Competency 4. Cultivates Trust and Safety

Competency 4. Cultivates Trust and Safety

 

Introduction

The next competency in this domain is Cultivates Trust and Safety. Whilst this chapter focuses on Competency 4 specifically, its close relationship with Competency 5: Maintains Presence is significant. It is the combination of these two competencies along with the depth and thoroughness of partnering undertaken in Competency 3: Establishes and Maintains Agreements, that truly co-creates the relationship with the client. Whereas the other competencies focus more on how the coach demonstrates their skills for the actual process of coaching, competencies four and five particularly focus on how the coach creates, nurtures, and maintains a good coach-client relationship to underpin and enable the coaching process to happen most effectively. In this regard, the word “cultivates” in the title of this competency, is specifically intended to reflect that trust and safety is something that has to be tended to throughout the relationship and is not a “one-time activity” by the coach.

Inter-related Competencies

The interrelatedness of all of the competencies will hopefully already be apparent, however, it is worth noting here that competencies four and five are highly intertwined with the other competencies and ideally form a thread that runs through the conversation enabling an environment and a relationship that is conducive to an effective coaching experience and outcome for the client. Coaching is often described as a dance, where the coach and client work elegantly together in rapport. The dance metaphor is a useful one as there are several parallels with coaching in that the client takes the lead like one partner does in a dance and the fact that at first, the dance can feel clunky, and we might tread on each other’s feet or start to move in different directions. We might even feel as though one of us is dancing the waltz whilst the other is doing the jive! Part of the coach’s skill here, therefore, is to seek to work “in step” with the client as quickly as possible so that the work can be facilitated. For the purposes of assessment, these skills are to be observed within the coaching session, however in reality one would expect both of these competencies to be applied from the very beginning of the coach-client engagement, for example during a chemistry session.

Competency 4: Cultivates Trust and Safety

Definition: Partners with the client to create a safe, supportive environment that allows the client to share freely. Maintains a relationship of mutual respect and trust.

1. Seeks to understand the client within their context which may include their identity, environment, experiences, values, and beliefs.

2. Demonstrates respect for the client’s identity, perceptions, style, and language, and adapts one’s coaching to the client.

3. Acknowledges and respects the client’s unique talents, insights, and work in the coaching process.

4. Shows support, empathy, and concern for the client.

5. Acknowledges and supports the client’s expression of feelings, perceptions, concerns, beliefs, and suggestions.

6. Demonstrates openness and transparency as a way to display vulnerability and build trust with the client.

(ICF, 2019b)

Essential Elements

The essential elements of this competency are that the coach:

• Creates a safe, supportive environment

• Respects the whole person of the client

• Acknowledges the work of the client in the process

What is being looked for in this competency is that the coach understands and respects the client and his or her contribution to their work as well as the coach creating a safe space for the client to do that work. Given the fact that this competency is intended to co-create the relationship and be evident throughout the coaching conversation, there is an expectation that multiple examples of these skills will be observed during the piece of work. The skills of this competency may be evidenced directly through the language or actions of the coach and also indirectly by the coach’s way of being. For example, the friendly exchange of language that can occur between the coach and client when they are in rapport and have a comfortable relationship with each other is a valid way of demonstrating this competency.

Initially, one would expect to notice the coach seeking to understand their client better and effectively to get to know them as a person, as well as gain clarity on what they are bringing into the coaching process. The focus therefore here is on the who of the client and not only on what they are bringing. This aspect links to elements of the previous competency, Establishes and Maintains Agreements, where the coach may have invited a deeper inquiry as to the significance, importance, and timing of the client’s chosen coaching topic. In this way, the coach begins to know and understand the person bringing the topic as well as the topic itself. In this competency, the process of relationship building continues with further exploration of other aspects of the client that may be relevant to the context of the work, including their associated environment, experiences, values, beliefs, need and expectations, and even their sense of their own identity in relation to their topic or goal. Including their associated environment, experiences, values, beliefs, needs, and expectations, and even their sense of their own identity in relation to their topic or goal.

Once the coach and client know each other a little better, the process of acknowledgment and respect is facilitated. Acknowledging and demonstrating respect for the client’s work in the coaching process might be evidenced by comments such as “You seem to have given this a lot of thought,” or “It strikes me that you have already put a lot of effort into this topic.” Supporting the client’s expression could also be noticed through the coach’s continuing invitation to the client to share their opinion throughout the coaching session and to say more about their feelings, perceptions, concerns, beliefs, and also their suggestions for how they might move forward. These acknowledgments and invitations are coupled with respect for the client’s style of expression and language.

At times, the focus of a coaching conversation may enter into areas that may be quite sensitive for the client. In these cases, this competency also involves the coach meeting this sensitivity by checking in and seeking permission to further explore or inquire in that direction. This respectful, sensitive probing which leaves the client at choice is an important feature in building a strong and safe coach-client connection.

In addition, a good level of respect and rapport might also be experienced by the way in which the coach appropriately adapts to or matches the client’s way of speaking and, in the case of face-to-face coaching, how the coach relates to the client with eye contact and body language.

Another aspect of acknowledging and respecting the client’s work in the coaching process is to support, encourage and champion the client’s courage and/or willingness to make changes in service of accomplishing their goal. This might also include acknowledging the challenges they might face whilst making those changes. This type of acknowledgment could be evidenced by comments such as, “I know that it took courage for you to take the risk and do something different,” and “You really seem to be gaining momentum now with this new habit.” Being aware and inclusive of the client’s life, history, work, values, beliefs, etc. is yet another way of demonstrating acknowledgment and respect and can be evidenced by comments such as “I know how important this is to you and how you have struggled with this in the past. I now notice how confidently you are working through these situations as they arise.” It is important to highlight that support, empathy and concern do not mean rescuing or looking after. A core feature of how these three qualities are evidenced in coaching is the extent to which the coach creates an equal relationship with the client and aligns with one of the coaching principles that clients are creative, resourceful, and whole. Therefore, they do not need us to “save” them, “fix” them or do anything that disempowers them or results in their own sense of resourcefulness being limited or undermined in any way. This point also closely relates to a competency we have already covered in a previous chapter, Competency 2, Embodies a Coaching Mindset.

It is therefore important how acknowledgment is framed and offered so that it is not positioned as praise or approval from the coach. To illustrate this point, we draw upon a model from transactional analysis, called Ego States (Stewart & Joines, 2012), in which the coach seeks to establish an adult-to-adult relationship with the client as opposed to a parent-child type relationship. To that end, the coach is expected to offer, when appropriate, empathy versus sympathy, to express confidence in the client’s capabilities, and to notice the client’s strengths and achievements. The coach should also demonstrate patience whilst the client is processing their work in the coaching process and not be judgmental of them or how they are being.

Support that is positioned in this equal, non-judgmental, non-fixing way can be not only enormously supportive but also very empowering for the client; really inviting them into a safe space where they can truly tap into their resourcefulness and creativity to overcome challenges and make the changes, they want to make in service of accomplishing their goals. Examples of this could be, “You can do this. You have achieved so much already,” “I feel your sadness, how do you want to be with this right now?” and “Congratulations on making this breakthrough.”

Encouraging and allowing the client to fully express him/herself is another key aspect of this competency and also another way of demonstrating respect and support as well as creating a trusting environment. It could also be evidenced in a direct way by the coach actually asking the client to “Tell me more...” or “What are you thinking about this?” The common theme here is that it is the client who does most of the talking, without interruption from the coach, and the client is also invited to share more when appropriate in support of forward movement toward their outcome for the session.

Finally, the development of trust and safety is built through the coach demonstrating openness and transparency as a way to display their own vulnerability. This could be evidenced by the client being able to agree or disagree with the coach; this may sound something like, “Tell me if this doesn’t resonate with you, what I notice is...”

Conclusion

In this chapter we have highlighted the interrelated nature of the competencies and, in this case, the specific relationship between competencies four and five. We have also highlighted and described the essential elements of Cultivating Trust and Safety. In the next chapter, we will look at the final competency that completes the trilogy in the domain for effectively co-creating the coaching relationship.