A coach will assist the coachee in managing the inevitable change which we all come across in our lives. So, what tools does the coach have to help the coachee deal with a transformation?
1) Language. The coach will focus 100% on the coachee’s use of language, tone of voice and body language. Active listening requires concentration; to ensure clarity of understanding, a coach will often summarise or rephrase what is being said by the coachee, to allow time for the coach’s brain to process meaning from words and sentences. During a coaching session, the coach’s talk time will typically be less than the coachee’s talk time; the role of the coach is not to impose his / her own agenda, but rather to facilitate reflection through customised questions and observations.
2) Powerful questioning. The coach’s questions will often reuse the coachee’s language and will be designed to collect information. By asking primarily open-ended questions (rather than close-ended questions which may limit the client’s thinking), the coach will stimulate the coachee to create new possibilities and move him / her to action. Whenever we face change, this generates fear, doubts, insecurity, because we think we do not have the necessary resources to deal with it. In those circumstances, we make choices. We can either dither, resist change and prefer to stay in the comfort zone, or embrace change, transforming challenges into opportunities to move towards an ideal situation. The role of the coach is to help the coachee choose with awareness.
3) Intuition. Once the coachee’s situation has been analysed, a coach may be guided by their intuition to decide what to explore, in line with the coachee’s agenda. Intuition is likely based on past experiences; a trained coach trusts their insights and may share them with the coachee, without any attachment about them being right. If they turn out to be right, they will help the coachee move forward and have a positive effect on them.