The Hard Skills The Science and Future of Great Coaching, with BetterUp’s Chief Coaching Officer, Dr. Woodward
21 snips
Mar 17, 2026 
Michael Woody Woodward, Chief Coaching Officer at BetterUp and PhD in industrial-organizational psychology, shares a science-backed view of coaching. He outlines a five-step GUIDE framework, explains how AI augments rather than replaces human coaches, and warns about vanity coaches while describing how to scale and measure coaching impact.
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Convert Aha Moments Into Experiments
- Turn insights into action by co-designing concrete experiments, goals, and behaviors with the coachee.
- Woody criticizes coaches who stop at 'aha' moments and urges a bias to action so change doesn't die in the session.
Expand Possibilities To Break False Limits
- Expanding possibilities is a coaching safeguard against narrow thinking and false constraints.
- Coaches should test whether perceived obstacles are reality or limited perspective and surface alternatives coachees haven't considered.
Coaching Is Forward Focused Not Therapy
- Coaching draws heavily from positive psychology and psychology traditions but is distinct from therapy.
- Woody frames coaching as forward-focused development, not treating mental health conditions or digging into deep past causes.