Att inte ha en agenda anses viktigt inom coaching, men är det så enkelt?

Det är självklart för de flesta coacher att det är klienten som är i fokus. Coachens uppgift är att katalysera klientens eget tänk. Men är det så enkelt så att en coaching-intervention alltid är helt utan agenda? I texten nedan försöker jag problematisera detta grundantagande:

When basing coaching interventions on the evidence of what ‘style’ of leadership that is corresponding mostly with a high performance thought style and organizational culture, it could possibly be argued that the coach is having an agenda with the coaching intervention (which could be interpreted to go against the definition of coaching presented). Then it could also be argued that all leadership coaching assign- ment is having an agenda, because as far as observations of this study has revealed, all leadership coaching assignments does have the agenda of helping or catalyzing the coachee to learn and develop. The need for the coachee to learn and develop has usually been built on an analyze of employee sur- veys, or a manager that have received complaints about the coachee and his leadership practices. This also means that the sponsor in these cases are handing over an ‘agenda’ of betterment of the coachee as part of the coaching assignment. It is also arguable that the coach through a coaching life-stance or approach would be able to manage the assignment without directing or telling the coachee what to do or change. By sticking to the coaching methodology the coach will avoid the pitfall of directing as ”it is claimed that attempting to directly persuade a client to change will be ineffective because it entails taking one side...”. This can be discussed at length, but the skillful coach have been observed to manage to use the ‘agenda’ as a guide (compare qualitative interview methodology) of what themes to inquire into in the coaching intervention. Thus catalyzing, helping, supporting or challenging ”the client to see other per- spectives, find new views, formulate new thoughts, ideas, and goals to act on”.

De mest användbara coaching interventionerna...

Vilka coaching interventioner är mest användbara? Hur ofta är power questions användbara? Hur ofta ställer vi enkla, korta KISS-frågor? (KISS - Keep It Simple Smarty...) För att inte tala om hur effektiv tystnad kan vara...

Vilka interventioner och frågor tycker du är mest effektiva? På LinkedIn (dec 2010): coaches shared some of their most used and useful questions, most of these does fall into the category KISS-questions: What do you want..?”, ”What else?”, ”Tell me more..?, ”Great... and...?”, ”What does that look like...?”, ”... if you did know?”., ”What ́s possible?”, ”What matters..?”, ”What ́s stopping you..?” (if intoned wrongly this question could ́hit you or the coachee in the face ́)... The KISS-questions are the small and simple probing questions that makes the dialogue to smoothly continue until an issue is fully explored or even resolved.

Vid sidan om dessa frågor har en stunds tystnad, som ger klienten tid att tänka till, ofta visat sig vara av genombrottsvärde i många coaching samtal.