What theory should underpin coach education? A ... - GSAEC€¦ · 1. Coaching is a response to an individual’s needs and the primary need is a sense of well being / sense of identity

Presented at GSAEC 2ND International Conference on Graduate Coaching

Education June 10-12 Toronto, Canada

What theory should underpin coach education? A perspective from coached executives.Natalie Cunningham and Teresa Carmichael

Copyrighted to Natalie Cunningham.

➢ What worked?

➢ What did not work?

➢ And then why did it work and

evolve theory from practice?

➢ What really happens in coaching?

➢ What is coaching’s essence regardless of methodological preference?

➢ How does the coachee/ executive truly experience coaching?

What did we want to know?


The methodology of study

Phenomenological underpinning – lived experienceGrounded Theory – theory evolved from evidenceConstructivist grounded theory – reality emerges and researcher’s worldview part of process


1. Coaching is a response to an individual’s needs and the primary need is a sense of well being / sense of identity and self

2. Readiness is a critical variable and coaching client needs to be ready. Readiness and Willingness have been documented many times before but interrelationships based on clients‘ perspectives was a new contribution.

3. The coaching processes need to be in context to the framework of “being”, “doing” and “knowing” with “ being” the most important factor to the client

4. Authenticity and presence of coach matter most to client5. Brain Integration leads to deeper self awareness, well-being and

personal meaning

Five Key Findings


Coaching is a response to an individual’s needs and the primary need is a sense of well being / sense of identity and self

Implications for Coaching Education


What generation is coaching education?

• Executive 6 said, “If I went into a coaching relationship again, it would give me another layer of understanding about myself and the way I interact with the world. It will influence me. It is very difficult to polarise that part of you.”

• Stelter develops the concept “third-generation coaching” and he contrasts it to first-generation coaching, where the goal was to help the coachee reach a specific objective, and to second-generation coaching, where the coach would make the assumption that the client would know the solutions and answers to their challenges. He describes third-generation coaching as being a collaborative journey where the coach and coachee generate meaning together in the conversation. This would result in (1) a strengthening sense of coherence in the coachee’s self-identity; and (2) integrating past, present and future into a whole (Stelter, 2014, Stelter, 2009).


“ The coach has got to come in, and understand the world the person

operates in; we don’t operate in isolation from the system around you.”

“My biggest insight was I was reminded about the system one engages with, I

had blinkers on.”

The context of coaching is made upof two different parts. The first maybe the physical setting, theenvironment in which the person islocated, and the other is theemotional or psychologicalbackground or situation surroundingthe reason for coaching

Findings about the Coaching context



Readiness is a critical variable and coaching client needs to be ready


“What helped the coaching was that you could choose it. It wasn’t forced on you.”“It was a personal frustration actually…for the first few sessions I kept thinking ‘So when is coaching going to start?’ So maybe like a preconceived idea of coaching…so perhaps if I had that better understanding from the start.”“I found it very difficult in that period of time to try and take action. It just was not the right time … There was so much pressure inside the organisation, my mind wasn’t allowing anything else to change.”

➢ Being Willing➢ Anxious and vulnerable in first session ➢ Clarity of Expectation➢ Importance of Context➢ Time-related issues

o Finding the time o Was it the right time?o Having sessions over timeo Processing Time - energy

Findings about the Coachee/ Executive



The processes need to be in context to the framework of “being”, “doing” and “knowing” with “ being” the most important factor to the client



“She helped identify with me all the layers of the decision – you as a person as

a whole, you as a person and your goal, in your career, recommendations,

relationships – whatever. Everything had to make sense for me to take that

decision, at an emotional level. It was like all different layers.”

“So if I went into a coaching relationship again, it would give me another layer

of understanding about myself and the way I interact with the world.”

This cluster of awareness, understanding and meaning making were the first responses the executives gave when they were asked about what they did or did not get out of coaching. They would later go on to list other benefits but, in terms of order of outcome, it would appear that this cluster was necessary for the other benefits to take place.The role of awareness / mindfulness in developing behavioural changes as an outcome

Findings about the coaching outcome


Process and Outcomes


Rock and Page (2009, p. 423) discuss the components of this type of conversation and describe collaborative as “both parties make contributions to the ongoing interaction. There is no one with a gavel to call on the next person to speak. Second there is no script or agenda which must be followed. What each person says is dependent on and responsive to what the other person has just said, and vice versa.”Executive 6 said, “If someone sat slap bang in the middle on neutral the whole time I think that would lose effect. It is about being able to move. I have had people who stayed in neutral; they were neither supportive nor directive. And sometimes she could be very supportive, very directive.”

➢ No judgement from coach➢ Creation of a safe space➢ Importance of acknowledgement from

coach ➢ A collaborative, contingent, resonant

conversation ➢ An all-encompassing integrated

conversation➢ Personalised to individual’s needs – the

Goldilocks principlePace ,Structure, Support- Challenge,Reflection-to-action continuum

Findings about the coaching process


Executive 2 said, “The big positive for me was the whole concept of

making you think differently about things.” Executive 3 said of

coaching, “It challenges you, it helps you think through, opens up your

mind, you look at things differently.”

“Making you think differently” is both anoutcome of the coaching and a process ofcoaching.In terms of process, it appears that one of thethings that the coach was doing was offering adifferent lens to the executive, which allowedthem to see things differently.One of the components of thinking differently

was developing the ability to discern patternsand ways of being across different scenarios

Findings about the coaching process


Authenticity and presence of coach matter most to client



This focused on the type of person an individual is (‘Be’), the kinds of competencies he has (‘Know’), and not kinds of decisions he makes (‘Do’). Doing was analysed under the process.

“There is something around the physical space, her whole way of being, her style is very empathic, it is gentle, but that enables her to ask the difficult questions in an entirely appropriate and supportive way” Cuddy (2015, p. 25) confirms that “presence is a state of being attuned and able to express true thoughts, feeling, values and potential. Presence is not about managing an impression; it’s about true, powerful, honest connection that we create intensely with ourselves.”

➢ Authenticity of coach➢ Presence ➢ Credibility through experience

Findings about the Coach


“I noticed as he reverted back to previous comments, that he was

picking up on the significant underlying issues as well as holding a

mirror to me. I recall that this gave me a feeling of excitement, in the

sense that I was part of a process that was making some progression

in terms of awareness and therefore growth.”

➢ Questioning incisively➢ Listening deeply➢ Partnering in process➢ Setting the scene for equity➢ Reframing from negative to

positive➢ Contracting and clarifying

expectations

Findings about the coaching outcome



Brain Integration leads to deeper self awareness, well-being and personal meaning


Consciousness

Bilateral

Vertical

Memory

Interpersonal

StateIntegration

Narrative

Temporal

Transpirational

Domains of Integration ( Siegel,2015)


“For me I think the magic is you think the work stops after the eight sessions but the magic for me is if you make that transcending shift I think sometimes it is even beyond the pivotal decision you are looking at, if you make that transcending shift, again it is all about that self- awareness and it gives you another layer of self-awareness which you can then work with continually.” “Coaching is still with me, it is something I will cherish for the rest of my life.”

Confidence increases over time by reinforcement

Sustainability of outcomes


Questions to ask our student coaches? And our training/ education institutions?

• Can you help facilitate meaning making in a collaborative, co-creative, contextual way which leads to a strong sense of identity within coachee?

• How do we build client readiness into our coaching contracts?

• Are our students aware of how brain integration is taking place in the coaching space?


Questions to ask our student coaches? And our training/ education institutions?

• Are we spending time building coaching/ supervising our student coaches to develop their own sense of trust , self –efficacy and capacity to be authentic and vulnerable?

• Are coaches as mindful of the context as they are of their method or the inner world of client?


What’s Your Message?Questions


What theory should underpin coach education? A ... - GSAEC€¦ · 1. Coaching is a response to an individual’s needs and the primary need is a sense of well being / sense of identity

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