Rikkie would communicate very intensely and then disappear. When we finished our sessions, she fired off all kinds of observations and summaries. I took my time to reflect and sent my recommendations the next day. Rikkie never responded to them. But when she was ready for a new session, she would contact me.
I coach real-time. That means I let people know what promotes clarity and what doesn’t in our communications with each other. Rikkie’s intensity and then absence feels very one-sided and controlled to me.
One example of this is her tendency to send a Skype message and then leave. She Skypes and runs – which leaves no room for reply.
Sometimes we need to do that. Just now I apologized to Angela for that. I ended my Skype message with:
- Sorry to Skype and run.
After all, conversations are intended to go two ways.
