If you are studying to be a coach, your coaching journey could be similar to mine where you probably go through, three stages of growth:
Stage I – Learn Up on Coaching
Study the eight ICF Core Competencies, 3-stage Coaching Model, Human Behavioural System, Adult Thinking Styles, Reframing, Outer & Inner Game, Buckets & Balloons, Coaching Protocol, Professional Coaching Conversation Structure, and more.
Won’t you agree that studying was the easiest part, those heavily scribbled training materials remain my treasured confidence-seeking gem to this day.
Stage II – Doing the Coaching
Then you practise with peer coaches, attempting to apply all that you have studied systematically, and are still not quite there yet.
Two weeks after I received the Certified Associate Coach certificate, I volunteered for an event organized by Corporate Coach Academy. I was paired with a peer coach with 20 years of experience. When it was my turn to coach my peer, I could not remember most of the coaching stuff that I have learnt. Panicking inside, I turned to my last resort: listening empathetically. So I listened, and I got curious, and I asked a question, and another, and another… When the session ended with the agenda achieved, my super-experienced peer said to me, “This is by far the best conversation I’ve had with a peer coach! I haven’t had this for a very long time.”
I felt an instant relief. It was a good start, but not quite enough in the bigger scheme of things.
Stage III – Being the Coach
Releasing control of the conversation, listening, staying present, & succeeding contentedly, at last.
During my early days of coaching practice, much of my focus was spent in the search for the next question to ask. As a result, I asked problem-solving or “technical” questions instead of awareness-raising questions. I was “doing” the coaching rather than “being” the coach.
It was not until I came across the Improvisation Technique that I found the way to transcend from “doing” to “being”. Simply put, improvisation is theatre without a script. It is kind of like coaching, leadership and well, life. The most difficult task for a coach is being 100% present at the moment with a client, listening deeply, and responding at the moment. Improvisation helps me achieve that and improve my coaching with three techniques.
1. Listen Purely. In improvisation, you create your line by listening attentively to the previous line. You cannot plan or think ahead. In coaching, we must stop thinking ahead and just listen purely. Forming questions in our minds while the client is still talking will cause us to miss what the client is saying, and not saying.
2. Follow Together. In improvisation, actors listen and respond with “Yes, and …” building on what was said. Coaches can practise follow-together by listening purely and responding with “Yes, and …” followed by their questions. Ask questions that flow from what the client just said, and witness how each question builds the conversation organically.
3. Explore Deeply. In improvisation, the actors set the scene by following together. They let it flow and explore naturally. As coaches, we tend to be helpful. Often the first problem we hear, we are off and running to solutions. Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice. We have to take time to explore deeply the client’s scene, discover an opening and continue exploring together until a solution presents itself.
These three techniques are concise and practical. Applying them to the taught coaching structure and underlying ICF Core Competencies has been a game changer in my coaching experience since.
For avid learners, check out The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual.
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