The Goal Position: Coach's Neutrality and Global Vision

Fundamental Coaching Capability

A fundamental capacity that distinguishes the professional coach is his or her ability to take distance and perspective on the situation presented by the coachee.

This implies not getting emotionally involved in the same way as the client, allowing him/her to take a global view of the scenario.

While the coachee is often too absorbed by his or her own situation and subjective perceptions, the coach cultivates an external and broader view.

This ability to strategically distance oneself is essential to effective coaching, as it allows the coach to observe patterns, connections and possibilities that may be invisible to the one immersed in the problem.

The Goal Position: Strategic Neutrality

This particular posture adopted by the coach is known as the goal position. It is fundamentally characterized by the coach's neutrality.

This neutrality does not mean indifference, but an active suspension of personal judgment and of one's own preconceived solutions.

Thanks to this neutral position, the coach can propose approaches and perspectives that the coachee cannot access on his own, precisely because of his direct and subjective involvement in the situation.

The goal position is therefore a strategic tool that allows the coach to maintain the objectivity necessary to facilitate the client's discovery without imposing his own map of the world.

Components of the Goal Position

The goal position is defined by simultaneously taking into account several key elements of the situation:

• The position of the person helping (the coach himself): being aware of his role, his limits and his influence on the process.
• The position of the person being helped (the coachee): Empathically understanding his/her perspective, feelings, beliefs and frame of reference.
• The position of others: Consider the point of view and role of other relevant people involved in the coachee's situation (family, colleagues, etc.).
• The global situation: Analyze the overall context, circumstances, available resources and dynamics of the environment in which the coachee's problem or goal is unfolding.

This multifaceted vision allows the coach to obtain a more complete and systemic understanding of the client's reality.

Benefits of the Goal Position

Adopting this goal position, with its inherent neutrality and global vision, gives the coach the ability to intervene in a transformative way.

From this external and objective perspective, the coach can help the coachee to:

• Reframing: seeing the situation from a different angle, changing the meaning or interpretive framework.
• Unblocking: Identifying and overcoming the points of stagnation or mental barriers that impede progress.
• Reframing: Finding new meaning or purpose in situations that seemingly had no satisfactory solution from the coachee's initial perspective.

In essence, the goal position empowers the coach to propose alternative approaches and facilitate the client's discovery of new possibilities for action and thinking.

Summary

The "goal position" is the coach's essential ability to mentally distance him/herself from the client's specific situation. It involves adopting an impartial observer role, allowing him or her to see the big picture without becoming emotionally involved.

This neutrality is crucial to the process. The coach suspends his or her personal judgment and avoids projecting his or her own values or solutions onto the coachee. It ensures that the process remains focused exclusively on the client's agenda and world.

By taking this global view, the coach can identify patterns, connections and dynamics that the coachee (immersed in the problem) does not see. This heightened perspective facilitates the formulation of powerful questions that unlock awareness.