I will take a slightly different take on this without using AI to generate my response. To avoid issues like this in the first place, develop strong rapport. After all, relationships are everything. Empathy is also the key as this is related to communicating feedback in such a way that you should you ask yourself: • Is it objective? • Is it relevant? • Is it meaningful? • Is it helpful? • Is it kind? • How would the other person feel if I were them? Lastly, connect feedback to evidence, examples and fostering a growth mindset, and not a dead end tunnel.

To address their concerns, I engage in an open and empathetic conversation to understand their perspective. I provide specific examples to clarify the feedback, explain its intent, and highlight its value for their growth. Encouraging a collaborative dialogue helps build trust and ensures the feedback feels constructive and actionable.

When a coachee doubts feedback, it’s an opportunity to build trust and understanding. Approach their concerns with curiosity and empathy, encouraging an open dialogue to explore their perspective. Validate their feelings while offering specific examples or evidence to clarify the feedback. Frame the conversation as a partnership, focusing on their growth and goals. By fostering transparency and aligning feedback with their aspirations, you can turn doubt into a meaningful learning experience that strengthens their confidence and commitment to improvement.

In my experience, when a coachee is skeptical due to a lack of sensitivity or experience, it’s essential to provide context, use examples, and explain how feedback aligns with their goals. For example, I once showed a coachee how their communication style impacted team results by using scenarios. Simple analogies, like comparing growth to learning how to ride a bike, helped them view feedback as a tool for success. Setting small, achievable goals with positive reinforcement further boosted their confidence and motivation. Patience, clarity, and empathy are crucial for fostering meaningful growth and building trust in the coaching process. We all have something to improve professionally, and recognizing it is the first step.

As a behaviour profiler this happens from time to time, especially with those who lack insight into themselves. When doubt is expressed, I find it useful to get clarity on what specifically they disagree with. It can be a difference in interpretation and personal meanings. It's important to appreciate as the listener that when the coachee doubts their feedback, we are hearing and gaining insight into how they experience their world. This can be an opportunity to support insight for them, so that they can decide whether to explore where their doubt comes from so that it can be resolved. Working with ADHDers, it's not uncommon for there to be a lack of self awareness, it's a residual effect of a childhood full of criticism.

I was not aware that judging feedback is a thing. Maybe they need to stop judging the feedback and start “discerning”. This means that the person giving the feedback will have that perspective, it’s not a matter of agreeing or not it’s a matter of understanding what it is that they are trying to tell us and learning from it.

One thing I found helpful is to keep questioning to better understand why the coachee doubts the feedback. If it is insecurity than we should offer guidance session for self assurance. For example list all the times they overcame a situation that seemed impossible...Chose one and tell me more... In such way we guide the client to dismantle their own negative underlying beliefs with proof from their own life, which brings not only reassurance but evidence that they can trust themselves. If another issue, such as lack of trust in the coach, than deeper work needs to be done to address this and switch the coach, or discuss the feelings at stake.

(Sensitively) remove abstract concepts such as 'fairness' from the conversation, as well as assumptions we cannot immediately prove or disprove, such as the intent or agenda of the person who gave the feedback. Focus on the feedback itself and how it would serve us to take it on board, or to disregard it (or components of it). Each decision will create natural actions that need to be followed up, which helps to move the coachee's line of sight forward and to a constructive and productive path. Then reflect on what they've learned from the process, and how they would approach the issue if they were faced with it again.