What is coaching?
Coaching is a collaborative solution-focused, results-orientated and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of work/team/business performance, life experience, self-directed learning and personal growth of the coachee. Executive coaching differs in that it focuses on management and leadership levels. However, in reality, in order to help such executives in the most effective way, it is frequently desirable to deal with aspects of their wider life, because life impinges on work and work on life.
Having emerged from the area of sports in the 1960's, coaching transferred to business throughout the 1970's and 1980's, underwent a high degree of diversification and popularisation in the 1990's and is today accepted as a respected and widely used resource for personal development.
What is our general approach to coaching?
Our coaching approach is two-fold. We normally follow the traditional facilitative approach outlined above, but in situations where the coachee wishes to have more input to accelerate the self-development process, we can steer towards a coaching/mentoring approach (more directive), imparting aspects of our experience and knowledge as necessary and where this would be helpful. However, the traditional approach allows for the most effective transformation within the coachee, something which can be diluted with a more mentored approach. However, H
Overlaid with this two-fold approach is our unique 'blended' approach which integrates coaching into our other interventions seamlessly as necessary, e.g. during a mediation. This is very powerful and beneficial for clients.
What coaching models do we use?
Like most coaches, we use the well tried-and-tested models such as the behavioural-goal centred approach. Occasionally, the well-known GROW model is sufficient, but we tend to prefer the more effective PRACTICE model which can be used well for problem solving or with a more positive solution-focused approach. This is supplemented, when helpful, with straightforward personality assessments to give deeper insights to help resolve issues and promote greater personal growth.
Although a straightforward goal-orientated approach to personal development sounds attractive and can be effective, it is not always sufficient to bring about the desired results. What often blocks the way is the coachee's self-limiting or defeating thoughts and beliefs (e.g. "I can't sort myself out"), counter-productive behaviours (e.g. procrastination) and troublesome emotions (e.g. prolonged anxiety). These may lie below the surface as it is sometimes difficult for people to recognise or admit to such psychological influences.
Enter cognitive-behavioural coaching (CBC). Qualified to one of the highest levels in psychological coaching, this is our preferred approach. Cognitive-behavioural coaching helps coachees to identify, examine and change such thoughts and beliefs, develop productive behaviours and become more skilled at emotional management, yet all within the behavioural-goal framework of the PRACTICE model. This form of coaching is derived from the principles and practice of cognitive behavioural therapy (often shortened to CBT). Cognitive behavioural approaches emphasise that how we react to events is largely determined by our views of them, not by the events themselves. Through examining and re-evaluating some of our less helpful views, we can develop and try out alternative viewpoints and behaviours that may be more effective in problem solving.
Our favoured overtly psychological CBC models, which are highly effective and often astonish executives as to how useful they are, are the SPACE and ABCDEF models. Together, these are very versatile whole-person (integrative) models covering all key aspects which might affect people and their performance and it is applicable for virtually any aspect of their life and work. These help identify performance inhibiting thoughts (PITs) and then performance enhancing thoughts (PETs), amongst other things.
CBT, which it derives from, is extensively used in the NHS as it is an empirically proven and highly effective method, and it is certainly immensely useful in a coaching context for conflict, tension and problem-filled situations.