Most people confuse coaching with helping. The difference seems small — but once you see it, it changes everything about how you engage, how you listen, and how you enable change.

Helping is about doing for someone. Coaching is about thinking with someone.
The helper listens to understand a problem so they can provide clarity or guidance. The coach listens to understand how the person is making sense of their experience — because that is where change begins.

This shift is not about language; it’s about awareness.

It shifts the practitioner’s focus from what is happening to how the person is relating to it. And in that shift lies the foundation of our transformational approach.

Seeing What Shapes Thinking

We often hear people asking, ” What caused this? Why did it happen? “

It sounds useful, but it often keeps the conversation trapped in analysis.

Using a transformational approach, you will use a different structure to achieve the same goal.

What might be supporting this?

That simple change redirects attention.

• It opens up a space for reflection rather than explanation.
• It enables people to examine their beliefs, interpretations, and meanings that quietly sustain their reality—and once they can see them, new possibilities emerge.

This is the essence of transformation: giving people the opportunity to examine their thoughts so they can make different choices.

One fixes what is seen; the other changes how it is seen.

At CMA, this is where real impact begins. When coaches learn to explore what supports behaviour rather than what causes it, they don’t dig for answers — they draw out awareness. And that awareness allows people to see their situation with new clarity — often enough to shift what once felt unchangeable.

From Question to Inquiry

At the heart of CMA’s Transformational Approach is the shift from questioning to inquiry.
A question seeks information. Inquiry invites reflection. One elicits; the other expands.

When coaches hold inquiry with curiosity, they create a partnership that draws out insight rather than imposing direction. It invites them to think in ways they couldn’t before.

This is what makes the conversation transformative. It becomes a space where meaning unfolds — not because the coach has the answers, but because the client begins to see their own thinking more clearly.

Staying with What Matters

Inquiry only creates impact when we can stay with what truly matters in the conversation.
That means resisting the pull to fix, explain, or conclude — and instead, holding the space for new understanding to unfold.

This way of being requires steadiness. It asks the practitioner to notice not just what the client is saying, but how they are thinking in that moment and what they might be discovering for the first time.

When we stay in that space, something subtle happens. The pace slows. Reflection deepens.
People begin to see their own situation with new clarity — often enough to shift what once felt unchangeable.

Helping offers relief; transformational coaching heightens awareness and deepens learning.
It is in this state of being — patient, present, and purposeful — where we can truly coach people to experience a positive change.

The Heart of Transformational Practice

At its core, this approach to coaching is about how we choose to be with people as they reflect on what matters most to them.

Quote from Dr Ben Koh, Founder of CMA & Creator of Awareness-Clarity-Choice Conversation

The future of coaching isn’t found in better techniques, but in better thinking — in how we hold space for people to see themselves and their world anew. Because coaching isn’t about helping people do better; it’s about enabling them to think differently — and when people think differently, they change what the future becomes.

The role of the coach is to stay curious long enough for that insight to surface — to hold the kind of presence that allows the other person to see their world with fresh understanding.

When this happens, change doesn’t need to be pushed or prescribed. It grows naturally from the clarity that comes when people start to see differently.

And in doing so, it becomes far more than a conversation — it becomes a moment where learning turns into change.

And that moment is what this song quietly captures — when something shifts, and a new possibility begins to take shape. It’s a gentle reminder that change often starts small, through the choices we make and the conversations we share. Take a moment to listen, and let the song remind you of the power of one meaningful conversation.

Song composed by CMA: One Conversation

[Verse 1]
How do we leave a mark that someone can follow?
How do we start a change that carries through tomorrow?
I see the faces, the places we’ve been
Each step a sign for the next to begin

[Chorus]
One conversation, one moment, One decision can turn the tide.
Change starts with us. Believe in the power that lives in all of us
Like ripples on water, we can make change on this ride

[Verse 2]
How do we open the door for hope to walk through?
How do we light the way so others can see it too?
When we keep believing in what people can be
We build the kind of world we want to see.

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
It only takes a spark of fire to lift us higher, to light the night
When the waters rise, I’ll stand with you
Together there’s nothing we can’t do — oh yeah

[Bridge]
Every choice we make can send the ripples moving
Every step we take can grow into action
Side by side, we keep moving on.
Every small act carries someone along.

[Chorus]

Curious to explore what transformative coaching could mean for you?

Discover how CMA’s ICF-accredited professional certification helps you develop not just your competence, but your capacity to think — and coach — at the highest level. See: https://www.coachmastersacademy.com/icf-coaching-training-program