The coaching relationship
In this second article in the five-part Masterclass series by Ashridge Consulting on achieving best practice in coaching, Charlotte Sills gives a detailed breakdown of the coaching relationship.
The single factor most vital to successful outcomes in executive coaching is the quality of the relationship between coach and client.
In the first article in this series, Ina Smith stressed that executive coaching is quite different from 'training coaching', which focuses on the development of skills or knowledge.
What, then, can the executive coach offer? What can a client reasonably expect of his or her coach, and what skills or knowledge should the coach have in order to secure the best possible outcome for their client? Smith's article has already identified many of these. However, even the coach with the best 'kitbag' of skills, knowledge and business experience will not procure the best outcome for their client unless they are able to establish and build a good relationship.
Consultancy coaching has many features in common with counselling and psychotherapy. It is the intentional use of a relationship that aims to develop the entire person of the client in relation to his/her professional life. The personal and professional areas of a person's life cannot be kept separate. The client brings his/her personal self to the professional role and it is this area of overlap that is usually the focus of a coaching intervention.
Because of the features coaching shares with counselling and psychotherapy, consultancy coaches can learn important lessons from some of the research into successful psychotherapy outcomes. This research has identified the 'common factors' that contribute to positive change, and studied their relative importance.
In numerous studies over the last 30 years, it has been confirmed again and again that the largest contribution within the therapy room to client outcome was the existence of a positive therapeutic relationship. Summarising much of this research, Assay and Lambert, in 1999, identified the following relative importance of key factors affecting client outcome:
- client factors - 40 per cent: such as openness, optimism, motivation, a strong friendship and family network or membership in a religious community
- expectancy/placebo factors - 15 per cent: the instillation of hope brought about by the engagement
- model and technique factors - 15 per cent: gains arising from the use of particular theories, models or techniques
- relationship factors - 30 per cent: the client perceives the practitioner to be offering empathy, respect and genuineness, and there is a shared understanding of the nature of the work
If we transpose these findings to the consultancy coaching context, the message is clear: the establishment of a meaningful relationship between practitioner and client is vitally important - and far more important than the application or teaching of theories and models.
The implication for coaches is that they may need to resist the urge to impart knowledge or theories in favour of developing a good relationship. Frequently the coaching client, eager to advance, will be very keen to learn new models or formulae, but this should not be the initial priority for the consultancy coach.
Coaching contract
What, then, will ensure the creation of a good relationship? Research such as the 1994 studies by Bordin state that positive outcomes rely upon relationships that involve mutuality of goals, tasks and bonds.
In the coaching context, coach and client must have:
- a clear, shared agreement about the goal of their work - the direction and the desired outcome
- a clear understanding about how the coaching work will happen and what will be the role or tasks of each party
- bonds of mutual respect and empathy. A relationship in which the client experiences him or herself to be understood and warmly accepted even after they has shown their vulnerabilities.
All these three elements are held within the coaching contract, which provides a container for the work and represents both its scope and also its boundaries.
Core elements
The effective coaching relationship needs to:
Provide the opportunity for understanding. It is important that whatever theories are used to understand a situation, they should make good sense to the client. In fact, they are more effective if they are generated by the client. Therefore, the coach needs to be flexible and responsive in the first instance to the client's assessment of the problem rather than their own.
It may also be relevant to share with the client, as mentioned above, that 40 per cent of successful outcome is due to client factors. It is often important to enquire into the client's support network, where they get professional and personal support, what else they have in their life that supports them (family, hobby, or religion). If this area of the client's life is impoverished, he/she should be encouraged to develop it.
Build on existing strengths. Unlike counselling, coaching does not set out to heal psychological or emotional difficulties, nor bring about major characterological change. Naturally, these may happen as a by-product of the coaching engagement, but they are not the goal and do not form part of the contract. What coaching will do is help the client to know him or herself better and identify their existing and potential strengths. Building on what they can already do will both maximise Lambert's '15 per cent hope' factor and also help to open the door to the development of new skills.
Develop skills and encourage experimentation. Another of the 'common factors' is the opportunity to identify relevant skills - to polish up existing skills or practice new ones while having the chance to get accurate feedback. The relationship should foster an atmosphere of experimentation and discovery rather than 'finding the right answer'. Then the client can review and reflect upon the results of their experiments and use them to challenge beliefs they may have about themselves, others or the organisation.
Facilitate the sense of achievement. Clients need a sense of agency or achievement and self-responsibility. It is important the client be able to articulate what they have done or are doing differently in order to increase the feeling of mastery and self-efficacy. Coaching is less effective if the client perceives him or herself to be dependent on the coach's expertise.
Prevent 'relapse' . Where the identified goal of coaching is a change in the client's behaviour, it is extremely unlikely the client will not at some time lapse into old ways of behaving. It is important they don't see such lapses as setbacks but believe that they provide the opportunity to check and see whether there was something useful in the old behaviour. To prevent serious lapses, it is always useful to invite the client to predict them, discuss what triggers the old behaviour and, subsequently, develop strategies for responding differently.
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