A Coaching Model Created by Mohana Kotian
(Transformational Coaching, INDIA)
Foreword
Tibetan Buddhism says that at the heart of you, me, every single person, and all other creatures great and small, is an inner light that reflects our essential nature, which is always utterly positive. Tibetans refer to this inner light as pure radiance or innate luminosity; in fact, they call it “ground luminosity” because it is the “bottom line.” There is nothing after this, and nothing before this. This luminosity is birthless and deathless. It is a luminescent emptiness, called “clear light,” and it is endowed with the heart of unconditional compassion and love.
Waking up your inner light or inner Buddha and staying awake requires extraordinary self-knowledge and presence of mind. It means paying close attention to how you think and how you act, and it means making an ongoing commitment to searching inward for answers. Inward. Deeper. Beneath the surface of things, not just inside yourself.
Introduction to the P-R-I-S-M Model of Coaching
According to the ICF,
Coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives.
One of the key competencies of a Coach, thereby, is the belief in the inner potential (light) of the client and providing support to discover the answers within himself / herself.
The PRISM Model of coaching moves a client from discovering potential to accepting reality to becoming aware of insights, taking initiative to shift and reframe perspectives and help him / her manage, monitor and be mindful of the solutions.
Just like a PRISM creates a beautiful rainbow out of a single ray of light, so also the Coach with his / her ability and trust in the client’s potential (inner light) to find answers within is able to identify potential, make him/her aware of the current reality, support him / her to find insights and thereby shift perspectives and finally help the client to monitor and implement the desired change.
As a PRISM is responsible for the conversion of a ray of light into something beautiful, so also this Model believes that it is the intrinsic and innate ability of the client that is responsible for him/her finding the answers and reaching the desired goals.
The linkages of this Model are represented and explained below:
Potential
This stage of the coaching process is multi-dimensional. By having a conversation with the client, the Coach at this stage is able to establish clarity on the potential goals that the client would like to achieve.
The questions that a Coach can ask at this stage of the process are:
- What areas do you want to work on?
- What do you want to achieve as a result of this session?
- What will make you feel this time has been well spent?
Moving ahead, once the goals are clearly established, the Coach, by questioning and listening and supporting is able to help the client discover and find the answers within themselves.