Coaching tools and techniques (i)

What are coaching techniques?

Coaching techniques refer to the way the tools are used and are used to:

• Assess the needs of the coachee.

• Get to know the coachee better.

• Increase the coachee's self-awareness.

• Increase the coachee's range of options.

• Challenge self-limiting beliefs and attitudes.

• Encourage the coachee's self-responsibility and self-management.

What are coaching techniques used for?

Assess the coachee's needs: To know the coachee's needs and define a real objective. Several guides can be used:

• Biographical profile (used to elaborate some questions about the coachee's life).

• Observation, active listening, reflection.

• Brainstorming (tools on new ideas about a specific problem).

Getting to know the coachee better: It is essential that he/she is committed to the process, techniques such as the following can be used:

• Wheel of life.

• Mental map.

• Values profile.

• Learning and personality assessment profile.

• Enneagram.

Increase the coachee's self-awareness: The coachee must have a degree of self-awareness that leads him/her to make changes, he/she must also be aware of his/her experiences and accept them in order to be responsible for them.

Develop and enhance the personal and technical skills of the coachee: The purpose is to gain security and confidence and achieve their goals.

Challenging self-limiting beliefs and attitudes: Since these attitudes have a determining influence on the objectives, active listening, empathy and reaffirmation are essential:

• Control their emotions.

• Work with fixed beliefs to analyze advantages and disadvantages.

• To counteract the inner critic.

• Elaborate short-term responses that interrupt negative thinking.

• Encourage self-responsibility and self-management: Through tools that allow the coachee to take responsibility for their decisions and actions.

• Evaluate the results of interventions: Allows the coach to evaluate the effectiveness of what he/she is doing.

Since coach and coachee are unique, the range of coaching tools and techniques applicable to each situation can be broad.

Effective communication

The process by which information is exchanged and understood between two or more people, usually with the intention of motivating or influencing behavior. Communication is not simply sending information.

The following elements are involved in communication:

• Sender: encodes the message.

• Channel: means by which the message is delivered to the receiver.

• Receiver: Decodes the message.

• Feedback loop.

Some scholars of the subject also consider the elements of communication as follows:

• Sender: Initiates a message by encoding a thought.

• Message: The actual physical product of the sender's encoding (what is spoken, written, bodily expressions, etc.).

• Channel: The medium in which the message travels (it can be formal, which is established in organizations at the professional level, or informal, which is more spontaneous and arises in response to individual choices).

• Receiver: The person to whom the message is addressed.

• Decoding: Before the message is received, the symbols must be translated so that they are understood by the receiver.

• Noise: Communication barriers, which can distort the clarity of the message.

• Feedback: Verification of the success achieved in transmitting the message, as originally intended.

Show empathy

Empathy and compassion generate trust, which in turn generates loyalty, and from loyalty it is possible to influence and mobilize others towards the achievement of shared goals.

To show empathy, at times when the client is expressing how he/she feels about a difficult situation, it is necessary to listen with interest and use phrases such as: "I understand you:

• I understand you.

• It is normal to feel this way.

• I've been in your situation too.

• How can I help you?

• What can we do?

Remain silent and listen actively

Active listening is the basis of a constructive conversation between the leader and his or her collaborator.

In coaching conversations, the leader is mostly silent, listening without judging the other person. When actively listening, the focus of attention is on the other person, perceiving the verbal and non-verbal language of the coachee, even being able to perceive his or her emotional changes.

In coaching and leadership there are three levels of listening:

• First level: The listener is focused on himself and listens more to his own thoughts than to the words of his interlocutor.

• Second level: The listener has all his attention on the interlocutor, perceiving the verbal and non-verbal language of the other.

• Third level: The listener connects with the other in such a way that he is able to perceive the emotional changes of his interlocutor. At this level, one listens with the heart.

Active listening occurs at levels 2 and 3.

Concretizing and focusing

In order to get the most out of coaching conversations, the employee should be helped to be concrete and focus on what is important.

While remaining silent helps to listen actively, sometimes the employee may go on and on about things, getting bogged down in irrelevant details and getting sidetracked from what is important. In that case, it is advisable to interrupt him/her in a respectful manner.

You can for example say:

• "Let me interrupt you, thank you for sharing such valuable information. I feel we are straying from the central topic and I would like us to focus on it."

Also, questions can be asked to help the other person focus:

• What is the central topic?

• What do you want to take away from this conversation?

• What did you learn from the situation?

• What is that essential thing you want to share with me?

Naming the Elephant in the Room

Courage is important in leadership. When a co-worker's actions produce a negative impact, the leader must provide feedback with honesty, empathy and respect. A common mistake leaders make is that