Coaching Application of Behavioural Intelligence
Clive Hook argues that behavioural intelligence is an essential tool for effective communication encounters such as for managers, leaders, facilitators and negotiators. Evan Carmichael adds that one of the constraints that many clients experience is a psychological or emotional barrier which causes unhelpful goal blocking, or performance interfering emotions, thoughts, feelings and behaviours. As identified earlier in this discussion, there is a relationship between the internal and external stimuli and exchange of behaviour based thereon from an emotional intelligence and behavioural intelligence perspective. In this regard Carmichael raises the value of the cognitive behavioural approach to coaching that appreciates the importance of the thought world of the client, however it focusses on the appropriate behavioural response in order to move the client forward.
According to Carmichael the cognitive behavioural approach recognises the relationship between behaviour, thoughts, emotions and feelings as it constitutes the thought world and ultimate operational system of the client that produces the external behaviour. He refers to the value of cognitive behavioural coaching which acknowledges the interaction between a client’s internal and external worlds as a pivotal factor in the coaching process to successfully bring about behavioural change. The premise of the cognitive approach to coaching is that the client’s thoughts influence their behaviour. Thus there is much value for a coach to accurately read and interpret their client’s behaviour and respond behaviourally intelligent to serve the client to identify emotions, thoughts and feelings that might sabotage their effective behavioural response.
Cognitive behavioural coaching adopts a psychological (internal) and behavioural (external) approach. The coach can help a client to identify, examine and change unhealthy thoughts, feelings and beliefs, and to adopt more realistic, positive and effective thinking to produce supporting behaviour. Cognitive behavioural coaching focuses the client to develop healthy and productive behaviours as wells as support the client’s emotional development. Thus the coach supports the client to increase their awareness of their automated thinking patterns which can be described by the analogy of a hard drive. The coach helps the client to identify more accurate and useful ways of viewing a situation leading to more behaviourally intelligent decisions and responses. To be able to assist the client to achieve this state of awareness the coach will benefit from a high sense of behavioural intelligence in order to correctly interpret the client’s behaviour and to be able to respond in a behaviourally intelligent manner.
Emotional intelligence and behavioural intelligence meets in the coaching arena when the client becomes aware of their internal thought world and accompanied feelings and emotions, however chooses to focus on the appropriate external behavioural response that will support them to advance their situation to meet their goals. This article posits that the internal and external stimuli are transcribed as internal thoughts, feelings and emotions which in turn mound and drive externally observerable behaviour. This transaction is an integrated and interrelated part of a person’s make up and will manifest for both coach and client in the coaching arena and may not be ignored. Carmichael cautions that coaches need to be mindful of the external behavioural world and the internal thought world of the client. The cognitive process assists a client to align their behavioural expression and thought world as the operating system that drives their behaviour. However he warns as with any form of coaching the intervention will fail the client if the coach does not engage with compassion and create a trusted and safe place through acknowledging the client’s psychological needs. He concludes that a coach who ignores the emotions of his client will miss a crucial element for success.
This brings us to the initial distinction between behavioural intelligence and emotional intelligence. Coaches who incorporate emotional intelligence and self-knowledge know that feelings are potential sources of useful information. Emotional self-awareness produces self-knowledge and is a foundation for success. It is thus beneficial for coaches to be mindful of emotional context whether focusing on external observerable behaviour or internal drivers thereof. After all, emotions are linked to cognition. Derived from this we can use the analogy of an Ice berg that describes the interactive nature of the behavioural expression of a person through word choice and body language as the observerable aspects above the water mark of the ice berg. Underneath the water mark of the Iceberg lays the submerged thought and emotional world as the operating system that drives the behaviour.
Is Schutz’s Interpersonal Communication Needs Theory Relevant To The Coaching Encounter?
Schutz’s interpersonal communication needs theory sets the scene for the coach and client to establish a trusting environment within which behavioural adjustments based on internal insights may follow. According toWikipedia Schutz stated in 1958 that
According to the (interpersonal communication needs) theory three dimensions of interpersonal relations were deemed to be necessary and sufficient to explain most human interaction: Inclusion, Control and Affection.
Schutz posits that according to the level that a person feels that they have a measure of control of a communication encounter, belong there (feels included) and feel cared for they will be an effective participant in the communication encounter. Schutz states that people communicate (such as to elicit a coach) to gratify felt needs or wants according to Communication Quarterly Volume 40, Issue 3, 1992.
A person will participate in a communication encounter such as coaching encounter if the statement
I find you likable if I like myself in your presence
is a reality for them. Furthermore Schutz’s Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO) as part of the interpersonal communication needs theory, posits that if someone such as a coach
create an atmosphere within which I like myself
a communication participant such as a client may experience
affection/openness (being cared for) and will be able to get feedback.
In such a trusted, cared for and intimate arena it is likely to see how a coach can assist a client to identify and turn feelings into behaviour and to understand the origin thereof. This level of openness according to Schutz will only persist if the coach can lead the client to co-create an environment within which both feels their need for control, inclusion and affection (care) has been met. In such a trusting environment the coach will be able to provide feedback to the client regarding possible destructive behaviours or beliefs the coach may have noticed. Therefore to be able to guide the client to authentic insight into his or her thought world requires the client to trust the coach which can only be established if there is a feeling of safety and security. A sense of safety and security is the result of the client feeling that his or her need to feel in control, included and cared for is met.
From a coaching application perspective it is once the needs for control, inclusion and affection have been met that the coach can through recognition and acknowledgement motivate the client toward movement or support them to bounce back if they have lapsed during their journey towards their goal. Without this sense of intimacy the coaching interaction will be a mere conversation, a meaningless exchange of information. To create such a trusting coaching relationship we draw amongst others from psychology and in specific from Schutz’s theory of interpersonal communication needs to establish the successful role a coach can play to establish the trusting and intimate engagement needed for a client to open up to a coach. As John C Maxwell states in The 8 pillars of excellence, people care little for how much you know until they know how much you care.
References
22.06.13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_interpersonal_relations_orientation accessed 09.06.13
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http://www.newintelligence.com.au/site/behavioural-intelligence.php website accessed 22.06.13
http://www.evancarmichael.com/Management/5950/Behavioural-Intelligence--The-Subtle-Art-of-Controlling-the-Conversation.html
Communication Quarterly Volume 40, Issue 3, 1992 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01463379209369845 accessed 09.06.13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Schutz