This moment-to-moment processing might also relate to the concept of “fast thinking” that has been offered by the Nobel-prize winning economist, Daniel Kahneman (2011). As one of the founders of the rapidly growing field known as behavioral economics, Kahneman suggests that much of the important thinking and reasoning we do every day is engaged in a manner that is very quick, deeply-embedded – and often biased. For Kahneman, it is important that we balance off our fast thinking with a process that he calls “slow thinking” (to which we turn in the next section of this discussion). It might be critical for professional coaches to be aware of their own fast-thinking (“moment-to-moment”), in part because they are being asked to respond quickly and with insight to their client’s own thinking and because they are often in the business of helping their clients uncover their own fast thinking patterns and biases.
Before passing too quick a judgment on the respondents rating of this item, it is important to note that this item might yield high variance scores and relatively low means for several obvious reasons. First, it is hard to understand what is happening moment by moment. This requires that we “slow think” about our “fast thinking.” Are any of us very good at doing this? Second, it might be quite difficult to make a self-assessment regarding something as subtle as moment-to-moment thinking. This item and the item regarding “precision, subtlety and finesse” both might be rated low and with little agreement because they are hard to grasp. Do any of us really know how to self-rate these items? We look forward to assessing whether the responses to these two items differ among coaches of different ages, gender, years of experience in the field, and nationality. Culture and experience might play a major role.
Given that the moment-to-moment item might indicate something important about coaching tactics, we must ask what that importance might be. Do the mean and variance scores indicate that coaches in training do not get enough training and/or supervision in the tactics of coaching? Do these results indicate, instead, that moment-to-moment tactics simply are less important than the softer interpersonal dimensions of coaching? Is it more important to be authentic and empathetic than to be tactically competent? We will be exploring this question further as we dig deeper into the results of these surveys. At the present time, it might be sufficient to suggest that an inquiry into the relative importance of soft and hard skills and knowledge in coaching might be of value.
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