The soul inspires movement

in all human endeavour

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Coaching happens in the unique space between coach and coachee. This “connectedness” is the catalyst for discerning reflection which nurtures and inspires learning, transformational progress and movement.

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There are a number of prerequisite skills and attributes if the coaching process is to be truly effective:

focus, trust, understanding, empathy, acceptance, creation a safe space, allowing the other to be without judgement, clarity of communication, patience, partnership, holding the process, challenge, supportive disruption of thought processes and perspectives and an honest and continual provision of choice.

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Each person comes to coaching with unique objectives and challenges - something they would like to do better, a situation that they would like to be different. It is the internal shifts inspired by the coaching process that underpin and facilitate the movement towards and achievement of their chosen aims. But more especially reluming connection with our deeper selves allows us to touch and experience our full potential - to be and to become.​

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The Marriage of Coaching and Psychological Assessment

 

 

Since the 1990s Optimise has recognised the importance of emotional and social intelligence. Effective coaching touches deeply upon the coachee’s level of self awareness. How a person views the world, their childhood experiences, their “inner drivers” direct their thinking process and their emotional responses. Working with psychologists at Cannon Rosen, Caroline saw the powerful impact of combining a psychological assessment alongside the coaching process. It enables a more profound level of understanding by clients of themselves and the causation of their responses. It allows for an acceptance of who they are and a chance to choose to react with confidence in that innate response or to practise responding differently.

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The marriage of assessment and coaching has been a long, productive and sympathetic liaison with both inviting self-reflection. Positioned after the initial goal setting, the assessment is focussed upon those internal structures that influence change and how the individual relates to the “outside world”. The information gained acts as a springboard for the coaching sessions that follow. The marriage allows the two aspects of client development to be “held” and for the client each aspect is distinguishable. With regular dialogue between coach and psychologist there is little doubt of the union’s effectiveness for the client.

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The Inner Game

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My chance meeting with The Inner Game changed the direction of my coaching career and has been a lifelong inspiration. I owe much to Tim Gallwey. Whilst I came to the training with an innate mindset of “another person’s view is as valuable as mine own and definitely more interesting”, it was how The Inner Game used that valuing and trusting the student that made such a profound impact upon me.

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Tim Gallwey discovered, mostly through observation of his students, that a substantial element of learning was their mental state. To facilitate the student's innate ability to learn the coach needs skills that encourage focussed attention and raise awareness. To inspire self-belief the learning process needs to demonstrate trust in and respect for the student’s emergent ability. It must also allow and encourage choice. For when the student chooses the direction of the lesson and is an equal partner in discovering the best technique for themselves, they naturally take responsibility for the learning. Motivation and enjoyment increase dramatically and, on a subconscious level, they feel of value. It becomes about them not us. Rather than try to bolt on self-confidence to a technically sound performance player, the Inner Game approach inherently inspires this in every lesson. It is an approach that is of value to all students.

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http://theinnergame.com