Additional exploratory questions can be found in Appendix A. Few individuals have the ability to go it alone to conceive these questions, push themselves for true and deep answers, recognize the phases, develop a plan, and work that plan to a positive conclusion. By employing self-awareness and exploratory questions, the coach can help the individual:
Further, coaching helps the individual avoid stagnation by balancing the need to spend time in transition with the temptation to skip or rush through any of the phases. Coaching particularly helps the individual avoid potential pitfalls:
Coaching builds capacity within the individual. It facilitates learning, skills, and competency development while not seeking to provide answers to the individual. Coaching uses the individual’s strengths, knowledge, skills, and abilities to take action and become self-sufficient and self-correcting—helping the individual cross not only the immediate river, but future rivers. This is where coaching differs from consulting.
In addition to self-awareness and exploratory questions, coaching employs additional techniques the lay person may be unaware of, unable to fully understand, or unable to effectively employ. For example, one technique of coaching is to understand whether the individual is a “Feeler” or a “Thinker.” In crossing the river, Feelers jump right in because they love the internalization and emotional side of change. Their challenge is that they love it so much they want to swim laps and must be directed to make progress to get to the other side. Thinkers hesitate to jump in, seeking information before they commit (i.e., “How cold is the pool?” “How far across is it?”). Once Thinkers jump, they can be efficient swimmers; however, they may forget to “breathe” while crossing since they are so determined to get out and may “drown.” To cross efficiently, Feelers must not jump too soon without guidance, information, and a plan to cross without excessive activity or time. Thinkers must take risks without having all the information and be willing to internalize the impact at some level.
Another coaching technique comes from Miller and Rollnick (1990) who developed the OARS (fits perfectly with the river theme) technique to keep the patient moving forward by facilitating discussions about change:
While most research has focused on coaching within large organizations, the findings reinforce the substantive and compounding benefits of individual coaching, including during change. According to the 2009 ICF Global Coaching Client Study, companies that use or have used professional coaching realized a median return of seven times their initial investment; individual clients reported a median return on investment of 3.44. The 2010 ICF Global Consumer Awareness Study showed that 42.6 percent of respondents who received coaching chose “optimize individual and/or team performance” as their motivation for being coached, followed by “expand professional career opportunities” at 38.8 percent and “improve business management strategies” at 36.1 percent, followed immediately by more personal motivations like “increase self-esteem/self-confidence” and “manage work/life balance.”
Conclusion
People are looking to coaches as sounding boards and motivators who can offer a fresh perspective on career and life problems, but without the conflicting agendas of a spouse, family member, or even a mentor. Fortune, 9/28/98
Change is a certainty in life, increasingly so in today’s fast-paced world. Getting to the other side truly is paramount to crossing a river. Attempting such a crossing without a plan or the right tools can prove more debilitating than the initiating change. Again, change has no value; how one deals with change and rides the transition to the other side often determines one’s survival and safe passage. Coaches, and the tools they provide, can help facilitate safe and beneficial passage while preparing the individual to be better prepared for future crossings. There will always be rivers to cross, as sure as the winds of change will always blow into one’s sails. The coach can be the wind on one’s sails, and the paddles guiding one’s boat.
Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change. Jim Rohn
Resources
Bridges, William. Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes. Da Capo Press, 1980.
Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Da Capo Press, 1981.
Burtch, Bill. Why Coaching Works. Library of Professional Coaching, 2012.
International Coach Federation. Benefits of Coaching. ICF, Association Resource Centre Inc., 2011.
International Coach Federation. ICF Global Coaching Client Study. ICF, Association Resource Centre Inc., 2009.
International Coach Federation. ICF Global Consumer Awareness Study. ICF, Association Resource Centre Inc., 2010.
Jaffe, Dennis T. and Scott, Cynthia D. Getting Your Organization to Change. Crisp Learning, 1999.
Appendix A
Additional questions that broaden an individual’s perspective: