Personal and professional development coaching has exploded worldwide in the last two decades or so. It has found a home in many contexts aimed at enhancing personal lives, making career choices and increasing workplace effectiveness. But what exactly is coaching?
Well, the International Coaching Federation (ICF), recognized as a global professional body for the coaching community, defines coaching as:
“Partnering in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires a person to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership.”
The ‘Why’ of Coaching:
Research studies aimed at understanding the impact of coaching have reported the following benefits of coaching interventions:
Individuals report:
- Improved ability to establish and take action towards achieving goals.
- Increased self-reliance.
- More job and life satisfaction.
- Able to contribute more effectively to the team and organization.
- Able to take greater responsibility and accountability for actions and commitments
- Working more easily and productively with others.
- Improved communication.
(Source: Ken Blanchard Companies)
In addition, an ICF survey found that 80% of people who received coaching reported increased self-confidence, and over 70% benefited from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. 86% of companies reported that they recouped their investment on coaching and more.
Based on reports like this, it seems that coaching is having a tremendously positive impact and it’s easy to see why the demand for coaching has grown exponentially.
The ‘What’ of Coaching
There are many coach training schools internationally that offer excellent ICF accredited programmes for those wishing to coach professionally. Although they may differ somewhat in coaching methodology, they all align with the ICF ethical guidelines and there are other broad areas of similarity. For example, there is general agreement that at the start of a coaching intervention it’s important for the coach to build rapport with the client, discuss confidentiality and set up the rules of engagement – often referred to as ‘contracting’ with the client. It’s also vital that the coach gains an understanding of the client and his or her specific coaching need.
Professional coaches typically avoid creating dependent relationships with their clients. In essence, the coach isn’t there to solve the client’s problem for them, or to be directive in ‘telling’ them what decisions they should make. It’s far more incumbent on coaches to help clients build the capacity to solve the problem or make decisions for themselves. This way, clients grow and are more able to function as self-directed individuals.
If coaches are going to adopt this approach then they need to be deeply curious about their clients, the way they function, how they go about solving problems and making decisions, their hopes and fears, the way they interpret the world around them, and so on. In order for clients to deal with whatever need they bring into coaching it’s important for the coach (and client) to discover:
- What skills, knowledge, qualities and other resources does the client already have that could be accessed?
- What is missing for the client?
- What is getting in the way that stops the client from resolving their coaching issue? This might include limiting self-beliefs; rigid thinking; lack of information; fear; lack of awareness or self-insight; self-sabotaging behavioural patterns; and so on.
When a coach adopts this approach of deep curiosity, it often turns out that the coaching ‘issue’ that the client initially describes isn’t really the ‘issue’ at all. Instead, the real ‘issue’ is embedded in the question: “How does the client need to grow or develop to deal with their ‘issue’ successfully for themselves?”
Coaching using the Enneagram
The Enneagram has become increasingly popular in the last few years. This is not surprising given that it provides such powerful insight into human behaviour. It identifies and accurately describes nine principal patterns of behaviour that are found in all cultures and nationalities. One of these patterns will be your most ‘preferred’ and most frequently used, although you have access to all nine. Just like almost any behaviour that you frequently repeat, you may become unconscious to, or unaware of, your most commonly used pattern. Once this is brought back into awareness, it often results in a rapid increase in self-understanding and may open up new choices and possibilities for action.
It’s important to note that none of the nine patterns is inherently better or worse than any other. All can be excellent and effective when at their best (i.e. at high integration), and all can be pretty destructive at their worst (i.e. at low integration).
In addition to providing accurate descriptions of overt behaviour, the Enneagram goes further by giving insight into what is motivating the behaviour, how individuals ‘see’ the world, along with their typical thinking, feeling and communication habits.
Each of the nine Enneagram patterns has its natural strengths, and each has particular predictable challenges and areas for growth.
Having said all of this, I think you can begin to see how enormously beneficial the Enneagram can be in deepening self-understanding and personal insight. In a coaching context it can be particularly useful in exploring and answering some of the questions posed earlier relating to the coaching ‘issue’ that clients bring into coaching.
Once a client’s Enneagram profile is understood, the real coaching ‘issue’ often emerges and it becomes easier to identify strengths, challenges and limiting factors that, when addressed, enable the client to take on and overcome their presenting difficulty.
A client’s Enneagram profile is even more valuable when it’s combined with an understanding of levels of integration which, in the FIVE LENS approach, incorporates Personal Mastery factors and Emotional Resilience (related to levels of stress).
The FIVE LENS methodology goes even further by providing insight into Social Drives (i.e. what is currently drawing the individual’s attention and what isn’t), and Energy Centres (or Centres of Intelligence) related to the ability to draw on rational thinking, emotional intelligence, and intuition.
The FIVE LENS self-evaluation assessment:
The FIVE LENS assessment is available for coaches to use with their clients. The client completes an online self-evaluation questionnaire, and a detailed Personal Feedback Report is generated, which the coach debriefs in detail with the client. Coaches consistently report the enormous value that this brings to their clients. Not only do clients gain deep self-insight, which can be life-changing in itself, but they also become aware of their natural strengths and resources along with the real coaching ‘issue’ that requires working on to resolve the immediate ‘issue’ that brought them into the coaching process in the first place.
FIVE LENS certification training is available for coaches and others involved in the human development field. To find out more, click here
