Purposeful development - Invest time in yourself

Disciplines such as neuroscience, adult learning, change management and psychology are all helping us understand both how people learn and why coaching works.

“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” — Timothy Gallwey

Critical in the coaching process is the ability of the coach to support and heighten the coachees capability and capacity to reflect, build focussed attention, experiment and examine their emotions. Coaches become important facilitators of these processes by practicing reflective inquiry in their sessions, supporting a deeper awareness and supporting the coachee to turn reflection and learning into action.

Harness reflection to be able to learn from experience

A coach partners with a coachee in a process of inquiry that prompts the coachee to reflect and think critically about their own thoughts, assumptions and perceptions. The resulting awareness (and often breakthroughs) that are linked to the coachees motivation act as a driver to develop meaningful goals, purposeful actions and put in place accountability measures that expand experience and create new learning. Often coaching explores and challenges old or long held assumptions or misconceptions, and by addressing these as part of the coaching process a coach and coachee can navigate to a more desirable level of thinking, action and behaviour.

Skills to live by: Focus and awareness

Coaching focuses on what is important to the coachee and in that way supports the creation of enduring memories by linking to the brain’s emotion structures. A core coaching competency from ICF is to ‘evoke awareness’ for coachees by challenging the learner, and ask questions that invite the person to explore beyond their current thinking.

Acknowledge achievements

Because coaching is oriented around positive behavioural change and taking action it is also very important to celebrate the wins, milestones and goals that have been met as they occur. Confirming positive changes supports a coachees motivation and affirms their ability to design and execute a process and act on it.