- Create awareness for the client on his/her own reactions vs responses to people and situations, especially unexpected behaviors or situations that are out of their comfort zone, and its impact on clients desired outcomes. Help clients to become aware of the underlying beliefs or feelings of fear, anger, sense of lack etc that can create undesired outcomes. Co-create new perspectives, and facilitate reframing of old perspectives. This often also engages the energy of love, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance of imperfections in self and others. This facilitates clients to arrive at responses that create desired outcomes.
- Creating awareness for clients on how their significant others – personally and professionally experience them and the impact of that on the clients desired outcomes can be very significant. Empathy and handling relationships being key leadership behavioral competence requirements, creating awareness around this becomes vital. Empathy is being able to see from another’s perspective and acknowledge other’s emotions, whether sad, angry, puzzled etc. Empathy begins with listening. However, often, clients are unable to engage with the other persons perspective. Perceptual positioning, in this case, is an excellent technique to create awareness in clients and experience empathy with another. As a coach empathizing with the client during the coaching engagement also facilitates rapport with client while inspiring openness to sharing issues and concerns of confidentiality. Emotions impact such measurable goals as productivity and safety. A 360 degree feedback, profile assessments and informal feedback from those you trust, can be useful tools that can showcase the clients potential blind spots and strengths. Supporting the client to create sustainable structures that would facilitate the client in addressing this key need would be significant.
- Throwing light and awareness for clients on the importance of “social engagement”, I believe has significant value, especially in today’s context. In a highly technology oriented world, that we live in today, there is a tendency to become “key happy”. Key being either that of a computer or that of a mobile telephone. When communication is limited to the electronic medium, it dehumanizes our interactions and mechanizes our relationships. It replaces social skills and challenges a fundamental need in man – of being a social human being and of fulfilling the psychological need in man of a sense of belonging. It is said that “high tech” needs “high touch”. So should you as a coach sense this maybe an area that needs awareness to be created, it is imperative to facilitate this. In my personal professional experience, I have come across clients in the high tech world, who were going through a state of depression and not even being aware of it. So potential negative life threatening behaviors can also be averted through Coaching and addressing the Harmony Quotient.
- Handling Relationships effectively in teams for clients in leadership positions entails creating awareness that interacting with people successfully and being adept at managing emotions in others especially dysfunctional emotions, is critical.. As a coach it is essential to create awareness that it would be necessary to practice all one’s emotional competencies – awareness, regulation, motivation & empathy to:- Influence and persuade others ; Build support for team goals ; Motivate and inspire yourself to achieve those goals.
- Creating client awareness for the need of a sustainable approach for keeping an optimized Harmony Quotient, would also add significant value to Coaching. As life unfolds, new experiences can positively and negatively impact us. So as coaches we need to support the client in mapping a long term structure, ritual, support system, etc to ensure that there is an optimized potential for sustaining the Harmony Quotient and as a coach you have facilitated a lifetime value for your clients through coaching.
As a coach, if we can facilitate ourselves to be in harmony with our inner being and in harmony with our outer relationships, we provide ourselves a threshold of optimal empowerment in being a good coach.
During coaching. If we can create through client self awareness, harmony between the client’s conscious and subconscious mind or between the client’s rational and emotional minds, you would have facilitated more than a 50% transformation for the client. If as a coach you further create through client self awareness, harmony between the client and his / her external environment and people, you would have sown the seed for optimal transformation of the client to facilitate the clients highest potential, calling and desired outcomes.
As human beings, we all want to be happy and free from misery . . . we have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion, while love and compassion and a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness.
Dalai Lama
References
From “Emotional What?” by David Caruso
From “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman
From “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” by Marshall Goldsmith
From “The Prophet” by Khalil Gibran
From the Dalai Lama and Wayde Goodall