms with crops, could breathe the fresh air, and saw mountains in the backdrop, large fresh water lakes, and streams flowing with sparking clean water, birds flying over the farms.

The man reached the village and was greeted by his grandfather at the Train station. The man told his grandfather, “Grand pa, do you still discuss issues with people, and not tell them anything and they still get all the answers to their own problems?”. The grandfather laughed and said, “Yes”, and smiled.  The man without wasting any time asked, “How can I find somebody with your qualities, somebody who does not give out any answers to people (who are looking to solve their issues and work on some goals), yet helps facilitate their own solutions? In short, how to be an effective coach?”

The man was expecting an answer, but instead his grandfather took him to the same Art house where he used to take all these people searching for answers.  He showed him a few paintings:

1. The first one was of a river moving through Rocky Mountains.
2. The second was of a cat rolling over a ball of wool.
3. The third was of a ship anchored at sea.
4. The fourth was of a barren cliff with one plant shooting out of the rocks.
5. The fifth was of a Stethoscope, hanging on a wall.
6. The sixth was of a court room, with fancy chairs, and tables.
7. The seventh was of a Bull and Bear looking at each other.
8. The eight was of a Diary and a Pen.
9. The ninth was of two chairs facing one another, and one chair was empty with a mirror on another chair.
10. The tenth painting was a Person looking into the lake and seeing his own reflection in the water, and also the fish in the water.