Coaching is a highly-involved, highly-conscious conversation between a coach and their coachee to allow for a resolution of a coachee's issues.
For a conversation to be productive, a coach must have the following habits:
1. Highly-conscious
In order to help the coachee become conscious of their issues, the coach must first be conscious of themselves.2. Stay neutral
A coach must be impartial to the issue and not frame it according to their values or the deeper causes of the issue will be difficult to uncover.3. Mirror
A good coach is a figurative mirror for their client to reflect on their own thoughts and actions. The clearer this mirror is, the easier it is for the coachee to see the real issue.According to the founder of the ONE Coaching Practitioner methodology, PLF Coach Jamil Wahab, there are four pillars upon which effective coaching is built. Without any one of these, the process cannot logically be called coaching:
1. Rapport building
Building rapport creates trust and facilitates the coaching relationship. Finding similarities, matching & mirroring behaviour or even just chilling allows the relationship to deepen.2. Asking questions
There are specific ways of asking questions to induce thinking, create solutions and generate commitment. All are geared toward getting the coachee to be open and willing to share and eventually, act.3. Listening
A coach who doesn't listen is a coach who is pushing their own agendum. Whatever comes from the coachee is to be appreciated, acknowledged and understood.4. Action plan
At the end of every coaching session, the coachee is led to commit to an achievable action that they chose, to further their goal.There are many useable models and frameworks to structure the questioning. These include the classical GROW, Start-Stop-Continue, Plus-Minus-Interesting and more.
However, when time isn't a luxury, the coach can focus on the two most important questions to ask are: What Do You Want and How Will You Achieve It.
We have many opportunities daily to help people declutter their thoughts. Learn how to coach and you will be of greater benefit to the people around you.
