Competency 8: Facilitates Client Growth

 Cultivating Learning and Growth Domain,

Competency 8: Facilitates Client Growth

 

Introduction

This final competency sits under the domain of Cultivating Learning and Growth and epitomizes the overarching function and purpose of the coaching process. The specific use of the words learning, and growth immediately tells us that coaching is not just about solving a problem, working on an issue, reaching a goal, or addressing a challenge. It is about much more than that. On one level, it is about using the coaching process to work with what the client brings into the session in order to establish specific, positive, and forward-moving outcomes. On another level, coaching focuses on how the client can nurture and fully leverage their experience of addressing their topic in a way that maximizes their personal and professional potential in a much broader sense. In this way, coaching most definitely has a micro and macro level of focus in many ways (see Table 13.1). This competency is described in Box 13.1.

Key Elements

The key elements of this competency are that the coach:

•    Facilitates learning into action

•    Respects client autonomy

•    Celebrates progress.

•    Partners to close the session.

Having supported the client to achieve expanded thinking and greater awareness in the previous competency, the essence of this competency is focused on how the client is then invited to consider what learning and insights they are drawing from their work in the coaching process and how that might be applied and integrated for their benefit beyond the coaching conversation. In simple terms, this is about how the coach helps the client leverage their enhanced awareness, thereby facilitating growth as a result. Furthermore, the forward movement implied in the coaching process means that this competency also focuses on the next steps and their associated planning and implementation.

J. Passmore, T. Sinclair, Becoming a Coach, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53161-4_13

Table 13.1 Micro-macro focus of coaching

Micro	Macro
Topic	Person
Current	Future
Topic/situation	Where and what else?
Behavior	Being
Solving a “problem”	Building capacity and maximizing the potential

 

Competency 8: Facilitates Client Growth

Definition: Partners with the client to transform learning and insight into action. Promotes client autonomy in the coaching process.

1.   Works with the client to integrate new awareness, insight or learning into their worldview and behaviors.

2.   Partners with the client to design goals, actions, and accountability measures that integrate and expand new learning.

3.   Acknowledges and supports client autonomy in the design of goals, actions, and methods of accountability.

4.   Supports the client in identifying potential results or learning from identified action steps.

5.   Invites the client to consider how to move forward, including resources, support, and potential barriers.

6.   Partners with the client to summarize learning and insight within or between sessions.

7.   Celebrates the client’s progress and successes.

8.   Partners with the client to close the session.

ICF (2019b)

Autonomous Learning

What is being looked for and evaluated in this competency is the coach’s ability to promote client autonomy and let them create, claim and determine how to use new learning arising from the coaching conversation (and across the coaching process). There is also a focus on how the coach partners with the client to create the potential for that new learning and growth to take place.

Part of this might include the coach inviting the client to explore the learning they are gaining from the session about their coaching topic or issue, such as: “Having explored this topic today, what are you learning about the situation?” However, in the spirit of not wishing to become formulaic in our coaching style, coaches are encouraged to draw upon many other ways to offer this type of inquiry. For example, “What insights are you gaining about...?”, “What conclusions are you drawing about...?” or “What is changing now that you have explored this further?” This type of inquiry might also be about the learning the client is gaining about themselves and how they might behave differently as a result or how they perceive themselves now in their situation, such as: “What have you learnt about yourself as a leader today?”, “What will you do differently now that you have made these decisions?” or “How will your insights impact the way you want to be as a parent?”

Eliciting, Integrating and Applying Learning

This competency also attends to how the coach invites the client to explore beyond the learning around their specific coaching issue or topic within the session to their broader environment and to their goal “out there” in their life (from micro to macro). Thus, this competency really opens up the possibility for the coaching work and process to offer growth and development opportunities to the client that are focused on them as a person and not limited to the resolution of their issue. Such broader learning and its application might be explored by the coach asking questions like: “Where else might this insight be of use to you?”, “How might you apply this learning more broadly?” or “How are you going to use the learning from today in your intention to be more proactive at work?”

In addition to these learning inquiry questions; the coach may facilitate growth by offering their own observations about the client or the client’s situation and partnering with them by seeking the client’s further input or exploration. This could be offered at relevant points throughout the session and might be by noticing and inquiring about tone of voice, body language, emotions or patterns of thought and language. For example, “I notice that your shoulders dropped, and you sighed heavily when you said that, what is that about?” or “I notice you talking much more confidently about this today, what is different?”

In essence, what is important in this competency is that the coach explores and invites an inquiry about learning, insights, conclusions and decisions etc. This is done without attachment and in a way that evokes self-discovery for the client and not telling or teaching by the coach. In this way, the client is more naturally propelled to a place of forward movement as a result of the learning, and this facilitates a conversation about next steps after the session.

An important point to note here is that, whilst this is the final competency, the process of partnering and inquiry that facilitates learning and growth does not necessarily have to show up only at the end of the coaching conversation. Insights, learning, awareness, observations and decisions etc. might naturally surface at any point within the coaching conversation.

 

What Next?

 

The process of establishing learning, insights, conclusions and decisions etc. naturally lends itself to a focus on next steps. This competency therefore also addresses how the coach brings the coaching session (and potentially the overall coaching engagement) to a close in a way that is meaningful and forward moving for the client. We spoke in Chap. 7 about a good coaching session having a beginning, a middle, and an end. We might even think about this as forming a third, a third and third of the time for the session. Now, in reality, the middle is likely to be more than a third of the session, however it does highlight the importance of not underestimating the time needed to thoroughly work with the client on the beginning and the end aspects of their work. So often, these two aspects are squeezed into the first and last 2 min of the coaching session when in fact they offer the opportunity for significant insight and progress for the client when done well. Having set a strong and thorough foundation to the work at the beginning of session (and the overall coaching engagement) will help to facilitate bringing the session (or the overall coaching engagement) to closure and it is that closure which we will now explore.

In essence, what is expected in this competency is that the coach assists the client to apply and carry forward the results of the coaching session. An important part of enabling the results to be carried forward is by the coach inquiring about the client’s progress toward their goal. This may be done intermittently, for example: “We are about half way through the session now, how are we doing in terms of progress toward what you wanted to take from this session today?” and also in a specific way, such as “At the beginning you said your motivation was at 4 out of 10, and you wanted it to be at least 8 out of 10, where are you right now?”

Another aspect of this competency is that the coach partners with the client around what the client will do after the session in order for them to continue their forward movement toward their ultimate goal. This inquiry is intended to support the client to explore and decide upon additional thinking, behavioural changes, actions, experiments, self-reflection, research or further assessment that the client will engage in to continue with their progress beyond the coaching conversation. Note that there are several ways for “next steps” to be realized and a tangible action is not always necessarily what is most appropriate. Thinking may well be the perfect next step; in which case the coach can inquire about the focus and nature of the thinking and how it will be in service of the client’s forward movement.

The development of next steps is intended to be a co-created process between coach and client as the coach assists the client to decide upon steps that are going to inspire them to maximize their potential and fulfil their goal. This may include the coach offering encouragement to the client and being a champion of support and belief in the client’s ability to take such steps. It may also include the coach offering acknowledgement for the work the client has done so far in the coaching process and even sharing with the client with an “if not now, when?” challenge in order to support them to take the steps they have concluded will lead them toward their desired outcome. The coach may potentially offer a suggestion to the client as long as it is done without attachment, supports and honors the client’s autonomy, is in service of the client’s agenda and forward movement and is aligned with the client’s style.

Designing actions and goals for after the coaching is completed might include the coach exploring the likelihood of an action occurring after the session as well as how the client feels about taking that action and their willingness to commit. Considering again the ICF definition of coaching: “Partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”

The key word this time is “inspires.” Whilst next steps may challenge the client, the intention is that they can find the resources necessary (from within themselves and/or with the support of others) to take those steps because they are inspired to do so in service of maximizing their potential as opposed to feeling they “should” do something. Hence the partnering aspect is very important so that the client feels a sense of self-ownership and that their plans post-coaching session are congruent and accessible to them. This partnering will therefore also include identifying potential obstacles and developing mitigating strategies as well as considering what types of support the client might need to help them take the action. In some ways, this process could be compared to the development of a project plan which can look great on paper when designed within the confines of the project manager’s office. However, when taken out into the real world, the plan can fail almost before it has begun because there was no risk analysis or implementation planning undertaken to ensure the viability and success of the plan. This phase of the coaching process therefore supports the client to leave the session with a robust plan that will lead them toward success.

The coach also supports the client to reach a level of commitment to their goals and plans (including mechanisms to apply and measure that commitment) for which they can hold themselves accountable. Apart from establishing accountability, two other aspects of this competency are that the coach partners with the client to bring closure to the session (as opposed to being directive) and that the coach holds both the bigger picture of the coaching work as well as what the client wants to achieve in each session. In this way, the coach helps to hold the client accountable for their overall progress toward their stated outcome, thereby underpinning the process of supporting them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

 

Conclusion

 

As you can hopefully appreciate, the exploration and work undertaken within this competency is rich territory for the client to move forward, develop and grow in ways that transcend the boundaries of the topic they brought into coaching and so it is important that this aspect is given sufficient time and space within the coaching process and is not intended to be something the coach “shoe-horns” into the end of the conversation when they notice the that session time is coming to a close. In Chap. 7 we looked at Competency 3, Establishes and Maintains Agreements; we explored how important it is to allow sufficient time and space to fully explore the client’s goals for the coaching process so that the work has a solid and clear foundation. In the same way, this final competency is a vital part of the coaching process that underpins and enables the work done in the session to carry over into new patterns and habits moving forward. We noted earlier that coaches often rush through establishing the coaching agreement, and this is also often the case for this final competency. Part of a coach’s responsibility with their clients is to manage the time boundaries set for the coaching sessions and, far too often, coaches run out of time to work with this part of the coaching process adequately and find themselves squeezing in questions like: “We’ve got 2 minutes left, what are you going to do after the session?” in a rather inelegant, clumsy and forced way.

The recommendation, therefore, is to remember the simple concept of beginning, middle, and end so that the coaching session is balanced and paced, allowing for full and rich exploration of all aspects of the client work.

 

Reviewing the 8 Core Competencies

 

Having considered each of the 8 core competencies and by way of bringing this section to a close, I would like to offer a few final thoughts to bring these competencies together. It has been noted before that coaching is sometimes described as a dance and this embodies both the partnership between coach and client and also the intertwined way in which the coach applies the core competencies. Whilst we have covered each competency individually, it is important to remember that they are not a checklist, and they are not chronological in their occurrence. Some aspects of some competencies lend themselves to be more present at the beginning or the end of a coaching session, however the reality is that they all interrelate and form a continuous and cohesive thread throughout the piece of work. Just a few examples of how these competencies work together are that a thorough exploration of the client’s goals for coaching (Comp 3) not only provides the foundation for the work, it also allows for the perfect benchmark for the session to be brought to a relevant and elegant close with appropriate next steps in place (Comp 8). Complete and active listening (Comp 6) enables well placed and appropriate observations and interventions from the coach (Comp 7). Clear thought-provoking questions (Comp 7) evoke the awareness that can be harnessed into important learning for the client (Comp 8). Harnessing learning allows for the client to make choices and decisions that naturally lead to actions and next steps (Comp 8). As the “dance” progresses, the quality of the coach-client relationship (Comps 4 and 5) runs throughout the coaching process to create the optimal conditions for impactful positive change for the client. When the dance and flow of these competencies have a strong professional and ethical platform (Comp 1) and an embodied coaching mindset (Comp 2) the conditions are set for the client to fully benefit from the power of coaching!