#130 A coaching philosophy
Not all coaches have a philosophy. Some are at the techniques stage, some at the process stage, and some claim to be a bit of a magpie, collecting shiny techniques and processes to integrate into their process. But there’s a stage missing. David Clutterbuck describes 4 stages of coach maturity: 1. Learning techniques; 2. Adopting a process; 3. Adopting a philosophy; 4. The ‘managed eclectic’, aka the magpie coach. In reality, a coach’s development is not a straight line through these stages, however, they provide a useful reference, and I believe the philosophy 'stage' is important.
Coaches might choose to adopt a philosophy: ‘I’m a Gestalt coach’, ‘I’m a person-centred coach’, ‘I’m a transpersonal coach’, etc, and many coaching schools include an introduction to these modalities in their training programmes. Or they can develop their philosophy and articulate it in their own way.
Many coaches come to supervision to explore ‘who am I?’ as a coach, and ‘who am I becoming?’ If they have mastered the basic skills of coaching and are following a process – again, they could adopt a process such as CLEAR or OSKAR, or develop their own – then it is often time for them to reflect on their practice and recognise or develop their philosophy.
When I first had coach training about 12 years ago, we developed our personalised coaching process as part of the course. I created an acronym, SPRING, representing the beginnings (SP), middles (RI) and endings (NG) of coaching: S – Set up; P – Possibilities; R – Resources; I – Intuitive interaction; N – New understanding; G - Go for It! Set up and possibilities represent setting up the contract, based on possibilities. The middles of the coaching sessions themselves are all about exploring the client’s resources and the interactive and intuitive dance in the moment of coaching. The coaching session moves toward endings when we have an ‘Aha!’ moment (New understanding) and the client commits to action (Go for it!).
I hadn’t realised it at the time, but the concept of possibilities is part of my coaching philosophy. I believe possibilities lie not only in the present and the future, but also in the past. We harness the power of possibilities when we reframe the past to learn from it, seek opportunities in the present to try something new, and keep an eye on our desired future. I describe this as whole-life learning.
A whole-life learning model
I now articulate my coaching (and supervision) philosophy partly by describing this whole-life learning model. Alongside this, my philosophy encompasses the whole person, too, which I articulate as heart (emotional energy), mind (cognitive energy), body (kinesthetic energy) and soul (creative energy). As coaches, I believe we bring our whole selves in service of our clients, that is, our emotional, cognitive, kinesthetic and creative energies. In supervision, I bring these too, in service of you as the supervisee, your clients, and the systems in which they live and work.
So, I have two challenges for you:
1. How will you uncover, develop and describe your coaching philosophy?
2. If my supervision philosophy speaks to your needs to explore who you are and who you are becoming as a coach, email me me to set up a chat (jeremy@growthecoach.com)
