In the field of personal and professional growth and development, coaching is the buzzword of our time.
Coaching concerns directing a person to take the necessary action toward the achievement of their goals.
The origins of coaching date back to Socrates. He believed that people learnt better by taking ownership and personal responsibility of a situation and outcome. The client's personal experiences (as part of the learning process) also result in better retention of learning.
The coach is the facilitator, and uses various techniques, such as the process of inquiry and self-discovery, to help the client reach their ambitions. This could be an improvement in performance, learning a new skill or indeed any other personal or professional development goals they might have.
It is worth noting that while coaching and mentoring are often used interchangeably, they are fundamentally different. Coaching involves assisting in the facilitation of learning and development while mentoring involves teaching and giving advice.
There are numerous types of coaching, be it health, financial, fitness, personal and professional development, and many more.
From a work perspective, constant and accelerated changes in the world of work, together with external circumstances beyond a person's control, have led to increased levels of of overwhelm, stress and anxiety, and consequently various work-related coaching have gained prominence. These include career, performance, professional development and executive coaching (also known as leadership coaching).
Executive coaching refers to the helping relationship formed between a client (typically and employee in a leadership position or in training for a leadership position) and coach. The coach uses behavioural techniques to assist the client in achieving pre-identified goals. This leads to increased individual competence, performance, empowerment, relationship management, and ultimately, personal satisfaction. This in turn has positive organisational effects.
A worrying trend in the field of coaching is the multitude of coaches offering services, irrespective of educational qualifications training and certifications. This presents a possibility of harm (be it mental, emotional or physical) to the client.
One of the ways in which a client might come to harm is the fact that coaching assumes the individual to be of healthy and sound mind, with no underlying psychological conditions. These underlying conditions might require referral to a counsellor, psychologist or psychiatrist, which might not be recognised by poorly trained, uncertified coaches.
When working with a coach, one should also remember that effective coaches will focus their attention on the achievement of one's outcomes; refrain from any value judgements; control their emotion and mental state; be fully present, use focused attention and active listening and, (extremely important) BELIEVE in one's inherent ability to reach one's goals.
It is thus strongly recommended to make use of adequately trained and certified counsellors or psychologists as coaches.
Like all offerings at the work psychologist, our coaching approach is based on coaching psychology science and each programme is custom-designed based on the unique needs and objectives of our client, whether an individual, group or organisation.
Our primary aim is the facilitation of fully-functioning individuals, groups and organisations in their development and ultimately, in the achievement of their goals. We hold the view that our clients are resourceful and willing to find solutions. Moreover, we are outcome-orientated, facilitating self-directed learning, goal achievement and growth through collaborative goal-setting.
Depending on the unique case and desired outcomes, we use one or a combination of methods at the work psychologist. These include:
Coaching psychology has roots in the Humanistic paradigm, which holds the assumption of human beings’ positive strivings in the direction of their goals, to better themselves, and ultimately, reach their potential/ self-actualise. One of the methods we employ in this instance is Carl Roger’s counselling technique. Known as person- centred, client centred, Rogerian counselling or Rogerian client-centred technique (RCCT), it places the client in the role of the expert, and the coach as facilitator. Considering that the client is indeed in the one that knows themself the best, it stands to reason that they would be best suited to guide this process of growth and development as expert.
Coaching psychology also incorporates concepts from Positive psychology, which is “the scientific study of optimal human functioning” (Coetzee and Viviers, 2007) for personal growth. This comprises aspects such as happiness, flow, grit, resilience, character strengths, flourishing, wellbeing and eudemonia. Eudemonia refers to there being more to wellbeing than mere subjective wellbeing (SWB), and happiness. It involves living a good life and the striving to fulfill personal potential (Waterman, 1993, Deci and Ryan, 2006). Wellbeing is therefore a journey of living a life whereby you strive to be all you are capable of.
Ryff’s (1989) model of eudemonic well-being measures the following six characteristics of well-being namely; self-acceptance, personal growth, relatedness, autonomy, relationships, environmental mastery and purpose in life.
Another approach, typically aimed at the group level in leadership/executive coaching, is Systems Psychodynamics coaching. Originating at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London, it has conceptual origins in classic psychoanalysis (Freud, 1921), open systems theory and group relations theory, and focuses on unconscious and conscious and irrational and rational psychic forces and processes operating within social systems. Systems psychodynamics is a developmentally focussed psycho-educational consulting/coaching process used as a means of understanding conscious and unconscious behaviour in systems (Cilliers, 2013).
Systems psychodynamics believes that all adult and organisational relationships have roots in childhood and early experiences, and on entering the workplace, their family system is duplicated. Understanding and interpreting collective defences is a typical intervention of this perspective.
Systems psychodynamics, as a theoretical stance from which to conduct leadership training, can be used to develop psychoanalytically aware leaders, who will be able to effectively deal with the complexities of human psychodynamics and anxiety at work.
Systems psychodynamics is based on 5 behavioural assumptions, namely: dependency, fight/flight, pairing, one-ness and we-ness.
The CIBART model is popular in systems psychodynamics coaching. Its constructs and behavioural evidence is easy to understand, making it easily understand to teams involved. The CIBART model in leadership development includes an exploration of conflict, identity, boundaries, authority, rules and task during the coaching session. The coach encourages discussion and exploration of these aspects, resulting in hypotheses and interpretations of dynamic and covert organisational aspects.