When the Answer Isn’t the Point: Helping Others Discover Their Own Way Forward

With more than 25 years of experience, much of Sharilyn’s work sits at the intersection of strategy, systems change, and complex implementation. She works with leaders carrying significant responsibility, often tasked with making difficult decisions while trying to build workplaces and communities that are healthy and sustainable.

So, when Sharilyn Amy said yes to Momentum’s Empowerment Coach Training program, she was curious about how coaching could deepen the way she supports leaders and their teams as they navigate complexity.

“I was interested in how the coaching mindset might strengthen the kinds of conversations I was already having with clients,” she says. “Not just around strategy, but around how people constructively hold responsibility and navigate uncertainty.”

Sharilyn was particularly drawn to the way coaching creates space for people to pause, reflect, and reconnect with their own judgement rather than feeling pressure to move quickly. She expected the training would complement her consulting work. What she didn’t anticipate was how much it would change the way she listens.

For Sharilyn, Momentum’s Empowerment Coach Training program felt less like learning a new set of techniques and more like gaining a different lens through which to support her clients.

“Our conversations are rarely just about strategy or performance,” she says. “They’re often about meaning, responsibility, and the impact of decisions on the communities we serve and the staff we support.”

The experience reinforced something she had sensed throughout her career: the most powerful tool we bring into any conversation is our presence.

One of the most meaningful shifts for Sharilyn was learning to slow down and allow clients the space to discover their own solutions. As a strategist and advisor, her instinct had long been to take what she was hearing from her clients and offer direction. Many leaders come to her precisely for that perspective. The coaching mindset challenged her to resist that impulse. Instead of stepping in with answers, she learned to remain curious and hold space long enough for leaders to uncover their own insight.

“People animate change through their personal values, experiences, and motivations,” she explains. “When they arrive at their own understanding of what needs to happen, the commitment behind their decisions is far stronger.”

It reinforced a simple truth, for her, “we carry more wisdom than we realize. Often we just need the right conditions to access it."

Today, Sharilyn sees the influence of the training in nearly every conversation she has with clients. and often in conversations with her friends and family as well. She asks different questions. She listens longer. She pays closer attention to what may be happening beneath the surface of a challenge. But perhaps the most meaningful shift has been internal.

For much of her career, Sharilyn believed her value came from having the right answer or insight. The training helped her recognize that deeper value often comes from how we show up in the room.

“When we bring grounded curiosity and genuine listening,” she reflects, “we create the conditions where new understanding and possibility can emerge for our clients. In that, they gain something really powerful: a sense of direction they have uncovered themselves which provides solutions that tend to be more creative, grounded, and sustainable.”

If you're interested in working with Sharilyn, connect with her on her website sharilynamy.com.

Learn more about Momentum’s Empowerment Coach Training program on our program page!