A Coaching Power Tool created by Karen Atwell
(Executive Coach, UNITED STATES)
When coaching is mandated as an organizational directive, there is a tendency for the coachee to look for the deliverable desired by their manager or the organization. The coach (internal or external) must develop the skills necessary to identify compliant transactional conversation and help the coachee dig deeper for the transformational benefits inherent in coaching. When a coachee reaches transformational thinking, sustainable change is more likely to happen. In the case of a sale professional, for instance, increased sales activities are more easily reached when the commitment comes from the coachee’s internal enthusiasm or “willingness” and not from directive-based communication from the “coach”/manager. To achieve this level of communication, coaches must build a trusted coaching relationship that stands alone from their positional influences.
How do we create a transformational environment that inspires a willing participant in coaching? Let’s begin by understanding what a low-will compliant coachee may manifest. “Compliant” has synonyms such as yielding, accommodating and complaisant. It is defined by Marriam-Webster as conforming to requirements. When coachees approach coaching conversation in a compliant manner, it demonstrates a lack of willingness to be coached. If willingness is not present – that is to say, if the coachee is not willing to engage in honest exploratory thinking openly with a coach – no sustainable change in behavior will occur.
In such a case, the coachee will benefit most if the coach addresses the willingness first in an effort to shift the coachee’s perspective. Let’s use as example, a sales manager coaching a sales professional to increase prospecting activity.
To identity transactional responses listen for statements that have a defensive tone or represent historic, check-the-box perspectives. For example, a coachee may make statements such as:
These types of responses indicate that the coachee is not in a place of trust. As we know, trust is imperative in a coaching relationship. Without this trust and willingness, the coachee will not benefit fully, nor will they sustain any benefit long-term.
With a willing participant, a coachee will embrace such questions as:
In conversation with a non-willing coaching participant, questions like those above will illicit closed, transactional responses. To help shift willingness and move away from transactional thinking, the questioning methods will need to change. An example of how this change may sound is:
In addition to asking more willingness focused questions, it is also helpful to set rules of engagement for coaching before you begin the engagement. In the case of a manager or internal coach, outlining how coaching is different than managing, creating a coaching plan and structure, conducting your conversations in a neutral space and maintaining good coaching process and behaviors while coaching can also be a trust/willingness builder.
Moving an unwilling coachee to a place of trust and willingness will create the space for deeper transformational thought and reduce the occurrence of transactional, compliant responses. This will dramatically increase the sustainability of both process and behavior change.