Adding to your practice

More ideas will be added here over the next few months so keep coming back. Meanwhile here are a selection of ideas to challenge you to bring in a variety of approaches into your coaching. Coincidentally they all begin with M.

Motivating

Your coaching relationship is an ongoing exploration of what successfully motivates your coachee and what stops them. Susan Fraser in her book ‘Why Motivating others does not Work’ talks about three core psychological needs that humans require to be met. Interestingly they correspond well to the process of coaching.

Autonomy (ability to make your own choices. Coaching is helping the individual to make their own decisions and find their own way through a difficulty.)

Relatedness (the coaching relationship is one where the coachee feels good that someone cares enough about them and their situation)

Competence (discovery of skills and how best to use them within their context)

Movement

Creativity comes with energy and playfulness, so you can increase the energy in the situation by encouraging your coachee to stand or move about, use a whiteboard or flipchart, take a short walk together or use a playful method of generating ideas e.g. ‘brainstorming’ for options and possibilities. This can still happen over the phone or skype. Encourage the coachee to

  • Review their posture and that effect on their mood
  • Stand up, stretch, move around and then come back to the call
  • Stand up, look out of the window and observe something and then come back to the call relaying what they observed.

Matching

You can build commitment and engagement to the coaching process by matching coachee energy. If they are loud and enthusiastic, for example, you can be stronger in your responses. If they are quiet and shy, you respond with gentle calmness. Matching their energy increases their comfort level and shows that you understand them. This reiterates the co-authoring role that a coach has in working with an individual. How you work with someone is as important as what you say.