C o M P R e H e N S I V e I N - D e P T H E-B o o K A N D S T U D y o F: COACHING

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Welcome to this comprehensive e-book on the world of coaching.
Here in this remarkable e-book you will find five completely different and stand
alone sections.
Each section covers a unique and different element of coaching.
Ranging from the impact that individual coaches can have on our personal lives
right up to
documenting the huge and beneficial effect that executive and corporate coaches
have in the business world.
There are in-depth explanations of the various types of coaching
individual personal coaching
executive coaching
corporate and team coaching
Coupled with unique examples and exercises that you can practice yourself,
and there are up-to-date figures and numbers showing the effectiveness of the
various types of coaching.
You may be interested to know that coaching is the second fastest growing
industry in the world right now, second only to the IT industry.
In this wonderful introduction to the whole and wonderful world of coaching you
will begin to understand why.
If you would like any more information on anything to do with coaching
or training to be a professional coach then please get in touch with Noble

Manhattan
info@noble-manhattan.com
Written by Gerard O'Donovan
Owner and Founder of Noble Manhattan Coaching www.noble-manhattan.com
President of the IIC international Institute of Coaching

www.internationalinstituteofcoaching.org
Europe's leading life and executive coach www.coaching-blog.com is

I. A definition of Coaching
Life Coaching Defined .............................................................. 2
Coaching As a Profession .............................................................. 4
Who Has Coaching? .............................................................. 5
Benefits of Life Coaching .............................................................. 6
Key Elements of Life Coaching .............................................................. 6
 Confidentiality .............................................................. 7
 Equality of Relationship .............................................................. 7
 Mutual Commitment .............................................................. 8
 The Client Takes Action .............................................................. 9
 Accountability ............................................................ 10
 Temporal Focus ............................................................ 10
The Coaching Session ............................................................ 11
What can be Addressed in Life Coaching? ............................................................ 12
The Coach’s Mental Attitude & Skills ............................................................ 13
Who is the Client? ............................................................ 14
The Boundaries of Coaching ............................................................ 15
pt & Methods of Cognitive Behavioural Coaching ............................................................ 19
The Diamond Path ............................................................ 25
Select Bibliography ............................................................ 26

II. Coaching in the Workplace
Introduction ............................................................ 29
What is Coaching? ............................................................ 31
Coaching in the Workplace ............................................................ 34
Trigger Factors Responsible for Bringing

Coaching into Prominence in the Workplace ............................................................ 37
Why use Coaching? ............................................................ 39
Issues, Barriers and Potential Pitfalls to

Effective Workplace Coaching ............................................................ 42
Criteria to Consider in the Development of

Successful Corporate Coaching Programmes. ............................................................ 47
Summary ............................................................ 52
Bibliography ............................................................ 53
III. The Past, Present, Future of Coaching as

a Profession
Introduction ............................................................ 56
A quest for change ............................................................ 57
The World Today ............................................................ 58
The Search for a New Way ............................................................ 61
What Options for Change ............................................................ 63
Coaching ............................................................ 69
What is Coaching ............................................................ 69
How Coaching Works ............................................................ 70
The Client-Coach Relationship ............................................................70
The Building Blocks of Coaching ............................................................ 73
The Way Head ............................................................ 79
Conclusion ............................................................ 81
Bibliography ............................................................ 82
IV. The History, Present and Future of

Coaching
Overview ............................................................ 85
The History of Coaching ............................................................ 85
 What is Coaching ............................................................ 85
 The Origin of Coaching ............................................................ 86
 Early Coaches ............................................................ 86
 Why Enter The Coaching Profession? ............................................................ 87
 Coaching and Other Professions ............................................................ 88
 Different Types of Coaching ............................................................ 89
............................................................ 90
 Coaching Skills
 The Benefits of Coaching

............................................................ 90
 Coaching Tools
............................................................ 91
- The Wheel of Life ............................................................ 92
- The GROW Model ............................................................ 93
- The Inner Game ............................................................ 94
The Present of Coaching ............................................................ 95
 Current Approaches ............................................................ 96
- Tools and Technique ............................................................ 96
- Link to NLP ............................................................ 97
 Regulation and Accreditation ............................................................ 97
 The Coaching Contract ............................................................ 98
 Accreditation ............................................................ 98
 Training ............................................................ 99
 Workplace Coaching .......................................................... 100
- Internal and External Coach? .......................................................... 100
- The Internal Coach .......................................................... 101
- The External Coach .......................................................... 101
- Preparing to be Coached .......................................................... 102
The Future of Coaching .......................................................... 103
 Accreditation .......................................................... 103
.......................................................... 104
 Coaching Supervision
.......................................................... 105
 Workplace Coaching
 Coaching Culture .......................................................... 105
 Internal and External Coach? .......................................................... 106
 Evaluation Framework ...........................................................106
Popularity of Coaching ...........................................................108
 Coaching in the Media .......................................................... 108
 Coaching in Trends .......................................................... 108
Conclusion ...........................................................110
References .......................................................... 112
Bibliography .......................................................... 115
V. Coaching and Neuro Linguistic

Programming: How NLP Impacts on
Coaching
Introduction .......................................................... 119
What is Coaching? .......................................................... 120
What is Neuro Linguistic Programming

(NLP)? .......................................................... 121
What are the Presupposition of NLP? .......................................................... 122
What are the Origins of NLP? .......................................................... 123
What are the cornerstones of Coaching? .......................................................... 125
Coaching Models .......................................................... 126
An Effective Coach .......................................................... 127

 An Effective Coach Needs Listening
Skills .......................................................... 127
 An Effective Coach Needs Intuition .......................................................... 128
 An Effective Coach Needs to be Curious .......................................................... 128
 An Effective Coach Needs to Promote a

Client’s Action and Learning .......................................................... 128
 An Effective Coach Needs to Manage

Themselves .......................................................... 129
 Other Effective Coaching Skills:

Articulating, Clarifying, Meta-view,
Metaphor, Acknowledging .......................................................... 129
How is Coaching enhanced by the use of NLP? .......................................................... 130
MANAGING YOUR OWN STATE AS A

COACH .......................................................... 131
ENHANCING RAPPORT WITH A CLIENT .......................................................... 131
MONITORING A CLIENT’S STATE BY

NOTICING THEIR PHYSIOLOGY .......................................................... 132
UNDERSTANDING A CLENT’S VIEW OF

THE WORLD .......................................................... 132
SETTING GOALS
.......................................................... 135
MOTIVATING CLIENTS .......................................................... 136
IDENTIFYING THE LEVEL AT WHICH

CHANGE NEEDS TO TAKE PLACE .......................................................... 138
PROBLEM SOLVING TOOLS .......................................................... 139

Conclusion .......................................................... 140
Bibliography .......................................................... 141
Gerard O’Donovan’s Biography .......................................................... 142
Contact Details .......................................................... 143
“Experience is not what happens to a man; it‟s what a man
does with what happens to him.” - Aldous Huxley-
1 Life Coaching Defined

A Life Coach helps each of their clients to become increasingly pro-active, rather than
passive, and increasingly creative, rather than reactive, in the way they approach their lives.
This empowering and positive process of change can be effective within all kinds of settings
to bring out the best in people and Coaching is now a recognised profession with established
methods for helping people grow and excel both in their personal lives and their work.
Well-known life UK Coach and Trainer Curly Martin defines Life Coaching as a profession
in the following way:
“Life coaching is a career and an ethical profession. The life coach uses the power of
commitment to enable their clients to achieve beneficial and measurable results in all areas
of their lives. Life coaching is a holistic process that has the power to balance and
harmonise life.” 1
This simple yet powerful definition of Life Coaching gives a sense of the spiritual and
holistic approach which is a strong element in Life Coaching. A key aspect of the coach‟s
role to their clients is to consistently hold a bigger perspective; as such the coach can be a
tremendous ally for their clients and the relationship can have a profound effects.
The spiritual dimension of coaching underpins a very pragmatic approach to handling

challenges and opportunities. The ICF‟s (International Coach Federation‟s) Description of
coaching is as follows,
“Professional Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce

extraordinary results in their lives, careers, businesses, or organizations. Through the
process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance
their quality of life.“ 2
2
ICF website: www.coachfederation.com
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Comprehensive In-Depth E-book and Study of Coaching Noble Manhattan Coaching Ltd (c)
Coaching is one of many types of profession with a fundamental aim of helping others
function well or better in their lives. However, it is crucial to appreciate the important
differences between coaching and counselling, psychotherapy, and advice-giving services.
The different schools of thought and sub-categories within these other professions each has
its own position regarding how directional or non-directional its practitioners‟ interactions
are with their clients. True coaching takes place at the non-directional end of the spectrum;
its remit being to assist those who are considered well (as opposed to ill) to refine and
improve what they do to do it even better. True coaches do not give specific advice; but they
do teach the skills needed for creative thought and behaviour.
If a potential or existing coaching client is experiencing severe ongoing emotional distress

other help is indicated and should be referred by the coach to alternative forms of help such
as counselling or therapy. The coach has an ethical duty to put the client‟s well-being first,
before their own self-interest when making such decisions.
Coaching works with immediate life and business situations by enhancing the thinking that
goes with them to make it more supportive and productive. As explained in „The Thirty
Minute Life Coach‟,
“Your coach will show you how to change the way that you think about adversity and may
even point out that we learn far more from our mistakes than we do from our successes.” 3
3
The Thirty Minute Life Coach, Gerard O‟Donovan & Curly Martin, The Coaching Academy UK Ltd., page 38
Coaching provides the opportunity to investigate and clarify issues and situations arising
directly from the client‟s current life experience. It provides a non-judgmental, open, trusting
relationship within which to fully explore choices of action open to the client. It also
provides the arena for choices to be made and commitment to be voiced out loud, and very
importantly provides a mechanism for the client to hold themselves accountable with the
coach‟s assistance. Coaching provides a space for the challenge of unhelpful patterns of
thought and behaviour where needed; the challenge may come from the client themselves or
from the coach. It provides a structured approach to goal-setting and achievement. Coaching
enables the client to gain insight and awareness of their helpful and unhelpful patterns and
tendencies, and refine their future actions accordingly.
Above all, Coaching is a relationship with the purpose of supporting clients in moving nearer
to their potential in any and all aspects of their lives, whilst strictly adhering to the client‟s
own agenda for change. Coaching provides the opportunity for a client to develop their
relationship with them self to a higher level than ever before, due to the steadfast
commitment and compassion shown by the coach to whatever their client brings to the
relationship.
2 Coaching As a Profession
The concept of Life and Business Coaching as separate definable activities, developed to the
extent that they are now professional activities, is relatively new. The concept of Coaching
requires exploration and explanation to be properly understood and appreciated.
Coaching is essentially not a new skill but it is a relatively new profession and it has been
developed for particular uses in life and business over recent years. There have been
elements of coaching around in other helping relationships for many years. Coaching is a
well-known term in sports, though certainly there are many styles of coaching which can be
very different from one another. Coaching is also related to, but certainly not the equivalent
of, mentoring, which involves a strong element of tutoring of the client by the mentor e.g. in
specific education or employment skills.
Coaching is gradually becoming known as a profession with its own training, ethical
standards, and professional bodies being established to help set and safeguard professional
standards. It is evident that,
“Holding oneself accountable for certain standards is part of being a professional. Those
standards are typically developed and endorsed through a professional association.” 4
4
Co-Active Coaching, Whitworth, Kimsey-House & Sandahl, 1998, Davies-Black Publishing, page 170
The ICF (International Coach Foundation) and the ECI (European Coaching Institute) are
two such bodies.
The current rapid global expansion of Coaching is described as follows,
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“Today the profession of coaching is still in its infancy . . . But clearly it has the size and the
impact of a profession with active professional and personal coaches not only in North and
South America but in Europe and the Pacific Rim. That the profession continues to grow at
an impressive rate is a tribute to the human desire for excellence and the spirit of being fully
alive.” 5
5
Co-Active Coaching, ibid, page 169
3 Who Has Coaching?

Coaching is found in a very wide range of settings and has the scope and flexibility of
approach to be used in almost limitless applications. Coaching takes place across a wide
range of communication mediums as best suits the clients needs; one-to-one personal Life
Coaching and Business Coaching take place by telephone, in person, and using e-mail, or by
a combination of these. Coaching typically takes place on a one-to-one basis, however group
coaching for personal Life Coaching and in business settings is also effective, both in moving
forward as an individual and in improving the dynamics operating within particular groups.
Coaching is being employed within a wide spectrum of life situations including:

 personal life coaching
 in all kinds of businesses
 in educational settings
 in public sector organisations
 with offenders
 in health & fitness & professional sports
Coaches are often self-employed within their own private practice and may be affiliated to a
coaching body or organisation from which they receive referrals of potential clients. They
may apply for accreditation in recognition of their training and hours of coaching experience
and it is advisable for them to have indemnity insurance.
Systems for the accreditation and regulation of Coaching are in the process of being set up in
Europe although the profession is not yet legally required to be regulated. In my opinion it is
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in the interests of all Coaches to participate in the development of industry standards and
means of regulation for the benefit of current and future clients.
4 Benefits of Coaching
The potential benefits of coaching are far-reaching indeed:
 increased self-awareness of all aspects of oneself
 improved self-esteem and clarity, sense of choice
 sense of owning one‟s true power of self-determination
 a truer picture of own strengths and weaknesses
 the ability to own appropriate responsibility
 knowledge of one‟s values, goal and aspirations
 aligning to one‟s true purpose in life
 the ability to take decisive action
 the expansion of one‟s comfort zones
 resolution of communication difficulties
 celebration of success, and learning and perseverance through any set-backs!
Above all I would cite improved relationships - with one self and others - as the key potential
benefit of coaching, as human relationships are so fundamental to every aspect of our lives.
5 Key Elements of Life Coaching

Several key aspects of Life Coaching which, when present together, help define Life
Coaching as distinct from other helping relationships, are listed below. As other forms of
helping such as Counselling are at present more known and established within our culture it
is helpful to ensure clarity about the differences, both to avoid general confusion and to
prevent expectations which cannot be met arising in the client.
a Confidentiality
b Equality of Relationship
c Mutual Commitment
d Action is Essential
e Accountability
f Temporal Focus on Present and Future
These defining key features of the true coaching relationship are explored below.
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a) Confidentiality
The aspect of confidentiality is clearly an aspect of coaching which is held in high regard by
the coach in common with many other helping professions. A true Coach makes
confidentiality a very high priority in their practice and will make this known to the client.
This is essential to enable trust to develop and enable the client to feel sufficiently at ease to
reveal their beliefs, values, aspirations, current challenges and opportunities. Confidentiality
must also have boundaries which take into account the law of the land and the client‟s,
coach‟s and others‟ well-being. For instance, if it were to be revealed within a coaching
session that someone was at serious risk of harm of physical violence or sexual abuse it
would be usual for the coach to break confidentiality. These guidelines are in strictly in line
with those for other established helping professions.
b) Equality of Relationship
Coaching is an equal relationship embodying equal commitment of coach and client.
Individual responsibility is necessary – the coach being responsible for them self and the
client being responsible for them self and their decisions. This reduces limits the risk of any
dependency arising and grants a unique power to the coaching relationship. Any temptation
to coach from an unequal stance, by giving specific advice about ways of resolving issues, or
having preferences as to the client‟s course of action, is to be resisted by the coach. By
giving advice I mean that the coach does not design solutions for their client (in contrast to in
the way that perhaps a mentor might be expected to). For example, a coach may well
recommend that a client take care of their physical health by exercising regularly where this
has been neglected– as virtually all human beings who are able to exercise moderately will
benefit from it – but the coach will help the client clarify their possible choices and it will be
up to the client to choose their level of commitment in the knowledge of the results they want
to achieve.
It is crucial for the client‟s growth to ensure that the coach does not fall into a rescuing mode
and that full and final responsibility for all the client‟s decisions rests with the client. The
client is not viewed as „ill‟ or in need of emergency intervention for their mental health, and
would be referred elsewhere should this be so. This issue will be explored in detail later.
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c) Mutual Commitment
A coach uses the power of commitment, and this commitment must come from both coach
and client for coaching to have profound effects in the client‟s life. Leading UK Life Coach,
Fiona Harrold is very forthright about the importance of commitment for the success of the
coaching process. Of the coach‟s commitment she says,
“My clients get results; some of them get extraordinary results. I give each one of them my
undivided attention. I expect, want and demand the very best from them and I want the very
best for them. I bring 100% of myself to each client; I am totally committed to them and their
goals. “
She follows this by emphatic statements regarding the client‟s commitment:

“So why is it that one client will do well while another will do brilliantly? Why will one
achieve good results while another gets stunning results? . . . Over my years of working with
hundreds of clients I have seen, time after time, what makes the vital difference and I can tell
you what it is with absolute certainty. It is the degree of commitment to themselves and their
goals that each client has when I work with them. . .6
6
Be Your Own Life Coach, Fiona Harrold, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, page 10
It is highly likely that a coach will discuss the subject of commitment with a client at the
outset and/or periodically within their relationship. Some clients may already be very
committed to their goals and to taking action towards achieving them; others may need to be
educated in the importance of sustaining on-going commitment for any lasting change to
occur. In understanding what makes commitment strong it is helpful to look at its
components.
According to Fiona Harrold,

“ . . commitment is made up of four distinct elements:
 motivation
 self-belief
 self-discipline
 willingness to challenge ” 7
7
Fiona Harrold, ibid, p11
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A coach may assist the client to develop these components of commitment - to strengthen
their commitment „muscles‟ as it were – in order that they become increasingly effective and
fulfilled and achieve more in a shorter space of time with less discomfort.
d) The Client Takes Action
„A creative life is founded on many, many small steps and very few large leaps.‟
„Small actions lead us to the larger movements in our creative lives‟ 8
The Artist‟s Way, Julia Cameron, Pan Books, 1993, pages 142 & 143
I interpret the „creative life‟, of which Julia Cameron speaks so eloquently, in the broadest
sense – that of having a creative mind set – which I am convinced is what leads us to creative
acts, both in art and in life. Human beings can engage frequently in pointless anxiety, worry
and negativity or instead they can choose to take the cumulative small steps which eventually
lead to achieving the biggest of dreams! So it is with coaching; a coach helps their client
recognise their ability to choose and act by assuming that this is possible, and then helps the
client find their path to an increasingly creative mind set within each moment.
The International Coach Federation identifies action as the key to success for the client;
“The successful client is not excessively limited in the ability to take action or overly hesitant
to make this kind of progress.”
However, it can certainly be part of the coach‟s role to assist their client in changing habits of
procrastination – this common human habit of „putting it off until later‟ and „later‟ may never
come. A common area for clients to require assistance in for instance is that of physical
exercise and health-giving diet; clients often have resistance to taking short-term actions even
though they know they can lead to immense long term benefits. The coach can help the
client to alter their perspective to take into account and focus strongly on the long term
benefits and good reasons for delaying instant gratification. They can also give themselves
instant mental and physical rewards for taking the new action. These steps help form new
habits – they even have their own short-term benefits which had not previously been
anticipated as they are now increasingly linked to experiencing pleasure rather than pain.
Coaching is both an art and a science in many ways; the art of manifesting the highest levels
of inner awareness and outer communication, together with the science of understanding how
the human mind and emotions operate and interact. This enables the coach to facilitate the
specific changes desired by clients in their behaviour patterns and habits and thus in their day
to day experience of themselves and the world.
e) Accountability
A significant difference between coaching and other forms of helping is in the central
importance of the accountability of the client for carrying out the agreed actions. This grants
the relationship highly effective power in the process of change and prevents the sessions
becoming „all talk‟ without leading to real and measurable change. Accountability can be
assisted by having a method for the client to feed back their progress between sessions,
which may take the form of a written progress report or form of concise verbal update. It can
be very helpful for the client to record their progress in writing as this becomes part of the
self-reflective process; and also increases awareness of any habits of procrastination. The
coach is not there to chastise the client but to reflect back and challenge where needed, any
habitual patterns that do not serve the client, and recognise and champion any behaviours that
serve the client well.
f) Temporal Focus
The temporal focus of coaching is most definitely in the present and future, rather than the
past, in contrast with many other kinds of helping relationship. Coaching concentrates on
where clients are right now, and what they are willing to do to get where they desire to be in
the future.
Coaching does take account of any recurrent patterns or habits in a client‟s experience,
however it is important that coaching focuses primarily on what we can influence and change
rather than on our stories of the past. In fact the „story‟ is recognised as often being a large
part of any perceived „problem‟. Re-living the past is only helpful to the extent that we learn
from it and understand ourselves through it, to assist in our present and future growth and
development. Through coaching a client may choose to shift their perspective on past events
to one which is more helpful to their future development. Minimal time would be spent in a
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coaching session going over past events and much more emphasis placed on the present and
future and the options, challenges and opportunities arising there.
As explained by the ICF “A coach makes a request of the client to promote action toward
the client's desired outcome. A coach does not make such requests in order to fix the client's
problem or understand the client's past.” 9
9
International Coaching Federation website, ibid.
The coach assists the client in focussing squarely in the direction in which the client wants to
go; thus enabling them to get there quicker, with less energy-sapping detours along the way.
The client can then use their fuller energies to contribute towards achieving their desired
outcomes.
6 The Coaching Session

Coaches and clients arrange a schedule and a verbal or written contact that works well for
them both. The coach will lead in the construction of a mutually agreed and clear contract.
Coaches have different approaches to sessions depending on their preferred ways of working.
It may be appropriate for instance for coaching to take the form of one-off sessions for
specific issues or projects, but generally a series of coaching sessions is required to realise
significant positive change. Some coaches may recommend a series of a dozen sessions from
the outset so that the client brings an expectation of devoting this time to the relationship
from the start and will be more likely to stay on track through any experience of challenge. It
is helpful for coach and client to acknowledge that in any process of growth there will be
times of ease and struggle when old patterns are being exchanged for new.
A coaching session would generally begin as follows: the client would bring an issue or
range of issues to the session; the coach listens and forms suitable questions to further clarify
the issue/s on behalf of the client, (and not to satisfy the coach‟s personal curiosity). The
quality of listening is such that the coach is able to tune into the client‟s way of being, way of
seeing their world, and unique experience of themselves and others; with a skilled coach this
occurs to such an extent that the coach‟s own agenda all but disappears in the process, being
put to one side for the duration of the coaching session. The coach will ask powerful and at
times provocative questions; through their answers, the client will explore their current
experience and future options. The coach will often reframe an issue in terms of the
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timescale and perspective to enable the client see situations in a new light and enable more
creative solutions to arise. The range of possible options will be generated and an action plan
agreed. Action on the part of the client between sessions is central to the process of
coaching, together with any learning and feedback resulting from their action/non-action.
For instance, in a situation where the client wishes to adopt a new helpful habit they make
themselves accountable with the coach‟s support. This helps prevent the possibility of the
client losing sight of their goals, action plans and personal insights. The coach may also
make requests of the client which will promote further learning and action in the direction of
their goals. However, the client at all times has the power to agree, disagree or make a
counter-offer to a coach‟s requests and this free choice should be made explicit in the
relationship.
Coaching can only work for the client to the extent that they bring commitment and
willingness to change in the way they relate to themselves and others. The ongoing extent to
which the client commits to take action which they have agreed to take between sessions is of
great significance. Part of the effectiveness of coaching lies in the fact that when in a
coaching relationship the client feels more accountable – not judged by - but accountable -
ultimately to themselves - for all their actions and non-actions.
A coach may well ensure that they obtain clear „nailed-down‟ commitments from the client
before the end of a session as to exactly what they are agreeing to do, with whom, and when,
before the next session. This takes the relationship far beyond one primarily composed of
talking and sharing without any real change in behaviour. The resulting positive spiral of
empowerment and increased clarity and choice in client‟s life is the successful result of
coaching.
7 What can be Addressed in Life Coaching?

Life Coaching is helpful in a myriad of different situations, some of which are listed below:
 Communication issues in all situations
 Raising and maintaining self-esteem
 Improving self-confidence
 Relationship issues of all kinds (whether at work, family, friendships, sexual)
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 Decisions about what work to do and how to go about it
 Financial choices and issues
 Health related issues
 Maintaining recovery from addictions (providing other appropriate support is also
present)
 Recovering after bereavement or other major loss
 Any major life decisions
 Any issue where choice is involved
As one can appreciate, this is a very broad remit, and many coaches choose to specialise in
certain areas according to their own interests and experience. The coach has access to a wide
range of approaches to suit different clients with their unique personalities and potentials, and
different life situations.
A note on timescale of coaching relationship:

Each client‟s speed of discovery, growth in self-awareness, willingness and ability to act, and
rate of change is specific to them. It is common for clients to have coaching over a period of
months and for some years to achieve significant, lasting success; they may achieve their
original goals and go on to set new higher goals for themselves. The coach assists the client
to keep referring to the intended outcomes in their life, thus sharpening their focus.
8 The Coach‟s Mental Attitude & Skills

Through their training and coaching experience a coach will amass a great deal of experience
in the mental and physical states that lead human beings towards success and fulfilment –
this awareness of strategies for success is one of the coach‟s assets. The positive mind set
and „can do‟ mentality is at the core of a coach‟s being; a coach will seek to exemplify their
methods within their own life. Each coach will have their own unique approach to coaching
dependent on their particular interests and inspiration, as well as their formal and informal
training for the job. A coach‟s particular coaching style will probably emphasise certain
aspects of coaching more than others and will be tailored to suit each individual client
dependent on their needs.
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A coach will frequently specialise in one or more areas of Life and/or Business Coaching.
The law of attraction of like to like results in them working with the clients who are attracted
to their particular approach. A coach has a wide range of tools at their disposal to assist the
client with whatever arises. The coach will have clarified their own professional boundaries
regarding what they can and cannot offer to a client and will be adept in communicating this
with clarity.
When coaching, a great coach will access certain state of being which will promote high
quality listening and awareness. This is a grounded state of being „in the zone‟ for coaching
– a caring state of non-judgemental openness and positive detachment. In my experience this
positive sense of detachment from the client‟s decisions needs to be constantly cultivated and
contributes significantly to the coach‟s effectiveness. Whilst caring deeply about the client‟s
overall well-being and recognising their influence in the client‟s process, the coach needs to
resist over-influencing the client‟s choice of action. Coaches do not use their expertise to
diagnose, direct, or design solutions for the client.
I believe that successful coaches find their own particular niche within coaching to give the
best of themselves in ways which delight and fulfil them. I believe that, through their
practice of coaching, successful coaches repeatedly access peak states of inspiration and
effectiveness in a spiral path leading to greater and greater awareness of self, of others and of
the interconnectedness of both.
9 Who is the Client?

The client wants something – whether it is a higher level of performance, additional learning,
or greater satisfaction and fulfilment in any or all aspects of their life. Coaching is often used
by successful individuals who support themselves and their development by making use of
Coaching as a highly supportive mechanism for positive change and even greater levels of
success. The ICF clarifies why these successful individuals use a Coach,
“What about people who are already doing great in their lives. Why would they need a
coach? They might not need a coach. But it is helpful to find out: Are they doing what they
most enjoy? Are they tolerating anything? Is life easy? Are they going to be financially
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independent within the next 15 years? Do they have what they most want? We've discovered
that, often, people need to expect more out of their lives. A coach can help in this process.” 10
10
International Coach Federation website, 2003: www.coachfederation.org
It may well be the case that clients‟ levels of expectation of what their life can be could be
raised significantly in their favour. Clients often need lots of encouragement to allow their
greatest dreams to live!
Some clients come to coaching for problem solving with major and minor life issues. It is
crucial to recognise that coaching can be used concurrently with psychotherapeutic work but
it is not to be used as a substitute where psychotherapeutic work is needed. The question of
identifying when it would be advisable for a particular client to have therapeutic help is one
in which the coach must use their professional judgement and experience; I will say more
about this process in the next section. In addition to clarifying their own professional
boundaries I believe a coach should regularly seek the counsel of senior coaches in making
these important judgement calls.
10 The Boundaries of Coaching

Coaching is not the same as mentoring; the coach is not required to be an expert in anything
other than coaching technique and communication. The coach is not giving advice as a
mentor would; the coach facilitates mental agility and expansion of choices rather than
teaching from experience e.g. of having done a particular kind of work.
Whilst a coach is not there to tell a client how to act in specific ways, they are there to help
the client move into whatever action is conducive to their well-being and growth. Some
clients may think they want and need advice, but any temptation to give it should be
resolutely resisted by the coach.
The ICF, in its website, gives a notably different opinion, saying

“Advice, opinions, or suggestions are occasionally offered in coaching. Both parties
understand that the client is free to accept or decline what is offered and takes the ultimate
responsibility for action. The coach is not discouraged from offering advice, opinions or
suggestions on occasion.“
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If, as I would resolutely uphold, the coach is not there to offer advice how does the client
know what to do? Coaching implicitly assumes that the client does indeed know what to do;
this may take time and encouragement to uncover, but they have all their own answers to
achieve their potential. Coaching provides the means for exploring both the more „rational‟
areas of self - what clients think about themselves and their potential - but also crucially a
coach will help a client feel their intuitive sense of inner guidance.
As Robbie Gass wrote

„Like an ability of a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it‟.11
11
As quoted in The Artist‟s Way, Julia Cameron, Pan Books, 1993, page 16
I would argue that a true and great coach does not advise in the sense of being attached to the
client taking any particular route of attaining a goal. Clients need to be encouraged to
become more and more accustomed to looking within for their answers and strengthening
their belief in their own inner wisdom. Coaching clients are ultimately responsible for their
choices within the coaching session and should be encouraged to recognise and take this
responsibility. This is balanced with the client being motivated to achieve their commitments
because they are being held accountable to themselves by the coach. Ultimately they need to
move towards recognising that they have complete freedom of choice to undertake whatever
they wish to. Where there is any question of a client feeling obliged to do something this
needs to be explored and acknowledged so that they can move forward into their own power.
The coach is working towards enabling the client to coach them selves to success by
adopting tried and tested methods.
Coaching is not a cure-all for all problems and is not a rescue service for those stuck in
prolonged emotional distress. It is not a therapy in the sense of healing illness of the mind
but it I would argue that it is more appropriate than counselling for people with much less
severe difficulties who may go to counselling looking for support and answers to their inner
questions but find that they have not achieved any significant change. Often what people
who are basically well need is educating in how to become more confidently themselves!
Coaching is not applicable in cases of extreme psychological and emotional distress, clinical
depression or deep-rooted, intransigent difficulties stemming from the past. It is possible to
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have counselling and coaching continuing along-side one another if helpful to a client for
different purposes in their life.
“The client is not seeking emotional healing or relief from psychological pain. They are not
in a state of crisis.. . .Coaching is designed to help clients improve their learning and
performance, and enhance their quality of life. Coaching does not focus directly on relieving
psychological pain or treating cognitive or emotional disorders.” 12
12
International Coaching Federation website, ibid.
Whether operating from within the membership of a recognised coaching body or not, each
coach must ultimately set and act upon their own specific moment-by-moment boundaries. I
have identified the following guidelines for my own coaching practice:
 The apparent state of the Client and the nature of their issue/s both need to be
considered. It is not sufficient to say that where a Client or potential Client is not
considered, or does not consider themselves, „ill‟ they can be accepted for coaching.
Their issue may be unsuitable.
 Where the client‟s issue/s relates primarily to an event or relationship in the past which
they experienced as very traumatic I would refer them for therapy or counselling and, if
considered appropriate and desirable, offer coaching in addition.
 Where the Client‟s „negative‟ emotions are strong and sustained and not under
sufficient self-control for them to manage their lives. E.g. anger, depression, anxiety, I
would refer them on.
 Where a Client is suffering from prolonged sense of overwhelm and does not have the
current capacity to move forward I would refer them on to therapy or counselling.
Where indicated I would refer clients to their GP and perhaps also to tell them about
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as I am aware of the excellent results achieved and
know that CBT is sometimes available through the NHS. However, it would be the GP‟s
role, with assistance from Mental Health professionals and the Client themselves, to
determine the appropriate course of action depending on the nature and severity of the
difficulties.
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11 Achieving Lasting Intentional Change
Clients come to coaching because there is something somewhere which they want to change
in their lives; either something they want or don‟t want. They will need to learn to think and
act in different ways to get new results. In my experience clients often need encouragement
to own and express something they already know about themselves deep down; their own
truth which resides perhaps so deep that it is in the recesses of their unconscious mind as yet.
Coaching methods involving visualisation can help, as can the precise powerful questions the
coach asks. However, negative self-beliefs can block further progress.
The process of uncovering negative self-beliefs and systematically replacing them with
supportive self-beliefs is one of the most effective life changing and affirming processes.
This process is described by Julia Cameron in „The Artist‟s Way‟ (a book which guides
people in releasing their innate creativity). It works with uncovering negative beliefs and
discarding them (p30-36) and using positive affirmations (p32-40). Julia Cameron also
describes the process of identifying „gremlins‟ and „monsters‟ which are our habitual internal
fears and blocks. This has the effect of externalising the stumbling block – the poor quality
questions we habitually ask about ourselves, and the poor quality answers about ourselves
which naturally ensue. It clearly identifies this mental construct as the difficulty, and not
something inherently part of the person. This can be an immense relief to anyone who has
lurking fears they are somehow inherently flawed.
In Awaken the Giant Within, Anthony Robbins also engages deeply with this process of
changing negative self-beliefs; he gets us to ask new questions when we perceive difficulties.
He strongly encourages us to ask a number of „challenge questions‟, including:
„What‟s great about this problem?‟1
1
Awaken The Giant Within, Anthony Robbins, Simon & Schuster, 1991, page 193
This turns our usual thinking on its head and can promote a radical change of state and
perception if we are willing to engage with it; it can be mind-expanding indeed. If followed
by new actions, which give us new feedback about what we are able to do, be and have in our
lives, we can go on to free ourselves from the self-made prisons of habitual negative
responses for good!
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When viewed from a higher standpoint our greatest obstacles can reveal themselves as our
most helpful teachers. The more one experiences this dynamic, the greater one‟s ability to
persevere through difficulties with an inner faith that valuable learning and growth will
surely follow. This is not in any way an encouragement to undergo unnecessary suffering if
we can see a way out of it!
A large part of human suffering is caused by attaching to thinking that reality „should‟
somehow differ from how it actually is – and without our having to take responsibility for
actively changing it! When we can think and feel our way beyond „shoulds‟ like this we can
experience much greater inner peace – even in the midst of what might appear to be
significant obstacles.
I feel strongly that many perceived obstacles are subjective obstacles, of a kind which it is
possible to dissolve, given the right way into our thinking; they may look, feel and taste
solid, but they are constructed in our minds and in the minds of others who influence us.
Given the right approach, tools and support, we are able to break through to a place of far
greater inner freedom and joy. This awareness can lead us to a creative mindset of
recognising those factors which we do wish to change and getting on with it confidence!
12 Methods from „Cognitive Behavioural Coaching‟
Clients may be aware of unhelpful behaviours they wish to change; but awareness alone is
not usually enough to change deep-rooted behaviours; clients need to be equipped with the
tools, methods, and support for lasting intentional change to occur and take enough of the
necessary actions which will truly implement the change. In this section I will explore how
coaches can work most effectively with some of the more resistant of behaviours which can
stand in the way of the client‟s further progress. Here I am considering entrenched
behaviours such as procrastination, poor time management, and the adoption of certain very
common stances (such as that of „victim‟ and „rescuer‟) in personal and work relationships.
These behaviours can very much affect a client‟s life adversely but without them necessarily
becoming clinically „ill‟ as such.
I suggest that the coach can assist the process of change by drawing on methods from an
approach coined as „Cognitive Behavioural Coaching‟, by Michael Neenan and Windy
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Dryden in their book „Life Coaching: A Cognitive Behavioural Approach‟, first published in
2002. This book is clearly aimed at “that neglected species . . .the intelligent reader. This
person keeps her critical faculties sharp by engaging with new ideas, welcomes opposing
viewpoints, is unafraid to change her mind and seeks opportunities for self-development.
However, even these fine qualities cannot prevent you from underperforming or becoming
stuck in certain areas of your life.”13
13
„Life Coaching: A Cognitive Behavioural Approach‟, Michael Neenan and Windy Dryden, Brunner-
Routledge, 2002, preface.
Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (CBC) is based on the premise that learning to think
differently can enable us to feel and act differently and thus become happier and more
fulfilled in life. This work is derived from the authors‟ experience of delivering Cognitive-
Behavioural Therapy (CBT) but is aimed at the population at large, in a non-clinical setting
and is concerned with the changing the self-defeating thinking which adversely affects and
restricts so many people.
From engaging with the methods and examples Neenan and Dryden describe, I have a strong
sense that wherever a coach encounters a block to their client‟s progress which hinges on
troublesome emotions, procrastination, excessive sensitivity to criticism, or reaction rather
than response, the methods of Cognitive Behavioural Coaching would be very helpful
indeed.
To give a flavour of CBC, its methods include working with unhelpful thinking by
 Disputing unhelpful patterns of thinking by using questions based on logic and asking
„Does this thought help or hinder goal achievement?‟
 Countering distorted thinking such as exaggerating the negative and discounting the
positive.
 Finding alternatives to rigid „shoulds‟ and „musts‟.
 Recognising the habits of „catastrophising‟, or assuming the worst, and if it occurs,
assuming an inability to cope with it.
The authors look at the negative core beliefs which often underpin distorted thinking and
which are „activated from their dormant state when you are upset‟ and explain how to
identify them by progressively tracking back a current disturbing thought (p 8-9) to find out
what lies at its root. These core beliefs determine how we see a situation; as we know from
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experience people do see different situations very differently indeed. Changing our core
beliefs requires identifying the new belief one wishes to adopt and then actively seeking
evidence for it wherever possible, from one‟s past, and particularly from one‟s present and
future.
I will give a brief outline of the major topics covered within Neenan and Dryden‟s work and
then go on to explore a couple of these methods in more detail to determine how they could
benefit a Life Coach‟s work. Their chapters cover:
1. Dealing with troublesome emotions
2. Problem-creating vs. problem-solving
3. Overcoming procrastination
4. Time management
5. Persistence
6. Dealing with criticism
7. Assertiveness
8. Taking risks and making decisions
9. Understanding the personal change process
10. Putting it all together
In Chapter 3 Neenan and Dryden take a thorough look at procrastination behaviours;

identifying them as „often a behavioural way of protecting yourself from experiencing an
unpleasant emotional state.‟ If the coach helps the client understand their fears they can help
the client implement a programme of action to overcome them. They also recognise that
sometimes productive action needs to come before one‟s motivation can be really high, and
that it can be self-sabotaging to wait for sufficient motivation to arise before making a start
on action which we know will benefit us. They identify a common misconception about
change; some people believe that:
“ . . insight alone will bring about the necessary changes in your life. Unfortunately, the
change process is more complicated: insight plus forceful and persistent action equals
enduring change.”
They go on to give an example regarding producing lasting improvements in self-worth:

“For example, you see that your self-worth is dependent upon the approval of others and the
solution to this dependency is to value yourself irrespective of how others see you. Unless
you put this insight into daily practice (e.g. being assertive when necessary, doing things that
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may incur criticism or rejection from others), it is highly unlikely that you will integrate your
new philosophy of self-worth into your belief system (i.e. you believe it deeply and
consistently.” 14
14
Ibid, Neenan & Dryden, page 82
This is how CBC would approach time management issues,

„The essence of time management is knowing what your values and goals are in life and
making the optimum use of your time to achieve these ends . . . You will need to review how
you use your time and phase-out those activities that are not goal-directed.‟
They may well advocate the use of a daily time log which is reviewed jointly with the client
to make decisions about what needs changing. Their focus on values, goals and increasing
the goal-directed activities to achieve positive outcomes sits very happily with coaching
methodologies. They also offer precise, practical ideas for change; e.g. for the client who is
working with improving their effectiveness and who often handles the same pieces of
paperwork many times without taking the necessary decisive action, Neenan and Dryden
suggest the following method. The client puts a tick in the corner of each piece of paper each
time it is handled to help them notice if they are putting off making a decision if the ticks are
mounting up.
It would have been interesting to know more about how Neenan and Dryden see their work
when viewed within the context of styles of Life Coaching. Their view of the client-coach
relationship fits with the approach described in „Co-Active Coaching‟ by Whitworth,
Kimsey-House and Sandahl, and also with the methods taught in the Noble Manhattan Life
Coach Training. I have noticed that through using the CBC approach coach and client are
likely to become better acquainted with their current reality: adept at looking for the precise
evidence of how something is now, what precise and measurable criteria would represent an
improvement and, once the action is chosen and acted upon, its effectiveness in the light of
their chosen criteria. In my opinion this is a very good result of CBC – one could say that it
makes highly effective use of the „reality‟ stage of the TGROW 15 coaching model, coming
back to review it later with a series of reality checks being built into the CBC coaching
process. The CBC approach also makes good use of the other stages of this model.
15
The „TGROW‟ coaching model as taught by Noble Manhattan, and found in „Effective Coaching‟ by Myles
Downey, stands for Topic, Goal, Reality, Options and Way Forward.
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The central premise of cognitive approaches is that our feelings are not just automatic
reactions to events, they are shaped by the ideas and recurring thoughts that we have. Whilst
the CBC approach to change management takes full account of both the rational and non-
rational cognitive and emotional forces underpinning behaviour it purposely places them
within a rationally-based framework to facilitate increasing control and mastery of one‟s
strong, reactive emotions. Thus Neenan and Dryden offer coaches precise and effective
methods for helping clients work directly with thoughts and the way they affect their feelings
and behaviours.
I was interested to find out whether cognitive approaches generally fit with coaching
methodology. Further research into Cognitive Behavioural Therapy revealed the temporal
focus as a common to both. As Dr Chris Williams explains,
“Cognitive therapy looks at "here and now" issues rather than things from the past. It helps
people to learn new methods of coping and problem-solving which they can use for the rest
of their lives. “
He goes on to say that

“Cognitive therapy is a way of talking about the connections between how we think, how we
feel and how we behave. It particularly concentrates on ideas that are unrealistic. These
often undermine our self-confidence and make us feel depressed or anxious. Looking at
these can help us work out different ways of thinking and behaving that in turn will help us
cope better. Cognitive therapy also helps us to look at our "rules for living". These are
strong beliefs about how we should live our lives which we develop while we are growing up.
They are based both on what we learn from other people and on our own experiences.
Although they shape our lives, most of the time we don't give them much thought. They may
be realistic or unrealistic, helpful or unhelpful. For example, someone may grow up with the
belief that "I cannot be happy unless I am successful in everything I do". This belief is
unrealistic - the reality of life is that we all fail sometimes. By demanding the impossible,
this idea is likely to produce feelings of depression. Cognitive therapy can help us not only
to be aware of the "rules" we use but also to develop more helpful ones. “
It is important to recognise that Cognitive Behaviouralists do not encourage clients to simply

change their thoughts where in fact it is preferable and possible to change the external
circumstances for the better. Neenan and Dryden recognise that there are different solutions
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to any challenge – some are „emotion focussed‟ and some are „situation focussed‟ solutions;
either or both can be appropriate and helpful depending upon the individual situation. For
instance, they identify emotional self-management as the usual key to stress management in
addition to making changes within one‟s environment. I see that CBC approaches as
potentially very helpful where an „emotion focussed‟ solution may be highly applicable.
It is important to emphasise here that I am in no way advocating coaches taking clients who
in fact would do better to seek relief from therapy; however I am advocating the use of
Cognitive Behavioural approaches within Life and Business Coaching as I would maintain
there is great value in these methods. They can be helpful to people who consider
themselves, and are considered by others, entirely well in addition to those who are ill.
I believe that further valuable work could be done in exploring the use of Cognitive
Behavioural techniques to further enhance all creative and positive thought, as well as in
substituting unhelpful for helpful thinking.
To make use of these CBC methods principally requires a coach to focus their skills on
helping the client analyse minutely the reality of their thoughts, feelings and behaviours and
then methodically manage their chosen belief changes at the right pace, whilst supporting the
client taking massive amounts of the desired kinds of action. This may require the coach and
client to work in great detail, and perhaps at a slower pace than they may initially wish to at
times, but I believe it could achieve lasting intentional change of habits for the client.
I am in favour of using any method which can help human beings harness our phenomenal
mental and emotional power for intentional living! If some of those ways come from
methodology originally employed in therapy settings this is entirely valid - providing that we
maintain a very clear awareness of the professional boundaries of coaching.
I have a conviction, borne from experience, that
wherever human beings have a tendency to limit themselves by their thinking,
they can also free themselves by it!
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13 The Diamond Path of Coaching
A major reason for making the effort to have coaching in the first instance may well be to
align more effectively with one‟s greatest potential. As we come to see so well in coaching,
just talking about something does not produce results – commitment to action is required to
really see positive change. Reflecting on the intentional change facilitated by coaching has
led me to generate this representation of the journey that can occur:
Diamond Path of Coaching
Low level of self-awareness

Gradually increasing self-awareness
Still very much locked into one‟s initial conditioning
Knowing what one is „good at‟ but not feeling truly fulfilled
Finding the sources of on-going inspiration and motivation,
Coming into stronger relationship with oneself, one‟s dreams and aspirations with
increasing self awareness and sense of choice; aligning oneself with ones values by one‟s actions.
Living with increasing intentionality & willingness to learn from all experience – both joy & challenge
Living more and more confidently in accordance with one‟s individual nature
whilst finding a moving balance within changing conditions
Transforming all limiting views of self/other
Highly inspired & inspiring of creativity
Living out one‟s true potential
Fully self aware
Where we start may be largely determined by our disposition, environment

and conditioning – but where we finish is up to us!
We grow our own diamonds!
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Life Coaching Handbook, Curly Martin, 2001, Crown House Publishing
Co-Active Coaching Whitworth, Kimsey-House & Sandahl, 1998, Davies-Black
Be Your Own Life Coach Fiona Harrold, 2000, Hodder & Stoughton
Coaching for Performance John Whitmore, 1992 (3rd edition 2003), Nicholas Brealey
Effective Coaching Myles Downey, 1st ed in GB1999, Orion Business
Awaken the Giant Within Anthony Robbins, 1991, Simon & Schuster
The Thirty Minute Life Coach Gerard O‟Donovan & Curly Martin, 2000, Coaching Academy UK Ltd
Life Coaching: A Cognitive Behavioural Approach Neenan & Dryden, 2002, Brunner-Routledge
Mind Over Mood D Greenberger & C Padesky, 1995, Guilford Press
The Artist‟s Way Julia Cameron, 1995, Pan
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Are you interested in finding out about the courses and trainings offered worldwide
by
Noble Manhattan Coaching Ltd.
Please contact our friendly customer care team
Contact Details
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Noble Manhattan Coaching Ltd
No 5
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27 | P a g e
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Coaching produced a 529% return on investment and significant intangible benefits to the
business. (Anderson & MetrixGlobal, 2001),
Safeway sends 900 on Coaching Programme
Safeway is rolling out a Coaching scheme for 900 middle managers after a development
programme for top management led to reduced staff turnover and increased profits.
The executive Coaching programme that was run in 2000 for its 100 most senior managers
has helped the company reduce turnover among the firm‟s 92,000 staff – it has dropped by
15% to 30% a year.
The company has also re-entered the FTSE 100, almost doubled its share price and added a
million new customers.
Jim White, HR Director at Safeway, said the Coaching programme has improved staff
morale and led to almost zero turnover among the senior leadership team.
“The business has got stronger because we have been able to retain and develop our senior
leaders”, he said. (Personnel Today Aug „02)
The examples above are typical of reports in management and training journals extolling the
value of Coaching within the workplace which has been referred to as:
“a process which closes the gap between an individual‟s or team‟s level of
performance and the desired one” (Ali et al, 2001).
This report sets out to demonstrate an understanding of what work-based Coaching is, how it
can be used, and in what contexts. It discusses what has bought about the recent explosive
development of Coaching in the workplace from the first Coaching focussed conference in
Europe in 1998, to its current status and considers why it is that Coaching is second only to
IT in terms of industry growth (Coaching Articles, Nov „03).
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Some of the issues and barriers to providing high impact Coaching in the workplace are
detailed, and the report is concluded by the proposition of a number of recommendations of
how to maximise the likely success of workplace Coaching programmes.
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2. What is Coaching?
Defining Coaching is plagued by problems of interchangeable terminology, and variance in

what skills and practices are viewed to be encompassed under the banner of Coaching. For
example, the distinction between mentoring and Coaching is frequently confused. Although
many similarities exist, Mentors are expected to act in an advisory capacity, imparting their
wisdom to the mentee (Personnel Today, May 02). This is quite dissimilar from the definition
used for „Coaching‟ within this report as being:
„the art of facilitating the performance, learning and development of another‟
(Downey 2003, p15)
The value of clarifying this is not merely in linguistic semantics but it impacts on the
expectations, methods, processes and ultimately on the outcomes of these distinct
professional fields.
When Downey‟s (2003) definition of Coaching is broken down it becomes evident that
facilitating describes the process of the Coach enabling the Coachee to explore, to gain a
better understanding, to become more aware, to make better decisions and change their
actions as a result. This facilitation yields outcomes or results in three areas:
 Performance – Coaching is results driven, it is not merely a „nice thing‟ to do. Its goal
or purpose is to achieve success, for the Coachee to reach a heightened level of
effectiveness in the area he / she is being Coached in.
 Learning – speaks of the acquisition of new skills, knowledge or behaviour as a result
of the Coaching experience.
 Development – concerns the extent of personal growth and greater self-awareness
Coaching can produce.
There is little contention regarding the nature of results that Coaching brings about
(performance, learning and development), the confusion lies in the manner this is
accomplished, and the breadth and depth of activities, techniques, processes and skills that
are included within the „Coaching Arena‟. As seen in Figure 1 Downey (2003) includes skills
as diverse as „directive - telling‟ to „non-directive – listening to understand‟ as being
„Coaching‟. The fundamental assumptions behind these extremes are polar though, to „tell‟
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comes from a paradigm that „the teller knows best and has the answers‟; to „listen‟ however,
implies that „the listened to is the answer provider, the expert‟.
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Figure 1: The Spectrum of Coaching Skills - Adapted from Downey, 2003
Listening to
understand
Reflecting
Paraphrasing
Summarising
Solving issues Asking awareness Helping
for someone raising questions someone solve
Making own issues
suggestions
Giving feedback
Offering advice
Giving advice
Instructing
Telling
Directive Non-
directive
With this in mind, it is questionable whether all of these are actually „Coaching skills‟ in the
definition‟s sense. The range from telling - making suggestions, though they may be ways of
bringing about heightened performance and / or increased learning are arguably not means of
prompting self-development. Does an „instructor‟ facilitate the growth of an individual‟s self-
awareness, or does he impart knowledge to that individual? In Figure 2, Smith (2003)
develops this uni-dimensional model into a two dimensional arena following axes of
directive – facilitative, and challenging - supporting.
Figure 2 The Coaching Arena – Smith, 2003
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DIRECTIVE Role
Goal-setter Model Organisatio
Manager n sponsor
Challenger Guide
Collaborato Catalyst
CHALLENGI r SUPPORTIN
NG G
Information Listener
provider
Sounding
Bridge board
Careers Counsellor
advisor HR Advisor Mentor
FACILITATI
VE
It is the Coaches‟ skill in facilitating the Coachee to enhance their own performance, learning
and development that mark the Coach as expert, and sets them aside from other professional
roles such as Mentor, Management Consultant, etc. A Coach therefore need not be an expert
in the field in which they are Coaching.
3. Coaching in the Workplace
Typically - though not exclusively - Coaching in the workplace has fitted within two
categories:
 The Coaching of business executives and senior managers, often by external Coaches
 The equipping of line managers with the skills and knowledge to Coach their staff
It has long been acknowledged that the professional position of a senior manager is an
isolated one. For many in these positions, working with an Executive Coach may be the only
way to gain important feedback on personal performance, management, leadership style and
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the company culture (Smith, 2003). There are some circumstances 16 when only an individual
from outside the politics and dynamics of the organisation can provide the objective support
and uncompromising confidentiality senior managers may need.
However, for Coaching to maximise the realisation of potential of all employees, it naturally
cannot remain bedded solely within the higher management echelons (Coaching &
Mentoring Network, Jul 2003). Bill Lucas the Chief Executive of the Campaign for Learning
(CMI 2002) believes that there is a strong case for Coaching to be made available to all
employees. 93% of managers in a recent Chartered Management Institute (CMI) survey
(CMI 2002) expressed the view that Coaching should be made available to all employees
regardless of seniority. Hiring in Coaches external to the organisation may be an efficient
way of bringing this about, but for the majority of organisations this would not be viable
from a financial viewpoint. To date, the dominant way of providing in-house Coaching
capacity with maximum coverage has been to train line managers and hold them responsible
for the Coaching of their direct reports. Some of the issues related with these two approaches
are detailed in section six.
The two approaches are not an either / or , Sheena Mason of the HR consultancy Chiumento
(Personnel Today May 02) speaks of working with organisations in combining one to one
executive Coaching of top managers with an „up-skilling programme‟ for other managers
throughout the organisation to develop their ability as Coaches. Tescos have gone through a
similar process in developing „in-house Coaching skills‟ and now only rarely make use of
external Coaches for the company‟s most senior managers or those whose role is in
transition.
Abbey National is developing a still broader approach to integrating Coaching within the
workplace, by removing it from being purely a managerial responsibility, they are aiming to
develop a culture within which everyone is able to Coach their colleagues as and when
necessary. “We now say that as an individual you have three responsibilities: your own
performance, your own development and Coaching others”, says Neville Pritchard
(Personnel Today, Sep 01). The CMI survey (2002) comments that 16% of participants
reported Coaching themselves, though further detail on how this was conducted is not
16
These circumstances may include: potential customers threatening to move business elsewhere, acquisition of another business where
disclosure could affect share prices of both companies, corporate performance is less than expected and a profit warning is imminent, etc
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reported. Table 1 details some of the benefits and costs of using both internal and external
Coaches within the workplace.
Table 1: The Benefits of Using Internal or External Coaches

Benefits of using an Internal (Line Benefits of using External Coach
Manager) as Coach
 Internal Coaches are familiar with  Boundaries such as confidentiality are
company culture, strategy, vision, etc easier to establish and maintain
 Develops „in-house‟ expertise  Dedicated purely to Coaching and have
minimising the need to „buy-in‟ no other potentially conflicting agenda
external resources  Likely to be able to train staff within the
 Felt to be more cost-effective organisation to Coach – cascade effect
financially  Prestige and status of „bringing in an
 Likely to be accessible on a more expert practitioner‟
frequent and long-term basis  The Coach would be experienced with a
proven ability in Coaching
 The Coach may be better placed to come
with an objective approach, as an
outsider looking in
Difficulties of using an internal (Line Difficulties of using an External Coach

Manager as) Coach
 The organisation may be „too busy  Financial cost may be prohibitive and
internally to Coach internally‟ restrict scope, length, etc of programme
 Skill base may not exist within the  Accessibility and availability of external
organisation Coach may be more limited
 Internal Coaches may be devalued  Unless Coach equips others with
 Coaching is one of many management Coaching skills, it will remain necessary
responsibilities that may on occasion be to „buy-in‟ this resource in the future
conflicting
 Staff may see Coach as „management
spy‟
 Difficulty in establishing depth of
rapport and trust whilst ultimately being
responsible for hiring, firing, etc
 Coaching may be „squeezed‟ if
Manager is pressurised in other areas
 Coach may be placed in a position that
may threaten Coachee confidentiality
 Possible conflict of interest regarding
staff performance and individual
growth (eg learning through mistakes)
(Atkinson, 2001).
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Coaching has hugely diverse applications; it is not restricted to the acquisition of new skills,
or idea generation. Table 2 below details a number of the contexts within the workplace in
which Coaching can be applied.
Table 2: Contexts within which Workplace Coaching can be Applied

Context for Coaching Means of Applying
Building skills Set up opportunities for new skills to be learnt and practised
Progressing Projects Oversee progress and monitor any problems on projects
Solving Problems Help staff to identify problems and possible routes to a

solution
Staff Development Prepare staff for promotions establish career path
Overcoming Conflicts Defuse disagreements among team members
Motivating Staff Developing and maintaining enthusiasm and commitment

within the team
Brainstorming and idea generation Direct the creative input of the team to keep projects on track
Team building Facilitating the development of positive team
morale and effectiveness
Appraisals and assessments Encouraging input, comment and feedback from
staff
Planning and reviewing Developing time, space and freedom to effectively
assess past success, future plans in context of
current situation
Addressing issues of poor Creating a mutually respectful results based
performance environment
Adapted from: Ali et al, 2001; Whitmore 2003 and author‟s own work
4. Trigger Factors Responsible for Bringing Coaching into Prominence in the

Workplace
Historically, managers have had responsibility to divide work into discrete tasks, assign the
work to teams and individual workers, and closely monitoring the performance of the
workers, steering them towards accomplishment of the task on time and within budget
(Nelson & Economy, 1996). This „control and command‟ style of management relied heavily
upon the „manager knowing best‟, asserting his / her power and authority, and the worker
being very much in the position of subordinate.
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In the past decade the following factors in the global market place have bought about
revolutionary change in the working environment:
 A surge of global competition
 New technology and innovation
 The flattening of organisational hierarchies
 Widespread downsizing, reengineering and layoffs
 The rise of small business
 The changing values of today‟s workers
 The increasing demands for ever-better customer service (Nelson & Economy, 1996)
Most Fortune 500 and 100 companies have had to significantly restructure, thousands of
employees have been laid off in recent years as managers are forced to meet increased
productivity demands with fewer resources and shorter planning cycles (Minor, 1995).
This restructuring has in many cases „flattened‟ organisations, reducing and in some cases
eliminating the ranks of middle managers. Inevitably, the versatility and breadth of scope
demanded of remaining managers has increased dramatically (Personnel for Today, Apr ‟01).
Significant management responsibility now lies on the shoulders of those who have not had
the luxury of developing their operational experience within the areas in which they now
manage staff (Atkinson, 2001). Career paths have developed away from predictable linear
progression, to a more complex and diverse creative choice of options.
Coupled with this, socio-cultural expectations on managers demand that they move away
from traditional styles of control and command to a more facilitative or Coaching focussed
approach. Managers no longer are experts in all areas of the work they are responsible for
managing. They no longer hold tight reins and command an employee‟s work, instead they
have to create an environment which fosters the employees‟ desire to produce their best work
– this new reality is one of management partnership rather than dictatorship.
It is not only the domain of „management‟ within the workplace that is shifting; „learning‟
too has radically changed. Classroom lessons are now experienced online. Instruction that
once took a day has been condensed into learning within an hour. In order to meet the
demands of the modern workplace, the previously distinct worlds of managers and training
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departments have merged into a single results-based domain of continuous learning and
improvement with shared responsibility for success (CMI 2002).
Weaknesses in conventional instructive training workshops and courses have been identified,
such as lack of tailoring to meet individuals‟ unique needs, the financial cost of buying in
„expert trainers‟, etc. Table 3, illustrates the recall of participants in a study carried out by
IBM and unequivocally demonstrates that traditional „tell‟ based training is far inferior to
more interactive and experientially based learning opportunities.
Table 3: Learning Recall Following Varied Training Techniques (Whitmore, 2003)

Told Told and shown Told, shown and
experienced
Recall after three weeks 70% 72% 85%
Recall after three 10% 32% 65%
months
Coaching has become recognised as an effective learning activity and process conducive to
the development of a working culture of continuous improvement, and as a management tool
effective in eliciting the attitude, behaviour and output demanded from employees in today‟s
workplace.
5. Why use Coaching?
The characteristics of a high performance work environment include quality leadership

reflected in vision, shared purpose and values, strong teamwork, a work unit climate that
fosters autonomy and freedom, positive interpersonal relationships with appropriate feedback
and problem solving, and management attention and focus on requisite resources and unit
structure (Mink et al, 1993). Quinn et al (1996) believe that Coaching can be used as an
opportunity to create, contribute to, or reinforce one or more of these dimensions. Anecdotal
benefits of Coaching are well documented, Minor (1995) states that the profits of Coaching
impact the workplace at three levels:
What‟s in it for business organisations?

 Enhances worker productivity and performance
 Increases retention of employees
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 Ensures good labour pool because of superior reputation
 Boosts motivation and commitment to corporate values and vision
 Enables employees to respond quickly and more favourably to change
What‟s in it for employees?

 Helps employees grow
 Keeps their skills current
 Increases involvement in decision making and managing
 Gives employees greater visibility and exposure to information
What‟s in it for team leaders / managers?

 Supports shared leadership responsibilities
 Gives satisfaction of watching employees grow
 Enhances reputation for developing people
 Provides more opportunities for delegation
 Frees time to pursue visioning, team building and recognising employees
Standardised research into the effectiveness of Coaching in the workplace is limited;

however, the majority of studies conducted yield evidence that there is now a strong case for
Coaching to be more readily available in the workplace (CMI 2002). A study by the CMI
conducted in 2002 revealed the following results from the 280 institute members that
responded, 80% disagreed that „Coaching is just another fad‟, and that „Coaching is too time-
consuming, suggesting widespread acceptance of the principles behind Coaching. Coaching
was also recognised as significantly enhancing the responsibility of the learner within the
workplace and helping to retain staff.
Other authors comment on benefits such as development of people for the next level;
confidence raising, goal achievement, relationship improvements and retention (Coaching
Articles, Nov „03); helping to diagnose performance problems and correct unsatisfactory or
unacceptable performance and providing opportunities for conveying appreciation (Cook
1999).
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These „soft gains‟ are undoubtedly beneficial, but in the workplace is this evidence enough
that Coaching is of value? Paul Kearns (Director of PWL) states that „Coaching is about
improving job performance and as long as you have some indication that that‟s happening,
you shouldn‟t need to worry about the financial aspects' (Personnel Today, Jun ‟03).
Coaching though as aforementioned is essentially about getting results (Downey, 2002), and
however desirable the plethora of benefits listed above are, they are largely intangible and
immeasurable. The bottom line in the competitive workplace is whether the Return of
Investment (ROI) from Coaching is demonstrable on the account sheets.
A difficultly is that companies don‟t know how to assess the effectiveness of Coaching
(Coaching Articles, Nov „03). Rosinki (Personnel today Jun ‟03) encourages development of
a global scorecard, including indicators such as financial measurements of growth,
profitability and share price to help demonstrate gains attributable to workplace Coaching.
Results such as those published by Safeway included in the introduction need to be
interpreted with caution, as a direct causal link between Coaching and the outcomes can not
yet be proven and therefore inferred.
A study by MetrixGlobal has provided powerful insights into both the „softer‟ nature of the
value Coaching added to their business and also the ROI. The study population of 43 staff on
a leadership development programme completed an initial questionnaire assessing what they
had learned, how they applied their learning, and captured their initial assessment of business
impact; the second part was a telephone based interview probing each respondent more
deeply into aspects of the financial ROI (Anderson & MetrixGlobal, 2001).
Results from the initial questionnaire revealed that 77% of respondents reported that
Coaching had had significant impact on at least one of the nine business measures assessed.
The most significantly impacted of these measures were productivity and employee
satisfaction with 60% and 53% citing favourable enhancement. Customer satisfaction, work
output and work quality were also reported as having been positively impacted by more than
30%.
Supporting these more subjective findings was the quantitative figure that Coaching had
produced a staggering 788% ROI! (if employee retention is excluded from this, the ROI
diminishes to 529%). MetrixGlobal state that these financial benefits were demonstrated
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most starkly in areas where Coachees had customer or people responsibilities, although the
benefits to the business were witnessed company wide.
Coaching Article (Nov „03) reports that an instrument manufacturer experiencing quality
problems invested in providing their staff with training and Coaching and achieved the
following results:
 Quality of output improved to 99%
 On-time delivery to 95%
 Lead times reduced by 50%
Impressive figures, however the credibility of a report of this nature is diminished through
the exclusion of further information on the nature of the programme implemented, initial
baseline measures, longitudinal follow up, etc. The case for workplace Coaching will only be
enhanced by more systematic, standardised approaches to research that will form the basis
for evidence based practice.
6. Issues, Barriers and Potential Pitfalls to Effective Workplace Coaching
Research of subject literature has revealed a number of issues and barriers that have been
identified as potentially limiting the effectiveness of Coaching in the workplace.
General:
Many workplaces are attempting to foster benefits from the „cascade effect‟, offering Coaching to workers at
CEO and Managing Director level in anticipation that they in turn will act as Coaches to their direct reports.
“These guys are paying „big bucks‟ for it too! The plan is then for these very same CEOs and
Managing Directors to cascade this Coaching down the organisational hierarchy. The CEO will Coach
the Senior Manager who will then Coach the Middle Manager and so on. But it appears to be coming
to a grinding halt after the CEO! Why?” (Mackintosh, Coaching and Mentoring Network, Oct „03)
A senior manager explained that:
“I am totally bought into the concept of Coaching….. I have however a mentor in my
CEO‟. „How well does he Coach you?‟ I asked. There was silence for a while. „I get
great advice and I respect his experience”.
In this example the CEO pays out „big bucks‟ for an external Coach, and then acts as a
mentor to his reports! Perhaps this is due to insufficient confidence or competence on behalf
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of the CEO‟s, but it also serves to highlight that for Coaching to become a respected,
plausible, integral part of workplace good practice, an element of authentically practicing
what is preached needs to be cultivated, even at CEO level – „change starts at the top‟
(Miller, 2002).
Coachee‟s perception of Coaching:

Coaching is perceived by some as a form of „remedial therapy‟ (Smith, 2003) this invariably
diminishes potential Coachees desire to engage in programmes, as they believe them to be
instigated as a „catch up mechanism‟ to bring poor performance up to speed. Conversely, in
other working cultures Coaching is used as a perk, for rewarding and encouraging the
achievement and effort of „high-flyers‟.
Similarly, there is a perception amongst some executives that Coaching is something that is
done by and too others at lower levels of the organisation, and is neither necessary nor
appropriate for themselves or their own direct reports, who „should know how to accomplish
their objectives‟ (Miller 2002). On the contrary there is a belief amongst some employees
„lower down‟ in an organisation that Coaching is a phenomenon bought in only for the „big
cheeses‟ and would and should not be made available to them, or be beneficial to them.
With these co-existing dichotomous perceptions existing of the place of Coaching within the
workplace, ground needs to be covered by both Coaches and programme sponsors within
organisations to portray the true merit of Coaching as a results-based and results-achieving
phenomenon that all employees could benefit from (CMI 2002).
Over the years we have become pawns within a business model portraying that there is an
expert who knows best, and we need the expert to tell us what to do and how to do it. As a
result we have become lazy in developing our own answers, solutions and ideas. Coaching
may be seen as being inferior to „hard training‟ for example, where a specialist is bought in to
impart his / her knowledge to workers, who will soak up their wisdom and experience.
Though training (and management) of this sort still have a role within the modern workplace,
demands, structures and resources dictate that they cannot be the sole mechanism for
bringing about performance, learning and development enhancement. A mentality shift needs
to occur that the „specialist‟ – in this case the Coach / Coach-Manager – does not need to
possess the answers. This change in thought and attitude is paramount to a paradigm reversal,
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and therefore will take time to permeate the workplace fully. For a Manager in particular
with responsibility for leading his / her team, this may pose as something of an ego threat, if
their esteem and perception of competence is tied to the more traditional „Manager knows
best‟ mentality. If this is the case, it may prove difficult for them to accept that their ultimate
goal as a manager in the modern workplace is to bring the best out of their reports (Personnel
Today, Sep „01).
The self-led discovery that is at the core of Coaching will be severely compromised if
Coachees are not committed to the process. There is an element of taking the horse to the
water, but not being able to force them to drink. Not only the satisfaction within a Coaching
relationship will be compromised, but so too will the progress and ultimately the results
achieved.
Coaching even if focussed on workplace subject matter may on occasion be an emotional

process. Individuals ill at ease with experiencing and airing uncomfortable emotions may
choose to either limit the emotional depth that they are prepared to be Coached at, or entirely
avoid Coaching through fear of exposure to an emotionally charged experience. For
Coachees and managers alike it may simply be an easier or more convenient choice to avoid
Coaching than embrace it (Miller 2002).
If the Coachee does not trust their Coach whether they are appointed internally or externally
the relationship will be under-productive. Coaching often involves acknowledging the
Coachees fundamental beliefs and values, if the Coachee feels they may be compromised as
a result of doing this, they are likely to withdraw from the relationship. Coaching may be
perceived by some as a „management spy tool‟, and the Coach will need to work hard at
establishing and maintaining the trust and respect of the client.
„Coaching is just a nice thing to do‟ - Coaching is thought by some to be an ancillary, the jam
on the bread and butter of other management and learning methods, as part of the fluffy side
of human development but not directly related to the team‟s success and output. Used
correctly and appropriately though, it is a real problem-solving strategy that resolves business
issues, as described in section five. Business results, not development per se are the goal of
workplace Coaching (Miller 2002).
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A hesitation in some areas may be a fear that Coaching may be so inspiring that it acts as a
catalyst for high-flying employees to move on and leave the organisation (Personnel Today,
Apr ‟01). Founder of Intuition in Business, Claire Montanaro, says that this rarely is the case
and argues that „there must have been some underlying source of dissatisfaction. If it can‟t be
alleviated, it is probably better they leave‟.
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Specific to line manager acting as Coach:
There is an assumption that every manager should be and can be, a good Coach. The reality
stares us in the face – despite all the Coaching skills courses it is often the case that a
minority of staff will say they receive good Coaching from their line manager (Miller, 2002).
One fear of Coaching that Managers hold is that it „just takes too long – it is faster to tell‟. With a short term
perspective this mentality has some credence. Many Managers tend to find it difficult though to consider the
consequences of unoriginal thought, decreased employee motivation, and rework due to unclear expectations,
that an abdicating or dictating management style can cause (Miller 2002). Managers often fail to see the long
term time savings, that „rework‟ and lower than expected performances takes much more time than taking a
Coaching approach and „doing it right first time‟, resorting back to „telling‟ when feeling pressurised to achieve
results.
This potential „switchback‟ to a different style can cause further complications in that the „ground rules‟ of
various roles or styles within management are at times opposing. Coaching for example involves a depth of trust
that allows the Coachee to expose vulnerability in exploring particular issues, beliefs, values, etc and attitudes
may come to light that would normally remain hidden within the traditional bounds of a management
relationship, eg career aspirations, perceptions of colleagues, etc. This level of self-exposure and need for
confidentiality could be severely threatened and potentially damaging if the manager were switching between a
„Coaching‟ role and a „hiring and firing‟ role. Depending on the manner in which the Coach and Coachee are
able to handle issues of that nature will determine the effectiveness and success of the Coaching relationship.
Similarly, it is possible that the agendas of managers acting as Coaches may clash at times. It is acknowledged
that Coaching individuals means - at times - allowing them to learn through their mistakes. A manager who
ultimately holds responsibility for the success of a project or task may not always have the liberty to allow this.
This possible conflict of interest may compromise the performance, learning and development of the Coachee
or that of the team or organisation.
With internal Coach but not line manager:

An internal Coach with non-line management authority or seniority may lack the Coachees respect. Individuals
may find it difficult to be Coached by a subordinate or individual with a position „lower down‟ in the
organisation, doubting the potential value of their service – regardless of their actual ability as a Coach.
Individuals may also find it difficult to be Coached by a colleague who they view as - for example - a potential
rival in a career development situation. When equipping in-house personnel with Coaching skills it may be
prudent to follow Tesco‟s example (Personnel Today, Sep‟01) example, and train a batch of individuals
representative of a cross-section of the breadth and depth of the organisation.
Information may be shared by the Coachee during the course of Coaching that may put the Coach in a
compromised position if others eg the Coachee‟s line manager applies pressure to extract this information. It is
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essential to be clear and absolute in terms of expectations, reporting lines, issues of confidentiality, etc prior to
commencing a Coaching relationship. If these are not established the ethics of the Coach and the Coachees
confidence in them may be violated.
With external Coach:

The financial cost of external Coaches may be prohibitive to some workplaces. As previously stated senior
executives can pay up to £2,000 for one session (Personnel today, Sep ‟01). The company Ebedo offers virtual
team Coaching at a cost of £400 monthly per participant; Inspirations works on an hourly rate of £65 for
telephone Coaching individuals. An organisation offering Coaching to just ten employees working with Ebedo
would be spending a budget of £48,000 annually on this service. Even though results on ROI such as those
published by the GlobalMatrix study are compelling, many organisations will not choose or be able to afford
Coaching from external sources.
An external Coach inevitably will not be fully aware of the nuances of the workplace culture alongside which
they are hired to work. Though at times, this distance may provide an objective clarity; it may also restrict their
comprehension of the specific expectations, goals and vision of individuals they are working with (Atkinson,
2001).
7. Criteria to Consider in the Development of Successful Corporate Coaching

Programmes.
In spite of the issues and dangers shown in Section six, the majority of findings from reports
on the value of Coaching in the workplace are positive. With that in mind, this section details
a variety of recommendations to avoid these snares and produce successful, valued results-
based Coaching in the workplace.
All Coaching programmes should start with a needs assessment, it is essential that
organisations are clear on whether it is Coaching they seek, or mentoring, management
consultants etc. Coaching can be most effective when customised at a corporate,
departmental, team and individual level. It is not a one size fits all approach. Each Coaching
relationship should follow its own path within a framework of previously agreed terms such
as expectations, reporting systems, evaluation and monitoring techniques. Even though there
is a call for standardising programmes with a view to establishing best practice (Anderson &
MetrixGlobal, 2001), this should not detract from the fact that Coaching is essentially a
process unique to the Coachee that drives it.
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Ensuring understanding is secured between key stake-holders (Coach, Coachee, in-
organisation sponsor) through means such as clarifying key terminology, ground rules,
expectations etc will minimise confusion and discord between parties. Assumptions of
knowledge should not be made, as mentioned in section one; discrepancies in interpretation
of phraseology and accompanying „jargon‟ abound within the field. Any formalised
relationship of this sort should be clearly documented in terms of all parties responsibilities,
which will also serve to heighten accountability and provide basis for evaluation.
The inclusion of Coaching within a corporate environment should not be merely seen as a
„bolt-on extra‟, but to maximise effectiveness should be developed as an integral part of
organisational strategy, values, goals, etc. Treating Coaching as an isolated training option or
as an extra tool within a manager‟s repertoire belittles the impact its application may have in
permeating the day to day thinking and subsequent actions and results of employees. A
rationale behind Coaching strategy should be worked on, including the raison d‟etre for its
inclusion, parameters, availability to staff, etc.
Coaching can in some circumstances be used short term eg at times of significant change (Ali
et al, 2001). However, to become a part of company culture and reap most positive results,
Coaching needs to be acknowledged as a long term process. It is as much about developing a
way of working and being as finding short term solutions in times of crisis.
HR and Management staff need to be creative and pragmatic in finding solutions that are
effective to the specific situations they face. Consideration needs to be given to the concept
that Coaching skills need not necessarily follow hierarchical management structure; it is
possible that exceptionally junior employees may have the necessary skills to Coach their
colleagues effectively. There may be value in pursuing innovative new possibilities such as
buddy-Coaching, or exploring the merits of self-Coaching. To facilitate heightened
commitment amongst Coachees, and recognition of the place that Coaching can hold, it
should be incorporated into other learning, development and results achieving mechanisms
(Anderson & MetrixGlobal, 2001 and CMI 2002), rather than stand alone, eg team and
individual objectives, personal development plans, etc.
Organisations should be encouraged to seek out employees who have potential to develop as
Coaches, not assuming that it should purely be a line-manager led activity only. An able
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manager isn‟t by default an able Coach, and it is not necessarily the Coachee‟s manager who
should act as Coach. As Mayo (2001) writes:
“It may well be a colleague, a former job holder, or even a subordinate. To make a
rather mundane analogy, we have in place around the organisation trained first-aiders;
these first aiders are people who want to take on this responsibility, who care and
have the personal skills needed. So why not have people designated and recognised
who are skilled in Coaching specific areas and make them available?”
Training employees as Coaches should not be limited to a one off hit, but should include
opportunities in the continuous development of Coaching skills, occasion to apply skills and
provision of support sessions to develop Coaches‟ ability.
If a line manager is Coaching a member of his / her team, they must ensure that the
parameters of this relationship are clear and understood by all involved parties. Managers
need to be explicit in clarifying the domain and associated ground rules within which they
are speaking with employees, eg are they instructing, suggesting, Coaching, etc. It may be of
use to grade / classify issues acknowledging that Coaching isn‟t the right tool for occasions.
Choose the moment, Coaching isn‟t appropriate in all circumstances sometimes telling,
mentoring, etc, are more appropriate ways to operate. The relative value of learning,
development and results need to be considered and questions such as: Does Coaching best fit
the need of the team / the task / the individual at this moment? For example at times of
immediate time pressure, and / or high pressure regarding the quality of the outcome and
stake of the risk involved, this may be an inopportune moment to introduce Coaching. This
introduction may be more appropriate when the stress of time, risk, quality etc are somewhat
released.
To enhance the likelihood of success, Coachees should be encouraged to make and take time
to prepare for Coaching sessions, and review their progress in relation to agreed action plans
at regular times throughout the week. The perception that Coaching happens for just the one
hour a week - when the Coachee is talking to the Coach - needs to be dispelled. Coaching is
not a quick fix solution, but a way of working, thinking, and being that needs to be
habitualised into the workplace on a daily basis.
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External Coaches may be of particular value when a fresh pair of eyes is required to facilitate
Coachees through issues in which they may have become bogged down in, perhaps when
traditional internal support mechanisms have become exhausted, and an extra impetus is
needed. Hiring external sources in this way will also be effective in minimising the
likelihood of Coachee confidentiality being compromised through either deliberate or
accidental breaches.
The desired cascade effect of CEOs Coaching senior managers, Coaching junior managers,
Coaching staff is only likely to be realised if there is a committed buy-in to Coaching from
both an internal sponsor of the Coaching process, eg senior HR team leader and staunch
authentic support from senior management, practising what is preached will have a far more
significant effect on the workforce than an attitude of „do as I say not as I do‟ (Coaching
Articles, Nov „03). The role-modelling of senior staff is essential in bringing about deep
rooted change within a workplace context.
Coaching only those who are committed to the process, relationship, its purpose and its
potential, is likely to yield the greatest productivity in terms of results. Taster sessions,
demonstrations and preparatory workshops are likely to be beneficial methods of positively
introducing the subject. Further to this, preparing literature including previous Coachees‟
testimonies may be valuable in establishing the credibility of Coaching to a workforce
previously unfamiliar with it. Selecting interested individuals to use within a pilot study may
spur interest and increase potential Coachees desire to be included within the initial wave of
individuals. The pilot study will also allow an applied forum for Coach, sponsors and
Coachees to establish a framework that suits the programme needs, prior to a larger-scale,
greater cost, risk, etc – launch. Coaching should not be forced upon anyone; the relationship
will not be successful if this occurs.
Offering the Coachee an element of choice in selecting their own Coach, may be beneficial in
acknowledging that the relationship of Coach – Coachee is more than a mechanical pairing,
and involves an element of „chemistry‟ and rapport (Personnel Today, Apr „01). However,
it‟s important to recognise and be prepared for the potential consequences of this eg, all
Coachees selecting just one or two Coaches within a batch, etc.
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Coachees and in-organisation sponsors should be clear on the specific role it is that they want
the Coach to play, and in line with this, what competencies, qualifications, level of
experience, etc it is that they are seeking in and from a Coach. Organisations should be
familiar with training organisations, umbrella institutions, etc to avoid the likelihood of a
mismatch and dissatisfaction with the service provided.
Standardised means of assessing effectiveness both the more qualitative, subjective issues
(team morale, employee satisfaction, etc) and more quantitatively assessed aspects such as
ROI should be established. Performance measurement should be built into the Coaching
process and consist not only of baseline and „post-intervention‟ evaluation, but also involve
an element of monitoring proceedings during the programme. Longitudinal studies would
yield information on the longer term, ongoing impact of Coaching programmes on Coachees
their teams and organisations.
If the requirement to Coach were built into the measurable targets of all managers, (with
appropriate support provision) that would shift Coaching into the position of a non-
negotiable work practice. Honey (2001) states that if managers were assessed on their
Coaching prowess and if their remuneration depended in part upon it, Coaching quality and
provision in the workplace would no doubt improve swiftly – he concedes that this is a
“distasteful means to a laudable end……based on the cynical assumption that people
do what you measure, not what you treasure”.
The workplace is a competitive environment, organisational and corporate purse strings need
to be convinced before they are relaxed to take on board new practices within the workplace.
As such, the Coaching profession –as service provider - needs to be proactive in assimilating
and providing proof of the effectiveness of Coaching that it‟s clients need. It may therefore
fall to Umbrella institutions such as European Coaching Institute and the International
Coaching Federation to coordinate research and applied studies that will form a strong basis
of evidence based Coaching practice, adding curability to the profession.
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8. Summary
The modern workplace is a competitive, productive environment in which a broad diversity

of skills, knowledge and actions are demanded of employees. Traditional methods of
management and learning are now no longer so able to meet these demands and this has
created an opening for the discipline of Coaching to enter the workplace. Initial exploration
of the benefits of Coaching has been encouraging, and paybacks such as increased employee
motivation, satisfaction, heightened team morale etc, are well documented. As Coaching
fundamentally is a results-focussed area, it is the bottom-line, tangible results eg Return of
Investment, decreased turnover, etc , that are now needed to demonstrate that Coaching is not
just a „nice thing to do‟, but an effective means of enhancing quality and quantity of output
within the workplace. To date limited research of this nature exists, and this report calls for
Coaching practitioners to be more proactive in assimilating quality work of this sort to form
the basis of evidence based practice that potential clients can have confidence in. Many of the
obstacles that have limited the effectiveness of Coaching programmes have been identified
and means of minimising and countering these issues have been proposed.
Coaching is an effective and flexible means of meeting many of the managerial,

developmental and learning needs within the workplace, and over the next few years if built
on the foundation of applied research could become a significantly powerful force within the
workplace.
7,383 words.
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9. Bibliography
Ali, M., Brookson, S., Bruce, A., Eatin, J., Heller, R., Johnson, R., Langdon, K. & Sleight, S. Managing for
Excellence. London, Dorling Kindersley Ltd. 2001.
Anderson, M. & MetrixGlobal. Executive Briefing: Case Study on the Return of Investment of Executive
Coaching. MetrixGlobal LLC. 2001
Atkinson, P. Top Team Coaching and Beyond: A safe Approach. Training Journal. Dec 2001.
Chartered Management Institute. The Coaching at Work Survey. CMI, Campaign for Learning, Lloyds Bank.
2002.
Cook, M. Effective Coaching. New York, McGraw Hill. 1999.
Downey, M. Is Coaching Being Abused? Training Magazine. May 2002
Downey, M. Effective Coaching. New York, TEXERE. 2003.
Honey, P. I‟m on the Side of Coachees. Training Journal. Dec 2001.
Mackintosh, A. The Coaching Cascade – Myth or Reality? The Coaching and Mentoring
Network. Oct 2003.
Mayo, A. In Praise of Coachees. Training Journal. Dec 2001.

Miller. J. Coaching to Solve Business Problems. In-Power. 2002.
Mink, O., Owen, K. & Mink, B. Developing High Performance People. Reading, Mass, Addison-Wesley. 1993
Minor, M. Coaching for Development. USA, Crisp Publications Inc. 1995.
Nelson, B. & Economy, P. Managing for Dummies. California, IDG Books Worldwide. 1996.
Quinn, R., Faerman, S., Thompson, M. & McGrath, M. Becoming a Master Manager. USA, John Wiley &
Sons. 1996
Smith, I. Towards Best Practice. Training Magazine. Jan 2003.
Whitmore, J. Coaching For Performance. London, Nicholas Brealey. 2003.
Author unnamed:
Coaching For Success, Personnel Today, CIPD website. Apr‟01.
Making a Motivator. Personnel Today, CIPD website. Sep ‟01.
Is Coaching Being Abused? Personnel Today, CIPD website. May ‟02.
Safeway Sends 900 on Coaching Programme. Personnel Today, CIPD website. Aug 2002.
Coaching is Proving its Worth. Personnel Today, CIPD website. Jun ‟03.
Coaching Media Section. Coaching Articles & Information, website. Nov „03
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INTRODUCTION
In this report I will seek to argue that, although traditionally coaching has generally
been perceived by the public as an action based plan, working from the present to
move clients into the future and thus is distinct from treatments such as counselling,
therapy and psychotherapy, the situation is changing. There is a general
acknowledgement that the methods used by the more traditional 'talking therapies'
are not curbing the rise in unhappiness and depression in our society and as a result
there is a strong move to change modern psychological thinking and methods of
treatment. Many aspects of the new psychology now emerging appear to be very
similar to those of coaching and it's sister discipline, Neuro Linguistic Programming.
Both seek to empower the individual to be more proactive in his own mental health
before a crisis occurs and to focus on the positive rather than the negative. However
more notice will always be taken of a piece of academic research done by an
individual with a Ph.D. after his name than of a book written by someone who merely
has hundreds of hours of personal experience. The work of the latter will inevitably
be put into the 'self help' section of the bookshop!
Although I agree with Curly Martin who says that Coaching is only about results and
is distinct from therapy, I believe that the results she mentions could make the
difference between a person having the tools to move forward and change his
mental state or remaining static and without hope.
It seems to me that links between these different disciplines could and should be
established in order to give more weight to the power of Life Coaching and its
effectiveness
Modern Psychology has been co-opted by the disease model. We've become too
preoccupied with repairing damage when our focus should be on building
(psychological) strength and resilience.
Dr Martin Seligman, 1998, APA Website
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A QUEST FOR CHANGE
As fledgling coaches we have been launched with a model to work with as well as
some hours of practical experience of that model. We have behind us many hours of
lectures given by Master Coaches as well as those with expertise in many other
areas. It is easy for us to assume that coaching exists in a vacuum, unrelated to the
talking therapies other than perhaps NLP. This is in fact not the case.
In the 1950's the psychologist Abraham Maslow studied healthy, mature and
successful people and concluded that by overcoming inner blocks to our
development and maturity we could all be this way. He was the father of the wave of
humanistic psychology, a more positive form that displaced behaviourism as the
favoured model of humans. Its goal was the fulfillment of human potential through
self-awareness with value being placed on human emotions.
Since 1998 there have been mutterings from the American Psychological
Association about the need to change the direction of its current treatment methods
and as a result attitudes in the academic realm appear to be changing. Research on
various of their websites reveals that Psychologists are actively trying to produce a
new model that will enable practitioners to DO something practical towards getting
their patients to focus on the positive.
This quote is taken from an interactive website called Positivity Central:
How far can we go with positive approaches? Can we heal anger, depression,
anxiety, fear etc by teaching positive behaviours, responses, actions, strategies? Or
can we boost the strength of interventions based on treating pathology by adding
positive approaches? We know so little about how far positive efforts alone can go.
This is worth exploring.
The site contains articles and tests written by Ph.D's and includes such
questionnaires as:
 Subjective Happiness Scale
 Personal Growth Initiative Scale
 Inspiration Scale
 Gratitude Questionnaire
 Satisfaction with Life Scale
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Although they appear to be far behind what coaches KNOW works, the basis for the
research is to affect wide ranging change in clinical treatments and produce
scientifically proven data.
The heavyweight research projects now being encouraged can only serve to support
the message that disciplines such as Coaching, that seek to reinforce the positive,
are highly effective not just in achieving relatively short term goals, but in changing
society as a whole.
THE WORLD TODAY

Our post war Society has changed out of all recognition and yet many of us and
some of our institutions are still holding onto the same beliefs and ways of doing
things that were applicable almost 60 years ago.
"It worked for my father"
"The doctor must be right"
"I've always done it like this"
"I can't do that"
How familiar are phrases like these and how easy it is for us all to stay in our comfort
zones and live life as our parents did, not questioning and accepting that although
life is pretty grim, it's our lot and we'd better get on with it. We'll just keep on buying a
lottery ticket because, hey, if we won it then suddenly life would be fantastic and
we'd be HAPPY!
Or would we?
60 years ago happiness was not something that people analysed in great depth or
about which they wrote a multitude of books and newspaper articles. This is possibly
because the focus in those days was not on one's own personal fulfillment but that of
one's family, and on a larger scale was on duty to the community and ultimately to
one's country. There was also far less affluence. Cars, televisions, houses and
holidays were a luxury. So why was there far less widespread unhappiness? What is
causing the pandemic of depression that is sweeping the Western World and
causing the NHS to buckle under the strain?
It could be that our world has changed around us and until now we've been floating
along reaping the physical rewards of better health, more consumer choice, more of
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the good things in life, more travel, more job opportunities, more choice, more of
everything.
We are like kids in a sweet shop, trying everything, taking as much as we can. Not
only that, but we compare ourselves to the man next door who seems to have more
than we do and find ourselves lacking. We then push our children and ourselves in
an effort to achieve yet more.
Thus we have arrived where we are, wondering what happened to happiness along
the way. Where on earth did we lose it? Well, if we do win the lottery it will be the
first thing on our shopping list.
Nick Williams writes in his book 1The Work We Were Born To Do :
Often people try to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things or more
money in order to do more of what they want so they will be happier. The way it
actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you
really need to do, in order to have what you want.
Viktor Frankl, author of the book2 Man's Search for Meaning writes of success and
happiness: Don't aim for success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the
more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness cannot be pursued; it
must ensue and it only does so as the unintended side effect of ones dedication to a
cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other
than oneself.
Anthony Robbins in his book 3Awaken the Giant Within writes that it is up to each of
us to change our attitudes to events in order to experience enjoyment.
As long as we structure our lives in a way where happiness is dependent upon
something we cannot control, then we experience pain
All of these are wise words, but without a structure and process in which to use their
teachings, they are powerless to help us.
4
The statistics are alarming: the rate of depression in the UK is the highest we have
ever seen. We are twice as rich as we were 40 years ago but ten times more likely
to be depressed. At some time in our lives 15 to 20 percent of us will fall prey to a
severe depression and about half will suffer a milder form. The average age of a
1
The Work We Were Born to Do Nick Williams, 1999
2
Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, 1959
3
Awaken the Gian Within, Anthony Robbins, 1998
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person suffering his or her first depression was once 30 years old; today the average
onset age is only 15. Women report twice the rate of depression as men (and twice
as much happiness). In the past 40 years divorce rates have doubled, juvenile crime
has quadrupled and suicide among teenagers has tripled.
It appears that as a society we have lost our way. This 'depression' may well be a
manifestation of a feeling of powerlessness and the resultant loss of hope of a better
future.
Coaching is a method for focusing people on the positive and empowering them to
create their own futures so couldn't it be used as a method for preventing the start of
depression?
4
Elle Magazine article Happy Days are Here Again, 1998; Dr Martin Seligman
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THE SEARCH FOR A NEW WAY
If you listened to a lecture in 2002 by Dr Walter Seligman, who was head of the
American Psychological Association from 1998 and is the founder of the new
movement of Positive Psychology, the current methods of treatment are not
sufficient to deal with a growing problem. 5"It won't be widespread psychotherapy
sessions that alter the epidemic of depression affecting young people, rather it will
require psychologists to teach people how to take advantage of a simple skill they all
have but tend to use incorrectly - 'disputing' or the act of monitoring and then arguing
against the catastrophic things that you say to yourself." He cites the moral problems
of drugging an entire generation of teen-agers (on Prozac) so that they find
happiness and productivity dependent on medication. And Therapy? "There aren't
enough of us to go round. What we can do as psychologists is give away these
skills, teach these skills so that on a widespread basis we can prevent and make an
inroad to this epidemic."
At this point any NLP practitioners and coaches listening must have pricked up their
ears and said 'But we've been telling you this for years!'
6
In Coaching for Performance John Whitmore writes with regard to coaching those in
crisis: In-depth coaching is an invaluable resource for helping people to clear away
their defensive shields and self imposed blockages, so that they can more readily
experience their inner guidance, hearing and obeying the 'still small voice within'
early enough to overt a crisis. Coaching can certainly contribute to that.
So why has no one in the establishment been listening? Apparently Americans in
1998 bought 28 million "Inspirational books" ranging from Susan Jeffers to Anthony
Robbins. Over the past 30 years 54,040 academic articles were written about
depression only 415 were written on joy!
Part of the problem is plain old academic snobbery. Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky,
who studies happiness at the University of California, Riverside, says with regard to
self help books "We (psychologists) just sort of ignore the whole (self help) section of
5
The art of arguing with yourself. Patrick A McGuire, APA Website
6
Coaching for Performance, Sir John Whitmore, 1992
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the bookstore. We see it as so different from what we do. We do science and these
people are just spouting off their ideas"
The other is that social science has believed that negative states like anxiety and
depression are 'authentic' and human strengths like joy and optimism are 'copying
mechanisms'. Seligman now disputes this, saying human beings are born with a raft
of positive attributes that need only to be brought out.
But wouldn't such a refocusing leave the real problems of mental illness unattended
to? He thinks it will have the opposite result. One of the most exciting side effects of
nurturing human fortitudes, he says, could be that some mental illness might be
prevented by building psychological 'muscles' before the problems occur. It is a
notion he propounds as "immunisation",
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What Options for Change?
On a lighter note, I counted no fewer than 3 radio programmes on the 7BBC this
week alone. The subjects that were covered included a radio phone in on Radio 2
about Happiness, with the Rabbi Julia Neuberger. It mentioned Laughter Therapy, a
treatment encouraging clients to focus on the positive. There was a programme on
Radio 4 about The Luck School in Hertfordshire that trains people and companies to
change their attitudes and beliefs and thus 'change' their bad luck into good and
finally there was In Business on Radio 4 with the
heavyweight guru of business studies, Sir Robin Day who was experiencing Life
Coaching. To my mind, although the titles are different, the methods and messages
are the same. We can take control and by changing our focus from negative to
positive can change the results, both in our personal lives and in our businesses.
So what are a few of the alternatives on offer if we are feeling lost and needing
support and direction in our lives?
Psychotherapy
The prescribed establishment methods for dealing with mental ill health, depression
and unhappiness are psychotherapy and counselling.
Psychotherapy involves regular face to face sessions with a trained therapist who
will seek to foster insight into the client through listening to that person talking about
him or herself, their relationships and their past. The client presents data as facts
about his life and the therapist offers ideas about that data, as well as his own input.
The therapist will express his feelings about it, his own past experience and his
theories. It is up to the client to agree or disagree with him. In other words the
therapist will tell the client what he feels is probably going on and it is up to the client
to say if he is right. The proof that an interpretation or suggestion is right is the
client's own reaction to it.
7
BBC week beginning 19th January 2004
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The therapy works by the client recognising a pattern of actions and reactions after
being guided by his therapist and then actively testing them. He can then learn to
change by changing his reactions.
 Psychotherapeutic counselling involves a period of about 1year, meeting once a
week for an hour, depending on the severity of the problem.
 It is essential that the therapist does not get involved with the client, unlike
coaching where coach and coachee can form a strong bond.
Counselling
Counselling uses the same principles as psychotherapy, having many techniques in
common, but differing in degree and depth. The aims are more limited than in
psychotherapy. Sessions are usually held once a week.
 Both professions are compelled to instruct the client's GP should their client show
suicidal tendencies.
 Strict confidentiality binds both professions.
 Counselling is often used to treat traumas such as bereavement and divorce.
Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud is the father of analysis and his ideas were revolutionary when he
was working in the late 1800's. Today we all speak 'Freud', mostly without thinking
about it. In his original writings he stated that dreams are a manifestation of the
action of the soul and that the highly charged material that are our aspirations,
fantasies, hopes and fears will emerge as dreams, anxieties and physical symptoms
and can be interpreted and analysed.
Analysts are not interested in changing patients' behaviour, only easing suffering
and clarifying mental confusion. With greater insight into both the conscious and
unconscious factors determining their actions, people are better equipped to make
their own decisions.
 There are many schools of analysis and all are very specialised forms of
treatment but all involve seeing an analyst several times a week and a
commitment of 2 years and upwards.
 The Analyst will interpret and tell you what he feels has made you the person you
are and what your symptoms mean.
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 The client may be on a couch during the sessions usually unable to see the
analyst. Most analysts will only deal with clients who have already had a course
of psychotherapy.
 In session the analyst generally says less than a therapist would.
 The client does not form a bond with the analyst.
Transactional Analysis
This is a branch of analysis started by Eric Berne, author of 8The Games People
Play. He recognised that the human personality is made up of 3 ego states, each of
which is an entire system of thought, feeling and behaviour from which we interact
with each other. The Parent, Adult and Child ego states and the interaction between
them form the foundation of transactional analysis theory. These concepts have
spread into many areas of therapy and education as practiced today.
Eric Berne proposed that dysfunctional behaviour is the result of self-limiting
decisions made in childhood in the interest of survival. Such decisions result in the
life script of each person, the pre-conscious plan that governs the way life is lived
out.
 Changing the life script is the basis of transactional analysis psychotherapy.
 In this sense it bears some similarities to coaching and NLP.
It can be seen from these therapies that revisiting the past is critical. This makes
them different to coaching that concentrates on the present and the future. There
is also apportionment of blame on the external factors that may have created a
mental state in the client, as a means of explaining such things as unhappiness. In
coaching, the client is encouraged to take responsibility for his own actions and
emotional states and is encouraged to change negative emotions to positive.
Luck School
Despite the name, this is not a flippant project but a genuine piece of research.
The founder is 9Dr Richard Wiseman of Hertfordshire University, UK, who has spent
8 years studying the lives of 400 exceptionally lucky and unlucky individuals. He
8
The Games People Play, Eric Berne reprinted by Andre Deutsch, 1969
9
The Luck Factor: Dr Richard Wiseman, Century, 2003
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claims to be able to improve people's 'luck' by encouraging them to follow four
principles:
1. Create, notice and act upon your chance opportunities by networking, adopting a
relaxed attitude to life and being open to new experiences.
2. Listen to your intuition and gut feelings. Take active steps to actively boost your
intuitive abilities by such practices as meditation and clearing the mind of other
thoughts.
3. Expect good fortune and this will become a self-fulfilling prophecy that will help
you persist in the face of failure and shape your interaction with others in a
positive way.
4. Employ psychological techniques to cope with and even thrive on failure. Do not
dwell on it and take control of the situation again.
This is a fringe activity but is providing scientific data and is linked with the field of
Positive Psychology. Many of the questionnaires used are similar to those on the
Positivity Central Website.
It appears to be different from the previously mentioned therapies, not dwelling on
the past, but focusing on the future and advocating a change of attitude rather than
apportioning blame.
In this respect it is similar to Life Coaching.
Psychosynthesis
Psychosynthesis was conceived by Dr Roberto Assaglioli in 1911. He was a student
of Freud and like Carl Jung, he rebelled against Freud's visions of man as
pathological and animalistic. Unlike Freud, Assaglioli and Jung theorised that man
possesses a higher nature. Furthermore, Assaglioli had a theory that much of the
psychological dysfunction in the world stems from frustration or even desperation
about the lack of meaning and purpose in our lives. He was far ahead of his time
and thus psychosynthesis remained relatively obscure until the 1960's when it
became a primary component of a new type of psychology. The resulting
'transpersonal psychology' builds on the humanistic psychology started by Maslow
and adds the dimension of man taking personal responsibility and placing others
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before self. Basing the psychology on the hypothesis that we each have a deeper
identity and are subject to a higher organising principle, our lives therefore have
meaning, purpose and direction. Assaglioli's writing also deeply influenced one of
the early NLP practitioners, Michael Hall, who republished his work in 1965.
Assaglioli is named as one of the possible sources of NLP
 There are many areas of similarity between these two practices and thus
psychosynthesis seems to have had an indirect influence on the growth of
coaching methods.
Neuro Linguistic Programming

10
NLP, as it is known, emerged as result of work done in California at the University
of Santa Cruz in the 1970's where a group of academics became interested in
personal enhancement, creativity and communications. The best remembered of this
large group are NLP's main founders, John Grinder and Richard Bandler. Bandler's
fields were varied but included Gestalt Psychology and Therapy while Grinder was
Assistant Professor of Linguistics. NLP theory as it became, was based on a
collection of techniques and processes, which, if used effectively, can produce
extraordinary results, the focus being on performance and helping people get better
at what they do. The essence of NLP is:
 High performance requires both the development of skills and the development
of corresponding mental and physical states.
 Mental and physical states can be broken down into small, distinct elements and
modified to achieve desired results.
 What distinguishes NLP from any other discipline is the focus on modelling.
 Modelling involves someone analysing and copying a person who achieves
excellence in what he does by replicating patterns of thinking, behaving or
reacting. The many methods employed to do this are characteristic features of
NLP.
This is a very simplistic explanation of a complex subject, but suffice to say that NLP
is probably the one that has the closest links to coaching and many of the most
successful coaches are also NLP practitioners. The practice lends itself to the
10
The Elements of NLP, Carol Harris, 1998
Introducing NLP, Sue Knight, 1999
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positive, forward thinking approach of coaching and the desire for the client to make
progress as speedily as possible.
Uses in coaching situations could be

 to question beliefs
 to alter a state
 to change negative language to positive
 to alter the coach's linguistics to suit the client's "type" e.g. kinaesthetic, auditory,
visual and build rapport
 to match clients body language to build rapport
 to help a client to reframe a situation i.e. take a different perspective on it
 to chunk down tasks and goals into manageable parts
NLP has had a major influence on the development of coaching.
Mentoring
Although not a 'therapy' as such, mentoring has always played a role in business.
The mentor will be someone more experienced in the same or similar business as
the client and will offer advice and support. In a corporate situation he will be
appointed from within the company to support his colleague. Problems can arise
because all experiences differ and the mentor is only reflecting back what is relevant
to him. However this may not necessarily be relevant to his colleague. The mentor
will usually employ a directive style of advice giving. A good mentor, however, will
also employ skills of listening and open questioning techniques.
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COACHING
What is Coaching?
There is a great deal of debate about the exact definition of a coach and what his or
her role should be. Should he advise clients, should he push them or let them work
at their own pace? Some coaches claim that expertise in the fields in which they
specialise is important. None of these is wrong but the disparity just proves that
coaching as a profession is what you decide to make it, based on your skills and
style. However all coaches agree that coaching is about achieving results.
According to leading UK coach, 11Curly Martin, the definition of a Life Coach is
someone who closes the gap between thinking about doing and actually doing.
Coaching was originally a word linked primarily to sport and this has contributed to
the confusion that is still around it today. At that time the word coach could as easily
be replaced by the word instructor, in other words one who taught you to follow by
example.
Nothing could be further from the truth in coaching. In 1981 Timothey Gallwey a
Harvard Educationalist, published his book the Inner Game of Tennis, claiming that if
a coach can help to remove the internal obstacles to a player's performance a
natural ability to play will flow forth. "The opponent within one's own head is more
formidable than the one the other side of the net".
John Whitmore, a British expert in the field of Psychosynthesis, went on to be
trained by Gallwey and founded the Inner Game in Britain. (I was lucky enough to be
involved with a group of his students who taught the 'Inner Game of Skiing' and I can
personally vouch for its effectiveness.)
This lead on to Whitmore being asked to expand the methods he was using to teach
the Inner Game, into the business field and then into personal or life coaching. His
definition is that 8coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximise their own
performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.
11
The Life Coaching Handbook, Curly Martin; Crown House Publishing 2001
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How Coaching Works
For the purposes of this thesis I shall concentrate on personal or life coaching rather
than business or corporate coaching. Although the latter does use the same
processes, its focus is not on the needs of the individual but on the company and is
usually driven by the need to address such things as efficiency, profitability,
delegating, problem solving, appraisals, assessments, planning and reviews.
The principles of corporate coaching are the same as life coaching, with the
emphasis on giving the individuals in a team the responsibility for change, as well as
building their self-belief to enable them to carry out change. The needs of the
company are what will be addressed in the corporate coaching sessions.
Corporate coaching is usually initiated by management.
It is a proven fact that

 if we are told something, after 3 weeks 70% of us will remember it and after 3
months 10% of us will remember it.
 If we are told and shown something, after 3 weeks 72% of us will remember it
and after 3 months 32% of us will remember it.
 If we are told, shown and experience something after 3 weeks 85% of us will
remember it and after 3 months 65% of us will remember it.
This works for negative as well as positive experiences and one of the facts that any
coach will try and instill into his client is that to 'fail' at something (but experience it
nonetheless) is one of the most profound learning experiences he can have.
Failure should be viewed as an opportunity to learn and grow.
 The coach has an innate belief in the untapped potential of each client and his
own ability to unleash it during the coaching process.
 The emphasis on ACTION in the coaching process is one of the ways it is
different to other 'therapies'.
The Client Coach Relationship

As discussed earlier there are as many different types of coach as there are people,
but probably the biggest difference in coaching styles is between those who give
8
Coaching for Performance, John Whitmore 2002
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advice and those who feel that coaching involves guiding clients to find their own
answers. The latter is the more painstaking method, but it is a fact that if a human
being feels that he has made the decision to take a course of action himself, the
chances of him actually carrying it out are substantially greater than if he had been
told to do it by someone else.
Whatever the style of coaching, the relationship built with the client is one based on
trust and discretion. The client must know that nothing they tell in confidence (other
than that which the coach deems to be illegal) will be divulged to another person
without their permission.
There are a multitude of reasons why a client may seek a coach, but all of them will
involve a desire for change. It could be career, lifestyle, personal fortune or fitness to
give just a few examples or it may even be to resolve what that change should be.
However diverse the reasons for seeking a coach are, the coaching process will
follow a similar pattern. In other words a client can be coached on just about any
subject he chooses, provided he is prepared to take responsibility for his thoughts
and actions, thus ensuring change occurs.
Coaching sessions are typically conducted face to face (the norm in the business
environment) or over the telephone (the norm for personal coaching). E-coaching
over the internet is also a possibility.
Session One
This will usually be a free (taster) session prior to which the coach will have asked
the prospective client to fill out a short questionnaire about his lifestyle and complete
a 'wheel of life' diagram. These will give the coach insight into the client's current
situation and state of mind. During this initial session, the coach will seek to build
rapport with the client, listen to his story and following the TGROW or another
model, explore with him what he wants to achieve out of a coaching relationship.
The coach's fees, guidelines and code of practice will be explained.
The client will then decide whether coaching is the route he wants to take and
whether this particular coach is the right one for him.
Should the client wish to pursue a coaching relationship the coach will suggest the
number of sessions within which he feels he can realistically help the client achieve
his goal. If this involves a long period of time, the sessions will be broken down into
blocks of say 5 or 10 to be reviewed along the way. It will depend on what time
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frame is set by the client for achieving the goal as to the regularity of the sessions.
For instance, if he is looking for a rapid job promotion within a finite period, the
sessions will need to be held more often than if the goal is a longer term one.
Sessions are usually held once a week or once a fortnight with the date and time
being set at the previous session. Time keeping is the responsibility of the client and
is an essential part of the process, indicating his commitment to the process. A goal
will be set that is to be achieved for the next session.
Session Two
This will involve a thorough exploration of the client's agenda and will probably
involve a Values Elicitation Exercise.
This prioritised list of values will be something that the client can use in all his future
decision making. Drawing up such a list is a highly charged event and may result in
the exercise illuminating some of the client's current stresses. I have found a Values
Elicitation session to be very tiring for anyone not familiar with exploring such issues
and that this alone is probably sufficient for him to tackle in one session.
Session Three
By now the client will be concentrating on the means of achieving the goal that he
has set himself and it is up to the coach to guide him to achieve smaller goals
toward this end and to stop him suffering from overwhelm.
The commitment to achieve any goal that is set can be rated on a scale of 1-10. If
the client's commitment to achieve the goal is rated below 8 on the scale, the
chances of him actually achieving it are low and therefore the goal should be
reassessed. Either the intention to complete it must be raised or the goal needs to
be altered.
Subsequent sessions
The client will become more focussed as he becomes more familiar with the process
and will often bring new issues to the session. The coach will have built rapport with
him and the sessions will be flowing more intuitively.
 It is important to remember that the sessions are entirely in the hands of the
client. He may come to the session wanting to deal with a completely new topic
for one session, possibly wanting clarity on a situation that has arisen in the past
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week. It is his own agenda and must be respected. It is also up to the coach to
find out whether this is a diversionary tactic and if it is, to get him back on track.
 Coaching will continue to break down major goals into smaller, more manageable
ones, thus removing the client's feeling of overwhelm.
 The coach will constantly be refining the process and concentrating on the details
of the client's agenda.
 The goals will be time related and the coach will hold the client accountable. For
example he will check (by email or phone) that the client has, for instance,
started the diet, spoken to the boss, booked the flight etc.
The Building Blocks of Coaching

Coaching uses a range of skills that are not unique to it, but together form a unique
package to be used within a coaching model.
It deploys a variety of skills that may seem self-evident and simply common sense,
but it is the skill and 'elegance' with which they are used that distinguishes a
mediocre coach from an outstanding one.
1. Listening
By listening well, we are providing for the client what Nancy Kline describes in her
book Time to Think12 as a thinking environment. The client has an opportunity,
sometimes for the first time, to express his thoughts without interruption. When you
are listening to someone, much of the quality of what you are hearing is your effect
on him or her. Until he gets used to it, he may find the silence intimidating or even
threatening. We are not used to silence as long silences in conversation are deemed
socially unacceptable. Nonetheless it is often the case that these silences create the
space to produce what is often the most interesting and informative information for
both coach and client alike.
To help people think for themselves, first listen. And listen. Then - listen. And just
when they say they can't think of anything else, you can ask them the question,
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'What else do you think about this? Even when people are sure there is nothing left
in their weary brain, there nearly always is.
13
Co-Active Coaching describes 3 levels of listening:
Level 1
This is the most basic form of listening during which we absorb information that is of
relevance to us, the listener. If you coach only using this level of listening you are
coaching within your own (limited) experience and reflecting that back to the client.
Level 2
You focus entirely on the other person, reflecting back the information you are
receiving from them. Your responses become spontaneous as you listen to the
tone, pace and feeling of the speaker.
Level 3
This is intuitive listening when you are picking up information on a level higher than
verbal communication. Your senses are receiving signals from the client about
their energy levels, moods and feelings.
2. Questioning
Questioning in the context of a coaching relationship is not done out of any sense of
anticipation of receiving a correct or an incorrect answer. Whatever answer is given
is one that will eventually lead to unlocking the client's ability to explore and discover
his own abilities. By skillful use of questioning the coach directs the process of the
client's thinking without influencing the specific content.
In Coaching for Performance John Whitmore writes that questions are there to
generate awareness and responsibility in the coaching process. Awareness is the
product of focused attention, concentration and clarity. Increased awareness gives
greater clarity of perception than normal. Responsibility is crucial for high
performance. Only when the client takes full responsibility for his thoughts and
actions will his commitment to them rise and thus his performance. Unless the coach
raises the sense of awareness and responsibility in the client, none of the coaching
12
Time to Think, Nancy Kline; 2001
13
Co-Active Coaching, Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey House, Phil Sandahl; 1998
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models used in coaching would work at all. It would simply be a case of both parties
going through the motions.
As coaches we want to receive descriptive answers to our questions that promote
the clients awareness. To get these answers we must ask OPEN questions. If we
ask CLOSED questions that demand correct answers, or worse still questions that
demand yes or no answers, we will stop the coaching process in its tracks.
Open Questions use interrogatives such as:
What?
When?
Who?
How much?
How many?
Using the word Why? Can be construed as being judgmental and implies criticism.
Coaches must avoid using leading questions, hoping to draw clients to give what
they feel is the correct answer.
The use of such open questioning techniques is a key feature of coaching that
makes it very different to counselling and psychotherapeutic practices.
With practice a good coach will develop an elegant and relaxed style of questioning
unique to himself .
3. Building Rapport
Inevitably a coach is going to have clients with whom he has an immediate affinity
and others with whom it will be much harder to relate. Rapport building is a
technique taught in NLP that is useful in a coaching session. The principle is that
people tend to get on well with others who are similar to them in some way. It is like
looking in a mirror and seeing yourself. You are not intimidated or threatened.
Rapport can be created and maintained between the coach and client by the coach
making himself behave like the client. He can fit in with what the client does by
mirroring (doing exactly what the client does) or matching (doing things similarly).
The latter is a safer option as the client may feel himself being ridiculed by mirroring.
Tone of voice can be matched, as can speed of speech, excitement, breathing,
gestures or emotion. At a subconscious level rapport builds naturally during this
process.
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An important element of matching is to maintain 'congruence', i.e. consistency in
what you do so that your body language is giving out the same message as your
verbal language. A 'mismatch' will be interpreted by the client as insincerity on the
coach's part, as he will instinctively be more attuned to the body language of the
coach than to his words.
The actual words we use form only 38% of what we communicate. Body language
forms 55% of the message of non-verbal communication. Part of the reason why
telephone coaching is so effective is that part of this influence on the judgment of
both client and coach is removed, as neither can see the other.
Nonetheless the words the client uses can give a coach insight into how they think.
For instance, if a client regularly uses words such as hear, sound or say, he could be
defined as an Auditory person. The coach could match him by using similar words
such as sounds, I hear what you're saying, etc.
Similarly if he was a Kinaesthetic person and used words such as feels and touch,
the coach would try to adjust his language to match this.
Finally should he instead use terms such as see and looks he would be termed a
Visual person.
(Other types of person such as Gustatory and Olfactory allegedly exist but are fewer
in number.)
The fact that the coach has modified his language to match that of his client will only
be evident to the client on a sub-conscious level.
For the coach it is essential to be able to build rapport with a client, as well as rebuild
it should it break down at any time, thus creating a relationship based on trust.
4. Changing Limiting Beliefs

We have all been conditioned by external factors and it is not the factors themselves
that are important, but the way we have reacted to them and continue to react in our
day to day lives. Joseph Murphy in his book, The Power of the Subconscious Mind
draws a comparison between the subconscious mind and a bed of rich soil. If you
sow thistles you won't get figs. Every thought is a seed and the resulting plant,
positive or negative, will have an effect on you.
The subconscious mind is a bit like the hard drive of a computer i.e. whatever you
programme into it will be fed back to you. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe
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that you will fail at something, the chances are that your mind will feed back the
negative image that you planted and you will fail.
This is called a limiting belief.
It is a scientific fact that thoughts create physical pathways in the brain (dendrites)
that become enlarged with repeated use. Any thought, positive or negative, will
always use the largest pathway.
The coach's job is to encourage the client to enhance his own performance and if he
has negative beliefs about himself to help him change his thought patterns from
negative to positive. In the same way that he created a pathway by thinking negative
thoughts, he can change it by thinking positive thoughts instead.
This might sound like common sense but often involves hard work for the client
using techniques such as
 affirmations
 pattern breaking
 anchoring
The coach will teach these techniques to him and he will repeat the exercises on a
regular basis.
The coach can also use other NLP techniques such as reframing the belief in order
to enable him to view the situation differently.
One of the consequences of anyone having limiting beliefs about themselves is low
self-esteem. Negative thoughts will be fed back through the subconscious and serve
as a brake to personal development. It is the coach's role to break this pattern and
help the client raise his self-esteem.
5. The T.G.R.O.W. System

Coaching abounds with mnemonics;
PURE: Positively stated, Understood, Relevant, Ethical
SMART: Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, Time phased`
GRIT: Goal, Reality, Intention, Time phased
TGROW: Topic, Goal, Reality, Options, Way forward.
All are aids for the coach to enable him to work through a structured, fluent coaching
session and by the end of it to have reached a conclusion or finite goal. Coaching,
as taught by Noble Manhattan Coaching, follows the tried and tested model,
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T.G.R.O.W. that gives a basic framework easily followed by both novice and
experienced coaches. Using this as a support structure, experienced coaches can
build and elaborate on it, depending on their style. No matter whether it is used for
group-coaching, individual coaching, business or personal coaching this framework
will serve as a guide to the coaching process.
Although the coach follows the guidance of the framework he will not necessarily
stick rigidly to it. For instance, the goal may have to be altered if at the reality stage
it becomes evident that it is not achievable.
TOPIC: This is always in the hands of the client. Whatever issue he chooses to work
on that day will become the topic of the coaching session. He may come with a very
clear idea of what he wants to discuss or may be uncertain. Careful questioning
techniques can establish a topic. Preparation by coach and client prior to the call is
important so as not to waste the client's time and thus his money.
GOAL: Typical questions asked could be:

What would you like to have achieved by the end of your coaching?
What would you like to achieve in this session?
It is in the hands of the coach to lead the client towards his goal in the time allotted,
whether it is 20 minutes or an hour.
REALITY: The coach will now establish the actual situation that the client is in at
this time. How achievable is his goal? It may be that the goal he has set himself is
unrealistic and therefore the coach moves the process back to the GOAL step to
change or readjust it.
OPTIONS: What are the options that the client has for moving forward to achieve his
goals? In the safe, listening, non-judgmental environment the client can come up
with as many options as he can think of. The quality of ideas is not as important as
the number. Extravagance of ideas is encouraged. Each of the options in turn is
assessed by the client and the consequences of doing each one is then explored:
What would be the consequences of doing that?
The client can then make an informed choice between his alternatives
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WAY FORWARD: The client will now establish the way forward towards his goal
and agree on the subsequent action to be taken. The coach will sum up the session
and make sure that the client has understood and is committed to the course of
action.
The way ahead

We have established that coaching works as a mechanism for change and for
moving people forward towards their goals. We have also established ways for them
to find out what their goals might be, based on their desires. Coaching can break
down the self-imposed barriers that have been stopping those desires become
actual goals.
What we have not established is whether coaches are sufficiently able to coach
people through a major crisis of meaning, which is what may often be classified as a
minor breakdown or the onset of a depression. In other words, a state where the
material life of the individual concerned, no matter how successful, has become
profoundly at odds with the spiritual aspect of his life or the lack of it. A situation
where there is frustration or even desperation about the lack of purpose and
meaning in life.
Humanistic psychology and its emphasis on the value of the emotions has been
used in a limited way in the business world since the 1970s, but in 1995 Daniel
Coleman's book Emotional Intelligence took the business world by storm and made
emotional intelligence acceptable. The words have now entered the vernacular. He
writes that our EQ is as important, if not more important than our IQ.
Emotional Intelligence can be described very simplistically as the social skills of:
 Knowing one's emotions
 Managing one's emotions
 Motivating oneself
 Recognising emotions in others
 Handling relationships
Emotional intelligence as a concept was soon followed by Spiritual Intelligence.
Danah Zohar, author of the books Spiritual Intelligence and Rewiring the Corporate
Brain writes 'Spiritual Intelligence is our access to and use of meaning, vision and
value in the way that we think and the decision that we make'. Enter another
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quotient, SQ!. 'Where IQ and EQ are naturally bounded and can be quantitatively
measured, it is in the nature of SQ to defy boundaries, to continually seek a broader
perspective, a bigger picture. As such it resists quantification. Indeed its essence is
not about quantity, but quality.'
Her writing also gives credence to the fact that many people today are facing a real
crisis of meaning.
The diminishing importance of proscribed religions in our society has left a vacuum
in our Western way of life leaving our earthbound desires and ambitions as the
dominating force on our psyche. Eastern philosophy and psychosynthesis teaching
says that if either of the two elements i.e. the spiritual/value element or the
knowledge/material element, become too unbalanced, a crisis of meaning can occur.
In other words if the accumulation of knowledge far exceeds the tempering effect of
our values we feel stress. We experience a breakdown of the false sense of security
provided by the illusion of power and certainty that great knowledge gives us.
Whitmore writes that to coach such a person, normal high quality coaching training
should be adequate. In fact under almost all circumstances if a coach sticks tightly to
non-prescriptive principles and follows the coachee's agenda, almost nothing can go
wrong. A problem only arises when a coach, unaccustomed to extreme outbursts
and sudden swings of emotion, panics and intervenes to try to help the person
control their feelings. The coachee needs to enter into and if necessary, re-live
residual suppressed emotions at his own pace, albeit with process guidance and
protection. Coaching someone through a crisis of meaning will take a series of
sessions over a period of several months and may well result in them making a
complete life change.
Whitmore, who uses the principles of psychosynthesis in his own coaching work,
believes that it gives coaches the ability to help their clients to reframe their lives and
thus diffuse the crisis that so many people today experience. In other words it will
give them the psychological muscle to cope with the crisis.
He advises that coaches may be more confident coaching those experiencing a
spiritual crisis or crisis of meaning if they have some psychotherapeutic training,
such as psychosynthesis.
A psychosynthesis-trained coach may invite the coachee to reframe life as a
developmental journey, to see the creative potential within each problem, to see
obstacles as stepping stones and to imagine that we all have a purpose in life with
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challenges and obstacles to overcome in order to fulfill that purpose. The coach will
assist the coachee to focus on the positive aspect of any actions he chooses to take.
CONCLUSION
Thus we see that as coaches we have the tools available to deal with most things
that our clients present to us. Obviously we are not qualified to deal with severe
mental illness and chronic psychiatric conditions, but the majority of commonplace
depressive disorders have a root in our processing of information, our beliefs and
values. If we as coaches can guide our clients to find their own life purpose and find
balance in their lives we will be making a major contribution to the mental health of
society.
The one serious drawback for highly trained and experienced coaches is that today
anyone can call themselves a coach regardless of qualifications or lack of them.
Coaching as a profession needs to follow ethical guidelines and be accountable to
its governing bodies such as the European Coaching Federation and the
International Coaching Federation and have the power to control those 'coaches'
who may bring the profession into disrepute.
Only then will those who 'do science' be convinced that coaching is a heavyweight
contender in the battle we all have to achieve a more positive society in the 21 st
Century.
I stand by my assertion that despite the understandable reluctance of coaches only
to involve themselves with clients trying to change very practical elements of their
lives, the coaching process is a very potent tool. We have within our grasp the power
to stall feelings of hopelessness and despair in our clients and help them to find
deeper meaning in their lives.
Who knows where that could lead?
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Direct reference has been made to the following books:
The Life Coaching Handbook, Curly Martin. Crown House Publishing 2001.
Coaching for Performance, John Whitmore; Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 1992.
Co Active Coaching, Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House, Phil Sandahl. Davies
Black Publishing, 1998.
Effective Coaching, Miles Downey; 1999, Texere
A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, Eric Berne; Penguin Books
1947.
The Work We Were Born to Do, Nick Williams; Element 1999.
The Power of the Subconscious Mind, Joseph Murphy; Simon and Schuster, 1963.
Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, Susan Jeffers; 1987, Arrow Books.
Time To Think, Nancy Kline; Cassell, 1999.
The Elements of NLP, Carol Harris; Element Books 1998.
Introducing NLP, Sue Knight; CIPD, 1999.
Awaken the Giant Within, Anthony Robbins; 1991 Simon and Schuster.
Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl; 1959, Simon and Schuster.
Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Coleman; 1996, Bloomsbury.
The Art of Living, His Holiness the Dalai Lama; Thorsons, 2001.
The following additional books were used for research into this report:
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen J Covey; 1989, Simon and
Schuster.
Be Your Own Life Coach, Fiona Harold; 2001, Hodder and Stoughton.
Take Time for Your Life, Cheryl Richardson; 2000, Bantam.
Modern Buddhism, Jacqui and Alan James; 1987, Aukana Trust.
The Wisdom of Insecurity, Alan W Watts; 1954, Rider Books.
How Brains Make Up Their Minds, Walter J Freeman; 1999, Phoenix.
The Road Less Travelled, M. Scott Peck; 1978, Rider Books.
by Noble Manhattan Coaching Ltd.
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Contact Details

No 5
105 The Esplanade
Weymouth
Dorset
DT4 7EA
Tel +44 1305 769411

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1. OVERVIEW
"Who exactly seeks out a coach? Winners who want even more out of life."
(http://www.susandunn.cc, 2007)
The above quote, featured in the Chicago Tribune, which reaches an estimated 1.7 million
readers each day, illustrates the rising profile of coaching (http://www.chicagotribune.com,
2007) This report will examine the evolution of coaching from its inception in the early
1990‟s through to the current day and will outline its prospects and challenges for the future.
As the writer chronicles the development of the coaching industry, they will discuss many
different areas of this profession including its links to other occupations and techniques such
as counselling and neuro linguistic programming (NLP). The writer will then describe the
key skills that every coach should possess and will then define some of the benefits that can
be derived from coaching.
Following this, the writer will illustrate some of the tools that are used in coaching sessions
and show how these have evolved over the years. The use of coaching in the workplace will
then be examined with a particular emphasis on answering the questions, “who should do the
coaching?” and “who is the customer?”. Subsequently, the writer will document the
position regarding the regulation of the coaching industry and relate this to training,
accreditation and coaching supervision.
Finally, the writer will highlight the key developments likely to impact the profession in the
future. This will include an examination of issues such as accreditation and workplace
coaching. They writer will then conclude by summarising the key messages discussed in
this paper.
2. THE HISTORY OF COACHING
2.1 WHAT IS COACHING?
There are a plethora of definitions of coaching, most of which stress the helping and
supportive nature of the profession. For example, “Coaching encourages you to move
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positively towards achieving your goals by focusing your energy and your potential on
positive solutions.” (http://www.inspire-coaching.co.uk, 2007) and “Coaching is an ongoing
professional relationship that helps people produce extraordinary results in their lives,
careers, businesses or organizations” (http://www.trans4mind.com, 2007).
Other definitions provide an analogy between coaching and different occupations. For
example, one website likens life coaching to football coaching. “A Life Coach is similar (for
the sake of familiarity) to a football coach. The football coach coaches his players to
improve, change and develop so that they can become better footballers. A Life Coach
coaches people to enable them to improve, change and develop aspects of their lives (but
without the shouting running and press ups!).” (http://www.startliving.org.uk, 2006)
Alternatively, life coach Julie Starr makes an interesting correlation between coaching and
the stagecoach or rail coach. She says, “…the word „coaching‟ literally means to transport
someone from one place to another. One thing that all forms of coaching seem to have in
common is that people are using it to help them move forward or create change.” (Starr,
2003)
The writer agrees with the definitions above, as they are all concerned with improvement and
progression towards a goal(s).
2.2 THE ORIGIN OF COACHING
It is thought that the profession of coaching has existed for many years; however, it has only
been in the last 25 years or so that it has been recognised as an industry in its own right.
Prior to this, coaching was linked to very specific occupations such as the swimming coach,
drama coach and voice coach.
2.2.1 Early Coaches

As far as life coaching is concerned, many regard Thomas Leonard as the founding father of
this profession. Leonard founded Coach University, a virtual company dedicated to
providing coach training programmes, in 1992 and then went on to form a professional
association for coaches, the International Coach Federation (ICF) in 1994
(http://www.coachinc.com, 2007) and (http://www.coachfederation.org.uk, 2007).
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Leonard was a key contributor to the development of the coaching industry. He authored six
coaching books, wrote 28 personal and professional development programmes and
participated in many conferences and events throughout the world. Before entering the
coaching profession, Leonard was a financial planner. (http://www.coachville.com, 2007)
Other coaches have followed a similar path and discovered coaching from alternative
professions. For example, Cheryl Richardson, a mentee of Leonard, was a tax consultant
who realised that her clients sought guidance and support on more than just financial matters.
She decided to leave the financial industry and focus on helping people to improve all
aspects of their lives by becoming a coach and delivering workshops entitled „Secrets of
Success‟. (Richardson, 2000)
Gerard O‟Donovan of Noble Manhattan also became a coach following a career in the
financial industry. Gerard is now a highly respected coach and has helped many people to
realise their goal of becoming a successful coach through his coach training and personal
development organisation. (http://www.gerardodonovan.com, 2007)
These three people are a small sample of those that have developed a successful career from
coaching other people to improve the quality of their life in some way. They serve as an
inspiration for aspiring coaches and have shown that coaching can have a powerful and
lasting effect. As the industry has grown, so too has the number of examples of highly
successful people like those above. In fact, it is said that coaching is the second fastest
growing industry behind IT (http://www.thebig-leap.com, 2007).
2.2.2 Why enter the coaching profession?

In addition to the desire to follow in the footsteps of successful coaches, there are a number
of common reasons that people decide to enter the coaching industry. These include:
 “They like people and want to bring out the best in them
 They want to do something more fulfilling in their lives
 They want personal and financial freedom
 Their family, friends and colleagues previously turned to them for advice and
help”
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Source: (http://www.businessballs.com, 2007)
Many of these reasons have been quoted in other coaching articles and websites.
Additionally, in the writer‟s discussions with fellow coaches, they would generally agree that
these are reflective of their own situation. It is reassuring to note, however, that the same
article reports that those who enter the profession solely for monetary gain tend to leave the
industry again within a relatively short period of time. (http://www.businessballs.com, 2007)
2.3 COACHING AND OTHER PROFESSIONS
The link between coaching and other professions has been well documented. Laura Berman
Fortgang cites the three most popular comparisons that are made between coaching and other
professions as; coach v business consultant, coach v psychotherapist and career coach v
career counsellor. As far as the business consultant and career counsellor are concerned, they
have a more directive role than a coach in helping to deliver a solution by giving advice and
guidance. The psychotherapist, on the other hand, deals with more emotional issues from a
client‟s past and strives to help them resolve such issues. (Berman Fortgang, 2005)
Other writers have described the connection between therapy and counselling, although there
are several well-defined differences between these professions. These include the varying
expectations placed on therapists, counsellors and coaches to have formal qualifications and
accreditation with a recognised body (http://en.wikipedia.org, 2007). The requirements are
far more stringent for the former two occupations than the latter.
One of the most prominent differences between these occupations is the emphasis coaching
places on the client‟s future, whereas therapy and counselling look to past experiences. As
John Whitmore explains, “Coaching focuses on future possibilities, not past mistakes”
(http://www.roundrose.com, 2007).
Additionally, coaching is often discussed in the same vein as mentoring although these too
have some distinct differences. Mentoring tends to involve one person supporting another by
sharing their experiences and wisdom (http://www.mentorset.org.uk, 2007). The mentor is
often in a more senior position to the mentee and the mentor/mentee relationship is generally
formed in a work environment. A coach, on the other hand, does not need to have
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knowledge or experience of the situation to be able to coach someone to a satisfactory
conclusion. They introduce “…a fresh perspective” to the relationship and will challenge the
coachee in a supportive environment to maximise their potential for success.
(http://www.coachingnetwork.org.uk, 2007)
However, both mentoring and coaching do share a similar goal and purpose of helping
people to improve their current situation. As Guest (1999) states, “Mentoring can claim a
3000 year headstart on coaching, but both are proving powerful aids to personal and
organisational change and development.” Indeed, each of the job roles described above are,
to a greater or lesser extent, concerned with the continuous improvement of an individual or
organisation.
2.4 DIFFERENT TYPES OF COACHING
Coaching typically falls into one of two categories – directive and non-directive. As the
name suggests, directive coaching involves the coach telling or instructing the client what to
do and relies on the coach‟s knowledge of the subject under consideration. Non-directive
coaching, on the other hand, places the emphasis on the client discovering their own
solutions by answering the coach‟s questions and reflecting on their own thoughts.
(http://www.downeycoaching.com, 2007)
The non-directive approach is supported by many coaches including Laura Whitworth, Henry
Kimsey-House and Phil Randahl who developed the „Co-Active Coaching‟ model. This style
of coaching “…involves the active and collaborative participation of both the coach and the
client” (Whitworth et al, 1998).
As well as different styles, coaching can take many forms and can be tailored to clients with
specific needs. Some coaches specialise in certain areas such as “career coaching, transition
coaching, life or personal coaching, health and wellness coaching, parenting coaching,
executive coaching” (http://en.wikipedia.org, 2007). Within these specialisms, the coach
may choose a directive or non-directive approach or indeed a combination of the two.
However, the fundamental principle behind all variations of coaching is to help the client
make positive changes in their lives and ultimately to „make a difference‟.
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2.5 COACHING SKILLS
There are certain skills that should be prevalent in all coaches. According to Bresser and
Wilson, a coach needs to be skilled in active listening, questioning, clarifying, summarizing
and reflecting (cited in Passmore, 2006). The Learn Direct website also mentions these
attributes and adds; “excellent listening, questioning and communication skills; the ability to
inspire confidence; the ability to motivate clients and encourage them to achieve their goals;
and the ability to remain objective and non-judgemental” (http://www.learndirect-
advice.co.uk, 2006).
In the writer‟s view, a coach should refrain from trying to provide solutions for the client as
they are there to help the client uncover their own answers i.e. they should be non-directive.
This can be illustrated in the following quote concerning sports coaching. According to
American football coach Paul Bryant “No coach has ever won a game by what he knows; it's
what his players know that counts.” (http://www.brainyquote.com, 2007)
Furthermore, many coaches acknowledge that intuition can be a valuable skill in a coach‟s toolkit. Whitworth
et al state “the great thing about intuition and coaching is that intuition always forwards the action and deepens
the learning, even when it lands with a clang instead of a melodious ping.” This highlights the powerful nature
of intuition but also warns that not all clients will respond in the same way and that the coach‟s intuition may be
inaccurate. If this is the case, it can still have an impact by reinforcing the client‟s perspective and the coach
should continue to remain unattached to the thoughts derived from their intuition. (Whitworth et al, 1998)
Interestingly, Eldridge and Dembkowski (2004) have investigated the key coaching skills and cite them as
“development of rapport; deep listening; creative and open questioning; open and honest feedback; and use of
intuition”.
Therefore, it would appear that there is widespread agreement regarding the key coaching
skills that are conducive to developing an effective coaching relationship with a client.
2.6 THE BENEFITS OF COACHING
Coaching can lead to many satisfactory conclusions, not only for the client but also for those
they interact with and for the coach themselves. According to Starr (2003), “Whilst it is
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never the purpose of the conversation, a coach can sometimes benefit from the coaching as
much as the coachee”. Indeed the process of becoming a coach can be a rewarding and
fulfilling experience as the coach learns about themselves and resolves past issues in an effort
to prepare themselves to coach others to the best of their ability
(http://www.businessballs.com, 2007). A coach can also gain from being in a coaching
supervision relationship as this facilitates their continued professional development.
In the case of corporate coaching, the organisation can also benefit from their employees
participating in coaching sessions. In 2001 Fortune Magazine featured an article that stated,
“Asked for a conservative estimate of the monetary payoff from the coaching they got, these
managers described an average return of more than $100,000, or about six times what the
coaching had cost their companies.” (http://www.susandunn.cc, 2007)
Coaching need not be sponsored by the organisation for it to realise the benefits. An
employee who has independently decided to be coached could adopt a more positive outlook
and may progress work-related goals and issues during their sessions. This could have a
positive effect on their colleagues, team members, customers and the organisation as a whole.
According to Simon Barrow, chairman of People in Business, coaching can be a “means of

rewarding and retaining key staff” (http://www.coachingnetwork.org.uk, 2001). This may be
of particular importance to organisations that are limited in the ways they can reward their
staff. For example, public sector organisations face constraints in terms of the financial
remuneration they can award staff, therefore, personal development opportunities such as
coaching can enhance their overall package making the organisation a more attractive option
as a prospective employer.
Therefore, it is evident that coaching can have a significant impact on a great many people
including the coach, the client‟s employer, their family and friends and most importantly, the
client themselves.
2.7 COACHING TOOLS
Coaching is typically delivered on the phone or in person, however, with the advent of email
this is increasingly being used to conduct coaching sessions and also to track progress
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between sessions. This means that often coaches do not have to be located in the same
geographic area as their clients, providing greater flexibility for both the coach and the client.
According to one life coaching article, it is possible to coach from anywhere in the world,
offering a huge degree of freedom for the modern coach (http://www.businessballs.com,
2007).
No matter the communication mechanism that is used to conduct the coaching sessions, a
coach has a wide array of tools at their disposal to provide a structure for their coaching.
2.7.1 The Wheel of Life

The Wheel of Life, shown in figure 1 below, is extensively used in the coaching industry.
This exercise is often utilised in the initial stages of the coaching relationship to establish a
client‟s current situation and determine where they would like to improve their lives and
therefore, focus their coaching. The client considers each area of the wheel and rates their
current situation with ten being the optimal position for this area and 0 being the least
favourable position.
Where they rate an area significantly less than ten, they may have a desire to improve this
area and thus set some goals for improvement. The „wheel‟ can then be used to measure
progress following implementation of actions and, in the writer‟s opinion, can be
motivational in terms of assessing the positive actions that have been taken. This proves to
the client that they have the ability to make a difference in their own life and can encourage
them to take further action.
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Figure 1: Wheel of Life Exercise (http://www.lifecoachsolutions.co.uk, 2007)
2.7.2 The GROW Model

Since the advent of coaching, many coaching models and frameworks have been developed.
One of the most common is the GROW model. This was developed by Graham Alexander
and has been widely supported and utilised by John Whitmore. The model is made up of four
elements; Goal, Reality, Options and Way Forward (or Wrap-Up). The coach guides their
client through each phase, asking mainly open questions and encouraging them to develop
effective actions that will move them closer to their goals. (Passmore, 2004)
Some coaches have now developed their own models and frameworks or „tweaked‟ those
already in existence. For example, Myles Downey provides an illustrative interpretation of
the GROW model in figure 2 below. This shows the interrelationships between the various
stages of the structure and the fact that a coach should be flexible and prepared to move
between the stages with ease as opposed to following them in a rigid manner.
This is supported by Whitworth et al who describe the coach‟s role as “dancing in the
moment”. This refers to the fluidity of the coaching relationship and the fact that the coach
should take their lead from the client. (Whitworth et al, 1998)
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Figure 2: The GROW Model (Downey, 2003)
Downey also supplements the use of the GROW model with his model T. This involves the
coach encouraging their client to expand their thinking initially and then to focus on key
aspects to reach an effective solution. This is depicted in the diagram shown in figure 3
below.
EXPAND
F
O
C
U
S
Figure 3: Model T (Downey, 2003)

2.7.3 The Inner Game
Another technique that Downey has incorporated into his own coaching business is Tim
Gallwey‟s „The Inner Game‟. Gallwey, author of several best-selling books including „The
Inner Game of Tennis‟ has developed an interesting approach by which people can change
their way of thinking so that they can excel in their chosen field. (http://theinnergame.com,
2007)
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He believes that, “In every human endeavor there are two arenas of engagement: the outer
and the inner. The outer game is played on an external arena to overcome external obstacles
to reach an external goal. The inner game takes place within the mind of the player and is
played against such obstacles as fear, self-doubt, lapses in focus, and limiting concepts or
assumptions.” (http://theinnergame.com, 2007)
This can be summarized by using the formula, “Performance = potential-interference”.

These principles, although originally founded in sports coaching, have now been successfully
applied to business coaching and are used by many coaches including Myles Downey.
(http://theinnergame.com, 2007)
Downey states that “a key part of the line-manager or coach‟s role is to help reduce the
interference that affects the people he works with”. This can be achieved by helping the
coachee to stay focused on their goal and to realign their thinking so that they feel
empowered to achieve success. (Downey, 2003)
3. THE PRESENT OF COACHING
“Coaching is quickly becoming one of the leading tools that successful people use to live
extraordinary lives.” (www.mylifecoach.com, 2005)
The rise in the coaching industry has been well documented and there is now quantifiable
evidence to support its increasing popularity. According to Starts-Up magazine, “Coaching
is the number two growth industry right behind IT (Information Technology) jobs, and it's the
number one home-based profession." (http://www.susandunn.cc, 2007)
In their annual learning and development survey, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD) found that 79% of respondents used some form of coaching activity
with 47% of these organisations stating that they are training line managers to coach, whereas
18% are using a network of internal and external coaches, 35% were doing a combination of
both approaches. (CIPD, 2006)
Interestingly, 80% of those who use coaching state that they want to develop a coaching
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culture and most of them have devoted resources to attain this goal. The main reason for
doing so was a desire to “improve individual and business performance”. (CIPD, 2006)
3.1 CURRENT APPROACHES
3.1.1 Tools & Techniques

There are many coaching models currently in use such as the GROW model described in
section 2.7.2 above. Performance Management Coach Allan Mackintosh has further
developed the GROW model and established the OUTCOMES model. This stands for
“Objectives, Understand the Reasons, Take Stock of the Present Situation, Clarify the Gap,
Options Generation, Motivate to Action, Enthusiasm & Encouragement, Support”.
(http://www.performance-am.com, 2007)
Of the OUTCOMES model, it is said that “The increased structure will result in more depth
to their coaching that will enable an increase in more understanding, motivation and
commitment to action than they may have experienced with other simpler models such as
G.R.O.W.”. This model was principally developed for managers, and sales managers in
particular, to coach their staff and Mackintosh believes that it provides a greater discipline
than the conventional GROW model. (http://www.performance-am.com, 2007)
Another development of the GROW model is the ACHIEVE coaching model (see figure 4
below), which was developed by Fiona Eldridge and Dr Sabine Dembkowski following a
study of best-practice of executive coaches in the US, England and Germany.
Figure 4: The ACHIEVE Coaching Model (Eldridge & Dembkowski, 2004 - 1)
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This model appears to be an expansion of the GROW model as it covers the same key areas
but in more depth and provides greater direction, particularly for new coaches who may
benefit from the additional structure. Furthermore, it follows a slightly different order than
the GROW model but, in the writer‟s opinion, it can be equally effective in moving the client
forward in their life as it facilitates the coaching session by offering key prompts for the
coach to follow. Eldridge & Dembkowski believe this to be the case and have tested their
model in public and private organisations in the UK and Europe. (Eldridge & Dembkowski,
2004 - 1)
3.1.2 Link to NLP

One approach that has been closely linked to coaching is Neuro Linguistic Programming
(NLP). NLP was established in the 1970s by Richard Bandler and John Grinder under the
direction of Gregory Bateson at the University of California. According to the principles of
NLP, “We act and feel based on our perception of the world rather than the real world”.
(http://en.wikipedia.org, 2007)
Bandler and Grinder thus sought to establish the behavioural patterns of those that achieved
levels of excellence in their chosen profession or passion. This resulted in the use of
modelling as “The patterns of any genius can be replicated through modeling”
(http://www.nlpacademy.co.uk, 2007).
According to NLP Trainer Assessor Chris Collingwood, NLP can greatly enhance coaching
by “assisting coaching clients to have more choice in their behaviour, emotions and the
beliefs they hold”. It can help them to alter their beliefs and transform old habits that no
longer serve them. In addition, it can contribute to a fresh outlook with a renewed
perspective and a positive attitude from which change can take place and success can be
optimized. (http://inspiritivelife.com.au, 2007)
3.2 REGULATION & ACCREDITATION
At present the coaching industry is unregulated just as the financial industry was in the
1990‟s (http://www.fsa.gov.uk, 2007). Therefore, anyone can technically call themselves a
coach without any training or accreditation. This could have a potentially damaging effect on
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the quality of coaching given to clients as well as the reputation of the coaching community
in general. According to Jarvis (2005), the industry has “suffered because of „cowboy
coaches‟ flooding the market” and this has led to some cynicism particularly within the
business community as to the benefits of coaching within their organisation.
3.2.1 The Coaching Contract

Given the fact that there is currently no independent regulation of the industry, it is the
writer‟s opinion that the development and implementation of a contract between coach and
client is critical. The existence of a contract will protect the interests of both the coach and
the client, ensuring that each party is aware of the boundaries of the coaching relationship.
According to legal expert, Rebecca Seeley Harris, a contract can enhance the professional
image of the coach and safeguard the intellectual property of any materials that they may
share with their clients (http://www.coachingnetwork.org.uk, 2007).
3.2.2 Accreditation
There are currently several recognised bodies such as the European Coaching Institute (ECI)
and International Coaching Federation who offer an accreditation service to training
organisations and coaches. This upholds the professional image of the profession and
protects the reputation of coaching as a whole.
The ECI has five levels of Individual Coach Accreditation, the first of which is Accredited
Practitioner Coach. In order to become accredited to this level a coach must complete and/or
submit the following along with their application fee and accreditation fee
(http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org, 2007):
 “150 hours of specific coach training
 Coaching log showing 50 hours of coaching experience of which at least 70% is
paid
 Copy of training certificate(s)
 Copy of CPD log
 Testimonials from 5 paying clients
 Tape or CD recording of 2 coaching sessions
 Successful completion of telephone interview with ECI Accreditation Team
representative
 Completion of Declaration Of Integrity”
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The ICF is equally rigorous in their demands of potential members and they have three levels
of accreditation. Their minimum requirements state that applicants should submit evidence
of 60 learning hours and 100 coaching hours. They must also successfully complete an
examination and submit references to be considered for the first level of accreditation -
Associate Certified Coach. (http://www.coachfederation.org.uk, 2007)
It is encouraging to note that the ECI currently has representatives in 40 countries and the
ICF has 12,000 members in 80 countries (http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org, 2007)
and
(http://www.coachfederation.org.uk, 2007). In the writer‟s view, this is particularly
reassuring for reputable coaches who do not want to be associated with those claiming to be a
coach after having spent a few hours on a one-off training course.
3.3 TRAINING
In order to be recognised as an accredited coach with organisations such as the ECI and ICF,
a coach must undertake formal training. Membership of one of these bodies can make a
significant difference when it comes to competing for business with other, non-recognised
coaches. In fact, membership of a professional body is cited by the CIPD as one of the key
requirements when selecting a coach. Other factors include experience,
qualifications/training and supervision. (Trapp, 2005)
This is particularly pertinent as the issue of training and accreditation of coaches is

highlighted in the media. For example, an article in USA Today states that “Virtually anyone
can declare himself a life coach” and “…the virtues of what many offer are unproven”
(http://www.usatoday.com, 2007).
However, for the more scrupulous and dedicated coach, it is encouraging to know that
training is now becoming more advanced with degrees and formal qualifications
available from several training organisations. For example, the learning organisation,
Edexcel Ltd provide a level 2 BTEC Certificate in Introduction to Life Coaching Skills
and a level 3 BTEC Certificate in Life Coaching Skills and Practice
(http://www.edexcel.org.uk, 2007). Similarly, the Oxford School of Coaching and
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Mentoring offer a Diploma in Professional Coaching and Mentoring, which is
equivalent to an undergraduate degree (http://www.oscm.co.uk 2007).
Training is also becoming more important for clients as their knowledge of coaching
increases and their expectations of their coach rise at the same time. A study by Tanja
Schmidt on individual executive coaching in Germany, Switzerland and Austria showed that
the most important success factor for coaching was the qualification of the coach. This
included “personal credibility of the coach, education, professional background, experience
and expertise as well as overall regard”. (http://www.coachingnetwork.org.uk, 2007)
Increasingly, organisations require coaches to demonstrate that their skills are kept up-to-date
by making continuing professional development a key component of membership. This also
links into coaching supervision, which involves coaches being in a mentoring relationship
with another coach and refreshing their skills and knowledge of coaching on a regular basis.
Where internal coaches are used the concept of accreditation would appear to be even less
formalised. In a study of coaching cultures, Clutterbuck found that 69% of respondents‟
internal coaches were not accredited, certified or licensed. This is particularly concerning as
these coaches could still be expected to deliver highly effective coaching programmes. This
is consistent with the fact that 52% of the survey respondents cited “lack of internal skills
and experience” as one of the key barriers to successfully developing a coaching culture.
(CIPD, 2006)
3.4 WORKPLACE COACHING
When it comes to workplace coaching, there are a number of key questions that should be
addressed prior to embarking on a coaching programme. These include, “who should do the
coaching?” and “who is the customer?”.
3.4.1 Internal or external coach?

In response to the first question, “who should do the coaching?”, an organisation can either
train managers to coach their own staff or they could employ independent specialists in the
field. Internal coaches often have a background in human resources and will undertake
coaching as part of their wider role within the organisation. Alternatively, an organisation
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can choose to employ wholly independent external coaches.
3.4.2 The Internal Coach

Where internal people are trained as coaches, it is believed by some that the senior
management team should still be coached by external coaches (Eldridge & Dembkowski,
2004 - 2). The writer supports this view as it would be very difficult for a subordinate to
coach those who are much higher up the corporate ladder than they are. It also raises
questions about the extent to which the client would feel comfortable discussing their issues
and therefore they may not get the maximum benefit from the coaching relationship.
Furthermore, it could put the coach in a difficult position as they are potentially exposed to
highly sensitive information that could impact their own career and that of their colleagues.
Allan Mackintosh supports this stance as he was previously employed as an internal coach
and experienced some of these challenges. He states, “the biggest challenge I found as an
internal coach was being pressurised to divulge information that a coachee had confidently
confided to me”. He goes on to say that internal coaches should be wary of unrealistic
expectations from managers and the misconception that the coach is there to „fix‟ all of the
problems in the organisation. (http://www.coachingnetwork.org.uk, 2006)
He also advocates that internal coaches “contract their coaching role” to ensure everyone is
clear of the roles and responsibilities involved in the coaching programme
(http://www.coachingnetwork.org.uk, 2006). However, a study by David Clutterbuck in
2005 revealed that 41% of organisations said that although they were training their managers
to coach people, coaching was not incorporated into their job descriptions. Additionally,
54% of the organisations admitted that those employees involved in coaching people were
not recognised or rewarded for doing so. It is the writer‟s opinion that such actions could
seriously hinder internal coaching efforts and therefore, ultimately, individual and business
performance. (CIPD, 2006)
3.4.3 The External Coach

Where an external coach is employed, the choice of coach can be a complicated decision. An
organisation will be faced with many coaching providers from various backgrounds each
with varying styles. Additionally, they may have different viewpoints on who the customer is
and this in turn will impact the confidentiality of the sessions.
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(http://www.downeycoaching.com, 2007)
The selection of a coach can be further complicated when taking into account the needs of
the individual coachee. Although it may be down to an HR professional to select the coach,
the managers being coached should also have an input into the decision making process.
Nicole Denham, Head of Training & Development at Dixons, selects coaches by firstly
interviewing them and then giving the manager (coachee) a choice of two (Hipkiss, May
2006).
Eldridge and Dembkowski (2004 - 2) have identified selection criteria that should be
considered when making such a decision. These include:
 Does the person fit in with the organisational culture?

 What is the coach‟s level of training and expertise?
 Is the coach in a coaching supervision relationship?
 Does the coach have experience of corporate coaching?
 Do they belong to a recognised coaching organisation?
This is by no means an exhaustive list and should be adapted to suit the coachee, the
organisation and their expectations of the coaching relationship.
3.4.4 Preparing to be coached

Coaching in the workplace is still viewed by some as a sign of weakness or failure. In a
study of coaching cultures, Clutterbuck asked organisations “to what extent is coaching seen
primarily as a positive development tool rather than a remedial intervention?”.
Disappointingly, 10% stated “not at all” whilst a further 46% responded “to a small extent”.
(CIPD, 2006)
This is rather concerning given the highly positive results that can be gained from the
deployment of a true coaching culture. In another study by Clutterbuck and Megginson
(2005), they revealed that the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health
Authority actually provide more training to coachees than they do to those undertaking the
role of coach.
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Hipkiss (July 2006) also outlines the importance of preparing people to be coached. She
states that non-directive coaching can be somewhat of a culture shock for some people as
they are used to being taught and told what to do from a very early age. She goes on to say
that preparation is necessary to eliminate any misconceptions about the coaching process, a
common one being that coaching is some form of counselling. Additionally, preparation is a
useful process by which the expectations of the coach, the coachee and the organisation can
be defined for all to see.
The Bank of England subscribes to the need for preparation and start at the outset with their
new graduates. They provide training for graduates to be coached and also for senior
graduates to deliver coaching. This indoctrinates them into the coaching culture straight
away and ensures that the Bank‟s future managers will be fully conversant with the skills and
abilities of a coach. (Hipkiss, July 2006)
4 THE FUTURE OF COACHING
4.1 ACCREDITATION
The issue of accreditation looks set to remain high on the agenda for existing and potential
coaches alike. It is hoped that it will become more formal in the future which will reduce the
number of unscrupulous coaches. It could also make it more challenging for new coaches to
enter the industry as the requirement to undertake comprehensive training will undoubtedly
come at a price.
Indeed, it may become increasingly expensive as structured training programmes and

membership of a recognised body become an essential component of accreditation. This
could also result in training providers raising their prices as they too have a responsibility to
prove the worth of their training courses and could potentially face regular audits to assess
the robustness of their service provision.
This may deter some people from entering the industry which is not necessarily a bad thing
as it could discourage those who originally thought of coaching as an „easy‟ way to make
money. This would have the desired effect of maintaining the credibility of the coaching
profession as a whole and safeguarding the reputation of those who do adhere to high
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coaching standards.
Therefore, a more formal system of accreditation would be a reassuring concept, not only for
the client but also for the coach and the coaching community as a whole.
4.2 COACHING SUPERVISION
The need for coaching supervision looks set to become more widespread as the accreditation
process is increasingly formalised and the industry faces regulation in the future.
Coaching supervision involves a coach having their own coach and/or mentor coach to
provide support, review their performance and challenge them. They may also make a
commitment to continuing professional development activities as a way of keeping up-to-
date with the latest trends in the coaching arena and refreshing their approach. (Association
for Coaching Information Sheet, 2006)
Unfortunately this does not appear to be a universal phenomenon. A paper prepared for the
Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development revealed that less than half of all coaches
involved in the research had any coaching supervision (Hawkins & Schwenk, 2006). This
could have a potentially damaging impact on the reputation of the coaching industry as a
whole and it is the writer‟s opinion that each coach has a responsibility to ensure they
continue to develop and improve.
Furthermore, the Association for Coaching would recommend that coaching supervision be
formalised through the creation of a contract as this ensures all parties are clear regarding the
boundaries of the relationship and the different roles and responsibilities (Association for
Coaching Information Sheet, 2006). In addition, Christine Bachini states that “formal
supervision arrangements cost money” but it can also be a selling point to clients as they feel
they are getting a higher level of coaching (Association for Coaching Bulletin, 2006).
In order to preserve the credibility of the coaching profession, it is the writer‟s view that all
coaches should start their coaching career by completing a recognised training course with a
well-respected training provider and build on this learning with continuing professional
development. This further compounds the case for accreditation within the industry to
protect the client, the coaching relationship and the reputation of the entire coaching
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community.
4.3 WORKPLACE COACHING
4.3.1 Coaching Culture

The future of workplace coaching looks good as more and more organisations strive to
embed coaching into their organisational culture. This can be attributed to the fact that
organisations are increasingly seeing the impact that coaching can have on the bottom line.
There are also many „softer‟ benefits such as retention of staff, increased morale and greater
confidence amongst employees. (Hipkiss, May 2006)
The writer believes that workplace coaching will become embedded in many organisations as
they strive to develop a coaching culture but it is widely acknowledged that this cannot
happen overnight. According to Clutterbuck and Megginson (2005), the development of a
coaching culture passes through the following four stages to become embedded in an
organisation:
1. Nascent stage – at this stage a coaching culture is basically non existent. There may
be pockets of coaching taking place but this is uncoordinated and is not necessary
done for the right reasons i.e. it is performed as a result of poor performance.
2. Tactical stage – organisations at this point have undertaken to adopt a coaching
culture but the practical implications of this remain somewhat of a mystery.
Coaching does take place but coaching behaviours are not integrated into
management styles.
3. Strategic stage – at this level, coaching has been widely implemented and senior
managers act as role models by coaching others. However, there is still some
progress required in integrating coaching with other HR systems and ensuring the
informal coaching process is supported.
4. Embedded stage – when an organisation reaches this stage, there is a maturity to their
coaching activity. All levels are involved in formal and informal coaching; it is
intrinsically linked other HR operations and 360° feedback is commonplace.
The writer believes that in the future there will be more evidence of organisations at stage 4
but there must be top management commitment and effective support mechanisms in place if
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it is to be a success.
Internal or external coach?

In order to truly embed a coaching culture in an organisation some believe that it can only be
achieved through the creation of a network of coaches employed within the organisation.
This could be one of the reasons for the apparent slow-down in the demand for external
coaches. According to the CIPD Training and Development 2005 survey, 13% of
respondents anticipate some decrease in external coaching activity. Conversely, 74%
reported that they expected their internal coaching to increase. (Jarvis, 2005) This supports
the view that there will be a move to more internal coaches in the future (de Haan, 2005).
Internal coaching is a cost-effective option and means that organisations can reach a wider
audience, thus realising greater benefits. However, if this approach is to work, it is important
to distinguish between “task orientated business meetings” and coaching sessions (Wright,
2005). There are also other forms of internal coaching that represent value for money such as
group coaching and co-coaching where two members of staff coach each other.
Liz Hall, editor of the CIPD‟s Coaching at Work magazine states, “The fact that internal
coaches have a better understanding of the business is another major factor prompting
organisations to bring coaching in-house.” (http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk, 2006)
However, external coaches provide a degree of objectivity that can be particularly useful
when dealing with senior staff and giving feedback to them
(http://www.trainingpressreleases.com, 2007). They may also have more influence as they
are seen as a „professional‟ in their field as opposed to an internal member of staff who
undertakes coaching as an additional responsibility and not as their core function.
It is the writer‟s view that organisations will increasingly train internal staff to undertake
coaching as part of their day-to-day responsibilities but that there will continue to be a role
for external coaches especially for senior executives and when dealing with major
organisational change programmes.
Evaluation Framework
Regardless of the coaching provider, it is imperative that an organisation sets out some key
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success criteria prior to embarking on a coaching programme. The absence of an evaluation
framework will make it difficult to assess the benefits that have been derived from the
introduction of coaching in the workplace. Eldridge and Dembkowski (2004 - 2) have said
that they “…have come across a lack of clarity about desired outcomes for coaching. This
leads to organisations being unclear about how to evaluate coaches and the outcome of
specific coaching programmes.”
One organisation, MaST learning and development, has developed a structured approach to
evaluation that ensures each party is clear about the outcomes that should be achieved from
coaching (http://www.mast.co.uk, 2007). The diagram in figure 5 below illustrated their
evaluation framework.
Figure 5: The MaSTerCoach Process (http://www.mast.co.uk, 2007)
In the writer‟s view, this framework provides a very solid foundation upon which to build
any organisational coaching programme. It also gives some useful insights for coaches and
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clients who are participating in a one-to-one coaching relationship outwith the workplace as
it is equally important to be clear about the outcomes of such coaching sessions.
POPULARITY OF COACHING
4.4.1 Coaching in the Media

The rise in popularity of coaching is set to continue, as it is now becoming a common feature
in many forms of media. The shelves of most bookstores are bulging with ‟self-help‟ and
personal development literature, offering an overview of coaching and instructions on how to
coach people to achieve their goals. Radio programmes feature life coaches on a regular
basis and there are even radio stations and podcasts dedicated to the subject
(http://www.embody.co.uk, 2007), (http://www.lciablog.com, 2007) and (Life Coach podcast,
2007).
Coaching is profiled in many popular magazines and there are increasing occurrences of
coaching on television with programmes such as the Oprah Winfrey show highlighting the
results that can be achieved by adopting the help of a coach (http://www2.oprah.com, 2007).
Although not exclusively focused on coaching, the worldwide phenomenon, The Secret,
which was also featured on the Oprah show, illustrates many of the same principles that
could be used in coaching and it could encourage people to seek the assistance of a coach to
progress their lives.
4.4.2 Coaching Trends

Myles Downey supports the view that coaching is rising in popularity and likens coaching to
status symbols such as the Porsche as the latest must-have item in the business world. He
cites the ever-increasing challenges faced by today‟s managers as one of the key reasons
behind the rise of the coaching industry. (http://www.downeycoaching.com, 2007)
The writer also believes that the growth in the industry can partly be attributed to the notion
that increasingly people are conscious of the need for a balance between their work and
personal life. They see coaching as a way to achieve such equilibrium in all areas of their
life. John Whitmore supports this view as he describes the rise in the number of business
people that are asking themselves, “what is my life all about?” and “what is the value of
what I am doing?” . (Whitmore, 2001)
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Coaching specialisms are also becoming commonplace, a trend which is anticipated to
continue in the future. There are now coaches dedicated to wedding coaching for brides-to-
be as they cope with the stresses and strains of preparing for their big day
(http://www.weddingcoaching.co.uk, 2007) and there are coaches who specialise in helping
people become better parents and raise happy children (http://www.parentcoaching.co.uk,
2007).
It would appear that no area of life is „out of bounds‟ as far as coaching is concerned and the
writer predicts that these niche-coaching practices will continue to be developed.
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5. CONCLUSION
Coaching has experienced a meteoric rise in use and popularity over the years and there is no
evidence to suggest that this will stop anytime soon. In fact, in some circles it has now
become „fashionable‟ to employ the skills of a life coach to make improvements in ones life.
This follows the trend that took place in the 1990s to employ personal fitness trainers.
Indeed in 2000, Gerard O‟Donovan predicted that by 2004 it would be just as common for
people to hire a life coach as it was to hire a personal trainer (Financial Adviser, 2000). The
analogy between the two professions does not stop there. According to life coach Elaine
MacDonald, “A life coach does for the rest of your life what a personal trainer does for your
health and fitness.” (http://www.brainyquote.com, 2007)
However, as the coaching profession continues to grow, so too do the challenges that are set
to face the modern coach. Not only must they react to the changing legislative environment
that is all too imminent, they must compete for work in an ever expanding industry. This
further compounds the case for coaching supervision as it provides a supportive environment
from which a coach can grow and develop as they encourage their clients to do the same.
Indeed, it is the writer‟s conclusion that coaching delivers many benefits to the client, the
coach and those around them. It is a key contribution to many organisational improvement
frameworks and it is encouraging to see many companies taking action to embed a coaching
culture.
The writer also believes that as coaching is evaluated and there is further research to confirm
its benefits, more and more individuals and organisations will seek the services of a coach to
help them make improvements in their life and work. However, this vision will only be
realised if the reputation of the industry is untarnished by so-called coaches who undertake
minimal training and have little or no qualifications. This is where the role of accreditation
and regulation is vital in protecting the industry and those credible coaches who already
exist. Without this formal framework, the industry is in jeopardy of being damaged by the
minority who fail to maintain high professional coaching standards.
Furthermore, it is the writer‟s firm belief that accreditation and regulation should be
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complemented by coaching supervision to maintain these high standards and ensure the
continuous development of all coaches. After all, the whole ethos of coaching is to
encourage the client to improve, so it is only right that the coach also seeks continuous
improvement opportunities and aims to develop their coaching.
Finally, in the words of John Russell, Managing Director of Harley-Davidson Europe Ltd., "I
never cease to be amazed at the power of the coaching process to draw out the skills or talent
that was previously hidden within an individual, and which invariably finds a way to solve a
problem previously thought unsolvable." (http://www.susandunn.cc, 2007)
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REFERENCES
PUBLICATIONS
Bachini, C. (2006) Why have Supervision – Is it really that important to my development as a

coach?, The Bulletin of the Association for Coaching, Autumn 2006 – Issue 9
Berman Fortgang, L. (2005) Take Yourself to the Top: Success from the Inside Out, USA,
Tarcher/Penguin
CIPD (2006) Annual survey report – Learning and Development
Clutterbuck, D. & Megginson, D (2005) Your Organisation: where is it on the road to

becoming a coaching culture?, Training Journal, June 2005
De Haan, E. (2005) A new vintage – old wine maturing in new bottles, Training Journal,
November 2005
Downey, M. (2003) Effective Coaching: Lessons from the Coach‟s Coach (2nd ed.), USA,
Thomson.
Eldridge, F. & Dembkowski, S. (2004 - 1) The ACHIEVE Coaching Model, Coach the
Coach, Issue 3
Eldridge, F. & Dembkowski, S. (2004 - 2) Creating a coaching culture: ten success factors for
bringing it to life, Coach the Coach, Issue 4
Guest, A. (1999) A Coach, a Mentor…a What?, Success Now, Issue 13 – Jul/Aug/Sep 1999
Hawkins, P. & Schwenk, G. (2006) Coaching Supervision – A paper prepared for the CIPD
coaching conference, September 2006
Hipkiss, A. (2006) Setting the trend, Training Journal, May 2006
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Hipkiss, A. (2006) Are you prepared to be coached?, Training Journal, July 2006
PUBLICATIONS (Cont.)
Jarvis, J. (2005) The rise and rise of coaching, CIPD, October 2005
Passmore, J. (2004) Is coaching just for tennis stars?, Vision, July 2004
Passmore, J. (ed.) (2006) Excellence in Coaching: The Industry Guide, Great Britain, Kogan
Page Ltd
Richardson, C. (2000) Take Time for Your Life, Great Britain, Bantam Books
Starr, J. (2003) The Coaching Manual: the definitive guide to the process, principles and
skills of personal coaching, UK, Pearson Education Limited.
Trapp, R. (2005) How to select a coach, CIPD, September 2005
Whitmore. J. (2001) The Next Frontier for Coaching, Performance Consultants
Whitworth, L., Kimsey-House, H. & Sandahl, P. (1998) Co-Active Coaching – New Skills for
Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life, USA, Davies-Black Publishing.
Wright, N. (2005) Leading edge: managing people through directing, delegating and
coaching, Training Journal, January 2005
WEB SITES
http://en.wikipedia.org http://www.lifecoachsolutions.co.uk
http://.theinnergame.com http://www.mast.co.uk
http://www.brainyquote.com http://www.mentorset.org.uk
http://www.businessballs.com http://www.mylifecoach.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com http://www.nlpacademy.co.uk
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http://www.coachfederation.org.uk http://www.oscm.co.uk
http://www.coachinc.com http://www.parentcoaching.co.uk
http://www.coachingnetwork.org.uk http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk
http://www.coachville.com http://www.performance-am.com
http://www.downeycoaching.com http://www.roundrose.com
http://www.edexcel.org.uk http://www.startliving.org.uk
http://www.embody.co.uk http://www.susandunn.cc
http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org http://www.thebig-leap.com
http://www.fsa.gov.uk http://www.trainingpressreleases.com
http://www.gerardodonovan.com http://www.trans4mind.com
http://www.inspire-coaching.co.uk http://www.usatoday.com
http://www.inspiritivelife.com.au http://www.weddingcoaching.co.uk
http://www.lciablog.com http://www2.oprah.com
http://www.learndirect-advice.co.uk
OTHER
 Association for Coaching – Coaching Supervision Information Sheet (2006)

 Financial Adviser – 11th May 2000
 Life Coach Pod Cast – http://www.coachtrainingalliance.com
 The Secret DVD (Prime Time Productions) – Rhonda Byrne
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
PUBLICATIONS
Barber, J. (ed.) (2005) Good Question! The Art of Asking Questions to Bring About Positive
Change, Great Britain, Book Shaker
Bashford, S. 2006) Perfect match, Learning & Development, March 2006
Berman Fortgang, L. (2005) Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction, USA, Penguin
Group Inc.
Byrne, R. (2006) The Secret, UK, Simon & Schuster Ltd
Canfield, J. (2005) The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You
Want to Be, USA, Harpers Collins Publishers Ltd.
Coombes, R. (2006) Bringing out the best in people, Local Government Chronicle, January
2006
Goodge, P. (2005) How to use coaching to build strategic HR, CIPD, October 2005
Grant, A. (2006) Prepare for Take-off, People Management, April 2006
Jeffers, S. (1991) Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, UK, Random House Limited.
Lehane, S. (2005) Advantage points, CIPD, October 2005
Lehane, S. (2005) Whistle While You Work, People Management, December 2005
Parsloe, E. & Rolph, J. (2004) Coaching: survey respondents have their say, Training
Journal, June 2004
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Pfeffer, J. & Sutton, R. (2005) Accidental Heroes, People Management, December 2005
PUBLICATIONS (Cont.)
Pirrie, J. (2006) Team power, Training Journal, February 2006
Whitmore, J. (2006) Coaching for Performance: GROWing People, Performance and

Purpose (3rd ed.) UK, Nicholas Brealey Publishing
WEB SITES
http://observer.guardian.co.uk http://www.mindtools.com
http://www.alifecoaching.com http://www.minnesotacoaches.org
http://www.becomeacoach.com http://www.oncoaching.com
http://www.businessleader.com http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk
http://www.chrisgribble.com http://www.personallifemedia.com
http://www.coaching.com http://www.seeleysolutions.com
http://www.fionaharrold.com http://www.thedevco.com
http://www.greatday.com http://www.timesonline.co.uk
http://www.hayhouseradio.com http://www.trainingzone.co.uk
OTHER
 The Coaching Psychologist, Volume 3, No. 1, April 2007

 Noble Manhattan Conference Calls
 Noble Manhattan Life Coaching Modules
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Contact Details

No 5
105 The Esplanade
Weymouth
Dorset
DT4 7EA
Tel +44 1305 769411

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This report explores the relationship between Coaching and Neuro Linguistic
Programming (NLP). What is Coaching? What is Neuro Linguistic Programming?
What are the presuppositions of NLP? Where does NLP come from? What are the
foundation stones of Coaching? How is Coaching enhanced by the use of NLP?
Introduction
NLP fascinates me. I am currently at Practitioner level and enjoy incorporating NLP
techniques in my coaching practice and, it is for this reason, that I want to explore
the relationship between coaching and NLP in my thesis. This is not a definitive
study between the two professions as I am still learning but I would like to take time
to explore the ways in which NLP can be used in coaching sessions with Clients.
My experience to date shows that NLP accelerates the results for Clients within
coaching and that NLP techniques add an exciting dimension to change and
bridging the gap between where the Client is now and where they want to be.
Sometimes, as a Coach, you can feel „stuck‟ as to what coaching skill to deploy
effectively and, for me, NLP is a great tool to use with Clients. By suggesting a
totally different way of approaching a „situation‟, you immediately move the Client out
of being „stuck‟ and into a more „flexible‟ frame of mind. When you encourage
Clients to bring all their sensory modes into operation, the process of change has
begun without them actually realising it. The desired outcome is invariable positive
and less hard work than the Client had originally thought and can bring about
incredible transformations.
It might sound odd but NLP is playful and, at times, light-hearted. It can have an
amazing impact that gets right to the heart of the matter. Joseph O‟Connor in his
„NLP Workbook‟, I think, agrees when he says that “NLP is a way of thinking, a
frame of mind based on curiosity, exploration and fun”.
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What is Coaching?
“Co-Active Coaching” by Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House and Phil Sandahl

for defines coaching as “a powerful alliance designed to forward and enhance the
lifelong process of human learning, effectiveness and fulfilment”.
You almost have to experience coaching to understand how unique and special the
Client-Coach relationship can be because coaching creates a relational synergy.
Together the Coach and Client define needs, wants, ambitions and desires in an
atmosphere of trust where the Client feels free to discuss anything he or she wants.
Curly Martin in „The Life Coaching Handbook‟ stresses “the job of the Life Coach is
to get results – results, result and nothing but results!” She also adds that coaching
is not about advising your Clients – the Coach‟s strength lies in allowing your Clients
to find the answers for themselves”.
Coaches who are non-directional do not tell, advise or suggest to Clients what they
„should‟ do, but through questioning and listening to raise awareness, draw out from
them the solutions that lie within them.
I like Tim Gallway‟s coaching formula that he talks about in „The Inner Game of
Tennis‟ when he says that “Potential minus Interference equals
Performance” and it is the job of a Coach to help a Client identify the interference
and remove it!
Clients come to coaching because they want to move forward in their lives and
Coaches work with Clients to enable them to overcome their blocks, to help them
realise their potential and to become the person that they are capable of being.
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What is Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)?
The great thing about NLP is that there is no one set definition! It is constantly
evolving and contributors to the field quote differently themselves. For example,
Robert Dilts says “NLP is whatever works!” John Grinder says that “NLP is an
accelerated learning strategy for the detection and utilization of patterns in the
world”. Richard Bandler says that “NLP is an attitude and a methodology, which
leave behind a trail of techniques”.
NLP trainers often tell stories as a means of conveying a message. Here is one
about NLP:
A boy asked his mother, “What’s NLP?”

His mother said, “I will tell you in a moment, but first you have to do something so
you can understand. See your granddad over there in his chair?”
“Yep”, said the boy.
“Go and ask him how his arthritis is today”.
The boy went over to his grandfather. “Granddad”, he said, “how’s your arthritis
today?”
“Oh, it’s a bit bad, son”, replied the old man. “It’s always worse in damp weather. I
can hardly move my fingers today”. A look of pain crossed his face.
The boy went back to his mother. “He said it was bad. I think it hurts him. Are you
going to tell me what NLP is now?”
“In a minute, I promise”, replied his mother. “Now go over and ask Granddad what
was the funniest thing that you did when you were very young”.
The boy went over to his grandfather, “Granddad”, he began, “What’s the funniest
thing I ever did when I was very young?”
The old man’s face lit up. “Oh”, he smiled, “there were lots of things. There was the
time when you and your friend played Father Christmas and sprinkled talcum
powder all over the bathroom pretending it was snow. I laughed – but I didn’t have
to clean it up”. He stared into the distance with a smile.
“Then there was the time I took you out for a walk. It was a lovely day and you were
singing a nursery rhyme you had just learned. Loudly. A man went past and gave
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you a nasty look. He thought you were being too noisy. He asked me to tell you to
be quiet. You turned round and said to him, “If you don’t like me singing, you can go
and boil your head”. And carried on even louder …” The old man chuckled.
The boy went back to his mother. “Did you hear what Granddad said?” he asked.
“Yes”, his mother replied. “You changed how he felt with a few words. That’s NLP”.
While this is by no means a complete description of what NLP is, it does illustrate
how you can help someone change their state and, in NLP, calibrating the „state‟ of
a Client and eliciting a change of „state‟ is essential to a firm understanding of NLP
and allows us an insight into the models of how individuals structure their unique
experiences of life.
What are the Presuppositions of NLP?
The development of NLP has resulted in a number of presuppositions. These

include:
1. The map is not the territory – whatever the world is like we use our senses to
explore and map it. The sort of map you make depends on what you notice
and where you want to go.
2. There is no failure, only feedback.
3. The mind and body affect each other.
4. You are in charge of your mind and therefore of your results.
5. People have all the resources that they need to make the changes that they
want.
6. It is better to increase your number of choices.
7. If what you are doing isn‟t working – do something different.
8. The meaning of the communication is the response you get.
9. Respect other people‟s model of the world.
10. Language does not describe reality. It is a result of an external stimulus,
followed by a personal internal representation.
11. The person with the most flexible behaviour will control the outcome of an
interaction.
12. The highest quality information about other people is their behaviour.
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13. A person‟s behaviour in a given situation is the best choice available to them.
14. A person‟s behaviour is contextual and is not their self or identity.
15. There is no such thing as a resistant client – only a lack of rapport.
What are the Origins of NLP?
NLP covers three main areas:
 Neurology - the mind and how we think

 Linguistic - how we use language and how it affects us
 Programming - how we sequence our actions to achieve our goals.
Going back to its origins NLP has an intellectual history and philosophical basis and
an understanding of this enables you to see where the NLP presuppositions have
come from.
Major influences on NLP have come from various schools of thought including
Pragmatism, Constructivism, General Semantics, Person Centred Therapy,
Transactional Analysis, the Tote Model, Cybernetics, System Theory, Gestalt
Theory, Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and the work of Virginia Satir.
It was the work of John Grinder and Richard Bandler in the 1970s who specifically
created NLP and they spent time studying and modelling the work of the different
schools of thought.
The theory of Pragmatism, devised by the American philosopher and psychologist

William James, looked at what it was like to be inside an experience. James‟ work is
probably the closely forerunner of how NLP deals with time lines because he spoke
about the subjective experience of time
The Constructivist argument says that we each make our own map of reality
because we experience the world through our senses – what we see, hear and feel.
Also, our culture, values, expectations, preoccupations and society
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Filter what and how we experience reality. We are responsible for how we perceive
and how we act on our perceptions.
General Semantics, founded by Alfred Korzbyski, coined one of NLP‟s

presuppositions, “the map is not the territory”, that is, our words are far more limited
than the experience itself. He said that, as individuals, we make maps of reality with
our language and then take that map for reality itself.
Korzybski‟s work was further developed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson who
developed the idea that all language speaks in metaphors and that we can only
speak of what things are like, and not exactly how things are. NLP often takes
language literally as a clue to the thought process behind it.
NLP absorbed the work of Carl Rogers and Person Centred Therapy that all
listening should be non-judgemental and that the Client‟s language should be
reflected back to them as a way of exploring their beliefs and presuppositions to lead
to an understanding and a resolution of their problem.
Transactional Analysis from Eric Berne introduced the idea that people have three
principal „parts‟ of their personality that think and react differently, that is, the
„parent‟, „adult‟ and „child‟. Grinder and Bandler studied video-tapes of Berne doing
psychotherapy and took for NLP the metaphor of „personality parts‟. This idea is
useful in NLP terms because people often feel „split‟ by conflicting desires and
emotions and exploring „parts‟ is a useful way of dealing with problems and difficult
decisions.
The TOTE model, introduced in the 1960s, says we act to reduce difference
between a present state and a desired one. It is still used in NLP because it
NLP is a cybernetic model, that is, the results on one action are fed back into the
system and used as the basis for the next action.
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The four people who had the most influence on the development of NLP were
Gregory Bateson, Friedric Perls, Milton Erickson and Virginia Satir.
Bateson was an English anthropologist but his work touched on many fields
including ethnology, psychiatry, psychology, cybernetics and systems theory and his
writings form the intellectual basis for NLP.
Fritz Perls was originally trained as a psychoanalyst and went on to develop Gestalt
Therapy which proposed that people should trust their own instincts and enjoy their
experience. He believed in the integration of mind and emotions and personal
growth.
Like Perls, Virginia Satir used a person‟s senses (their representational systems) of
visual, auditory and kinaesthetic, in therapy to help clients experience solutions to
their problems. She was a family therapist whose work concentrated on increasing
self-esteem and understanding the point of view of other people. She worked
closely with John Grinder and Richard Bandler in the early seventies.
Milton Erickson‟s background was in medicine and psychology and he went on to

become a hypnotherapist. He was fascinated by the uniqueness of every person
and how they were able to do what they did so he let the Clients dictate the form of
therapy rather than using a systematic approach. Bandler and Grinder modelled his
work and Erickson‟s language patterns are taught in NLP as the Milton Model.
What are the cornerstones of Coaching?
“Co-Active Coaching” defines the four cornerstones of coaching as:
1. The Client is naturally creative, resourceful and whole.

2. Coaching addresses the Client‟s whole life.
3. The agenda comes from the Client.
4. The relationship is a designed alliance.
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Within this, “Co-Active Coaching” refers to the five contexts of coaching as:
 Listening
 Intuition
 Curiosity
 Action / Learning
 Self-Management
Coaching skills typically used include:
o Articulating
o Clarifying
o Meta-view
o Metaphor
o Acknowledging
“Co-Active Coaching” also identifies other coaching techniques used and these
include requesting, brainstorming, intrusion, asking permission, bottom lining,
championing, clearing, reframing, challenging, telling and demanding,
Inquiry assignment, learning from failure as from success and „noticing, recognising
and naming the gremlin so it begins to loose its power‟.
Coaching Models
There are various coaching models in use, two popular ones being the TGROW and
the I-CAN-DO models.
TRGOW stands for Topic, Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward.

I-CAN-DO stands for Investigate, Current Situation, Overall Aims, Number of
Options, Date, Outcome.
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The Coach‟s place in either model is to create an environment in which Clients are
able to focus entirely on their fulfilment, balance and process. Within each session,
a particular goal or aim is highlighted and the Coach uses different techniques to
elicit Client awareness so that the Client can find their own answers.
An Effective Coach
“Co-Active Coaching” refers to the “effective coach” as having the ability to “dance in
the moment”, that is, there is no pre-set formula to follow but rather the Coach must
wait to hear the Client‟s response before deciding in which direction to move the
conversation forward. The Coach must keep on his or her toes “to move gracefully
into the next question or to employ a coaching skill”.
 An Effective Coach Needs Listening Skills
An effective Coach listens equally to the words that the Client is saying as well
as to those which are unsaid. In coaching, you are taught that there are three
levels of listening – the first is typical of a normal conversation where both
parties share viewpoints, the second is focused listening whereby the Coach
focuses exclusively on what the Client is saying, and, the third is global
listening in which the Coach picks up on emotion, body language and the
environment itself. This includes the sensory data as well as mood, pace and
energy.
A coach needs to be able to listen actively and this involves clarifying what the Client
says, noticing body language, being aware of the feelings behind the words and
being sensitive to the context of the conversation. A Coach takes in the information,
responds and notices the impact on the Client. A Coach has to be able to read the
impact they are having on the Client and adjust his or her own behaviour
accordingly.
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 An Effective Coach Needs Intuition
When a Coach listens at level three this is listening with true awareness. This
involves trusting our own intuition and operating at a subconscious level and being
aware of our own gut feelings, thoughts and hunches.
 An Effective Coach Needs to be Curious
“Co-Active Coaching” states that “the coach‟s job is to ask questions –

powerful questions that break through old defences”. A Coach has to be curious
to be interested in focusing at level three on one person for a period of time.
The task as a Coach is to encourage the Client as well to become curious about
him or herself in a safe and confidential environment. If a Coach‟s curiosity
can help raise a Client‟s self-awareness that, in turn, raises his or her own self-
disclosure, this is a powerful step on the path to change.
 An Effective Coach Needs to Promote a Client’s Action and Learning
“Co-Active Coaching” stresses that the purpose of the coaching conversation is

“to forward the action and deepen the learning”. The TGROW model is a
useful coaching tool in that it enables a discussion to take place about the way
forward for a Client. After the goal has been set and the reality of the situation
explored, options are encouraged which lead to an action-planning stage. These
should be SMART – that, is, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and
time-oriented. Coaches should seek a level of commitment from a Client which
encompasses commitment, intention and motivation. This is often done on a
scale of 1-10, and taken that change will take place if the Client rates their
scoring as a 7 or above.
In subsequent coaching sessions, it is valuable to review progress to help a Client

learn more about themselves and how they could be more effective in helping
themselves achieve their goals. This might lead to the use of other coaching
techniques to help a Client move forward, such as a review of values and beliefs as
well as other issues, such as the wheel of life, what drains a Client, looking at daily
habits, time-management, gremlin-clarification and saying yes – saying no.
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 An Effective Coach Needs to Manage Themselves
A Coach‟s ability to manage him or herself is more than just the ability to lead a
coaching session. I like the quote by Laura Whitworth in „Co-Active Coaching‟
that says, “in order to truly hold the Client‟s agenda, the Coach must get out of
the way”! This means that a Coach must not bring their own issues or their
own map of the world into a coaching session, rather the Coach is there 100%
for the Client. It is important for a Coach to be coached themselves as this not
only sets a good example to the Client, but enables a Coach to learn more about
their own self-awareness.
 Other Effective Coaching Skills: Articulating, Clarifying, Meta-view,

Metaphor, Acknowledging
Although I have put these coaching skills together they are important in their
own right. Articulation is the ability of a Coach to describe in a succinct
manner what is going on and to mirror back to the Client what they have just
said to you. It is a skill which affirms the Client. Sometimes, just to hear back
to us what we have said is all we need to lead to greater self-awareness.
Clarifying is allied closely to this because it is a means of checking
understanding and it is essential that a Coach never assumes what a Client has
meant.
Meta-view opens up the big picture for a Client and enables a Client to see
themselves or their situation in a new light. Sometimes, a different perspective
is all that it needs to facilitate a different thought process in a Client that then
leads on to the Client giving themselves permission to change or to do
something differently. Metaphors are a wonderful technique to use with Clients
because, although they are expressed in words, they draw on imagery and
experience to help a Client comprehend more quickly and easily. Sometimes
the truth for a Client is in their heart or in their gut and not in their mind.
Metaphors allow the meaning to be more expansive than the literal meaning of
the individual words used.
Clients come to coaching because they realise there is a gap between where
they want to be and where they are now. It takes courage to open up to another
person and to make changes in one‟s own life. It is, therefore, so important to
acknowledge this and to praise a Client for being themselves, for being honest
and open, for wanting to move forward towards their dreams and goals. Also, it
is important to acknowledge a Client for trying and not always succeeding as
there is always learning in action. I find that when I acknowledge my Clients,
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although I might not see them because we are speaking on the phone, I can
detect a movement / a change in them, as though through my simple
acknowledgement of who they are, it has helped to increase their self-esteem. It
also gives a Client encouragement to continue on their journey and this is so
important within coaching as Clients can often experience setbacks on their
path to what they want in life.
How is Coaching enhanced by the use of NLP?
NLP explores how your thoughts (neuro) are affected by words (linguistic) leading to
action (programming). If the presuppositions of NLP are combined with the
cornerstones of coaching, this makes for a powerful combination and gives both the
Coach and Client added resources for eliciting change.
In my opinion, the use of NLP can enhance coaching in the following ways:
 Managing your own state as a Coach

 Enhancing rapport with a Client
 Monitoring a Client‟s state
 Understanding a Client‟s view of the world
 Changing a Client‟s state
 Improving questioning skills
 Coaching at an unconscious level
 Setting goals with Clients
 Helping Clients deal with difficult and „stuck‟ issues
 Replacing a Client‟s self-limiting beliefs with empowering ones
 Identifying the level at which Clients need to make changes
 Managing your own and a Client‟s learning
 Increasing problem-solving tools and strategies for Clients
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MANAGING YOUR OWN STATE AS A COACH
In coaching, it is important to focus 100% on a Client. This means leaving

behind your own issues, concerns, judgements and prejudices. NLP helps you
learn how to manage your own „state‟. This means having a good awareness of
your own being, that is, your physiology, your thinking and your emotions so
that you are better able to put them aside when coaching. If you are aware of
your „ideal coaching state‟ you can make sure you are in this state when
working with Clients.
ENHANCING RAPPORT WITH A CLIENT
There are verbal and non-verbal ways of communicating. Using non-verbal
techniques of matching, mirroring, pacing and leading as well as cross-over
matching, you can build and maintain rapport with a Client. In coaching you
use these rapport skills and NLP takes this further by increasing the detail at
which rapport can be built and maintained.
In „Influencing with Integrity‟, Genie Laborde describes “unconscious visible

responses” which should also be noticed and this includes changes in skin
colour, facial muscles, the lower lip and breathing. She says you should notice
these changes, not to make judgements about your Client, but to increase your
sensory skills from „awareness‟ to „acuity‟ as well as to increase your choice of
building rapport.
Other ways in which NLP helps you to enhance rapport with a Client is through
noticing the use of a Client‟s language. Every person has a preferred style of
communication and this revolves around the senses of sight, sound, touch, taste
and smell. Our language reveals our preferred senses through the use of words.
Observing this particular „sensory acuity‟ is a basic skill in NLP and helps
immensely with coaching.
Recognising a Client‟s preferred predicate, ie. sensory-based words, allows the

Client to feel that he or she is communicating well with the Coach and this
makes it easier for the Client to disclose information about him or herself. If, as
Coaches, we have the ability to do this, Clients will feel more comfortable
talking to us and this will help build trust and strengthen the coaching alliance.
In NLP, one of the presuppositions is that “there is no resistant client, only a

lack of rapport” and this means that it is the responsibility of the practitioner /
coach to build a good relationship with a Client.
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MONITORING A CLIENT‟S STATE BY NOTICING THEIR PHYSIOLOGY
In NLP there is a model of communication which says that if a Client thinks

differently, he or she will also act differently (and vice versa). In coaching, it
is important to be observant and NLP helps you understand how the mind
processes information and how this manifests itself by changes at the
physiological level.
The NLP presupposition that the mind and body affect each other encourages
the Coach using NLP to work holistically with a Client. A „shift‟ in a Client‟s
physiology indicates that their internal processing of information, ie. his or her
thinking, has also altered.
Through the study of NLP the Coach becomes more tuned into eliciting and
calibrating states in Clients and that there are more ways of just working with a
Client other than communicating through words. Actions play a large part as
well.
Another way NLP helps Coaches to notice what is happening with Clients is
through the use of eye accessing clues. By observing the direction of a Client‟s
eye movements, you can pick up on the kind of thinking that is going on and
whether someone is thinking in a visual, auditory or kinaesthetic way. This is
often backed up through other body language signals such as the tone, volume
and pitch of our voice.
UNDERSTANDING A CLENT‟S VIEW OF THE WORLD
Most people listen at a superficial level. Coaching trains you to listen on a

global level, that is, with your senses. NLP takes this further by giving you an
increased understanding of the meaning of a Client‟s use of language through
submodality work, that is, the smallest building blocks of thoughts that reveal
more details about how a person sees, hears and feels.
Knowledge of submodalities can increase a Coach‟s effectiveness in helping a

Client change. Examples of submodalities in the visual field include colour,
brightness, size. Auditory submodality examples include, for example, tone,
pitch, volume and, kinaesthetic submodalities include such things as texture and
temperature. Submodalities also exist within taste and smell but the main ones
that NLP emphasizes are visual, auditory and kinaesthetic.
Learning about the NLP presupposition that “language does not describe
reality” also enhances a Coach‟s skill in communicating with a Client. This is
because our language is less rich than the way our senses experience life and we
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have to use filters of deletion, distortion and generalisation to help us
communicate with others. This explains why a Coach should never make
assumptions because each person creates their own meaning of a word and an
experience.
A Coach who appreciates that it is really important to understand a Client‟s

view of the world and the reasons behind this, will, in my opinion, be a more
effective Coach. We each have our own reality which is a result of an external
stimulus, followed by our own personal internal representation and when we
coach we need to put our own map of reality to one side to be fully present in
the Client‟s.
CHANGING A CLIENT‟S STATE
Coaching is connected to helping Clients make changes in their lives and, as

individuals, we are all able to manage these better if we are in a resourceful
state. Anchoring is a process of learning to hold on to emotional states that are
crucial to our outcomes. We all have natural anchors but, at times, we need
techniques to help us be more effective. Using anchors with our Clients helps
them to tap into their inner potential and choose the best emotional state to suit
their circumstances.
Working with an individual‟s submodalities, a Coach using NLP, can create a

range of anchors to increase a Client‟s ability to “lead” him or herself. There
are many different ways of using anchors but, as O‟Connor and Seymour say in
“Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming”, the importance of anchoring is
that is “enables us to increase our emotional freedom by escaping from the
tyranny of past negative experiences and creating more positive ones”.
HELPING WITH QUESTIONING SKILLS
Good coaches pay attention to questioning skills because the right question can
make all the difference. When a Client responds to a question there are often
different questions a Coach can ask in return. NLP helps you decide which
question to ask because you have a greater understanding of language, how
people process information and the effect that certain types of questions might
have on Clients so you can choose your questions with more confidence and
care.
In terms of questions, NLP also helps you, as a Coach, maintain rapport with
your Client as you ask questions. You can do this by noticing the Client‟s state
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and representational systems, that is, the preferred sensory-based words the
Client is using, and asking questions that reflect the Client‟s words back to
them. At its simplest, Clients often talk in terms of what they think, feel, see,
etc, and it is good practice as a Coach to use these words in the questions we
ask back to the Client.
NLP can also enhance a Coach‟s technique by exploring further the use of
language. The linguist, Noam Chomsky, identified different layers of language
– from surface to deep – and a Coach needs to be aware of this in order to ask
questions that help to recover information which a Client has filtered through a
process of „deletion‟, „distortion‟ or „generalisation‟.
The surface structure is everything we say, either to ourselves or to others, and

the deep structure is the underlying meaning of what we say, containing
information neither expressed nor known consciously
In NLP, a distortion is when you change an experience and make it different in

some way. A deletion is when you miss out a portion of an experience and a
generalisation is when one specific experience comes to represent a whole class
or group of experiences.
Chunking is another NLP language technique that is helpful in forming

coaching questions. You can chunk up, down and sideways. Chunking up is
connected to the Milton Model and chunking down is connected to the Meta
Model. Sideways chunking relates to metaphors that Clients use to make sense
of their experience. In coaching this is a valuable technique because through
the use of metaphors a Client‟s mind is opened to many possible meanings from
the one they originally had.
COACHING AT AN UNCONSCIOUS LEVEL
Sue Knight in her book “NLP At Work” explains clearly how the power of the
voice and the influence of language help with coaching skills. She says: “Our
conscious minds are obedient to commands – we seek out the commands in a
sentence and ignore the rest”. Telling someone, “Don‟t worry”, will not stop
that person from worrying because the unconscious responds to indirect rather
than direct communication!
Familiarity with the Milton Model, so named by John Grinder and Richard
Bandler from modelling the hypnotherapist Milton Erickson, illustrates the
importance of the use of our words and the manner in which they are said to our
Clients.
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Understanding this helps us be more effective Coaches and gives us the ability
to pace and lead our Clients using “artfully vague language” in order to access
the unconscious mind and distract and utilise the conscious mind.
As O‟Connor says in “Introducing NLP”, the Milton Model “follows the way
the mind works naturally …. you are highly motivated to learn from your
unconscious in an inner directed way. You do not tell a Client what to do;
rather you direct his or her attention to what is there”.
SETTING GOALS
Coaching stresses the importance of goal setting and the TGROW model endorses
this approach. Some goals Clients wish to achieve may take a short or long time and
sometimes a goal changes along the way. What is crucial is that a goal is set so
that the Client has a direction to follow and the coaching process takes account of
reviewing goals and learning.
NLP is a really useful tool with goal setting because it encourages Clients to use
their senses in the process. This is referred to as a well-formed outcome. Genie Z
Labordie in “Influencing with Integrity” says that by using the senses in this way, it
“impacts significantly on your thinking process: what you think about are the
pictures, words, or feelings you have selected. You will notice what is available in
your immediate environment and among past experiences to assist you.”
There is a series of twenty-one questions which you can go through with Clients
in forming outcomes. These questions cover the senses, negative and positive
consequences and synaesthaesia. Synaesthaeisa questions make the brain work
at processing information and include:
 What would happen if you did get that outcome?

 What would happen if you didn’t get that outcome
 What wouldn’t happen if you did get that outcome?
 What wouldn’t happen if you didn’t get that outcome?
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As a Coach, you can use a great NLP technique to consolidate well-formed
outcomes by the process of “future pacing”. This involves mentally rehearsing an
outcome so that it is more compelling and self-fulfilling for a Client. This can be
done on a timeline, that is, the line that connects our past with our future and the
„place‟ we store pictures, sounds and feelings of our past and future.
MOTIVATING CLIENTS
Clients often come to coaching because they need greater accountability in their
lives to achieve their goals and they look to the Coach to help them find ways
of fulfilling their dreams. Through the use of the Metal Model, if a Coach can
learn to identify the motivation traits of a Client and, in turn, speak in the
Client‟s own personal style, the Coach will be more influential in helping a
Client to help themselves.
Shelle Rose Charvet in her book “Words that Change Minds” says that the
important point in helping Clients motivate themselves is to listen to “how
people answer, instead of what they say. In this way, after asking a few simple
questions, you can determine what will trigger and maintain someone‟s
motivation and how they internally process information”.
People have different patterns of what motivates them. One pattern is “toward” and
“away from”. So, for example, Client A is motivated to achieve a goal by sorting out
the problems (away from) and Client B is motivated to achieve the same goal by the
reward at the end (towards).
In coaching both Clients you would raise different issues with each, thereby
reflecting their own use of motivating language and concerns and you would need to
be careful not to stereotype Clients as individual patterns vary depending on the
context.
DEALING WITH DIFFICULT ISSUES / HELPING CLIENTS BECOME „UNSTUCK‟
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I think NLP offers imaginative solutions to coaching Clients when they stumble
across difficult and unresolved issues. As long as you are confident that
coaching rather than counselling is appropriate, there are a variety of NLP
techniques that you could consider using. These include swish, disassociated /
associated, visualisation, timelines and eye movement integration.
If a Client is finding change difficult, such as giving up smoking, dieting, etc,

the use of swish can replace unwanted behaviour or habits in favour or new
ones and the NLP Coach works with a Client‟s submodalities to elicit change.
If a Client finds revisiting an experience difficult or painful, the NLP technique of

helping a Client disassociate their emotions from the experience is really useful and
can help with deep-seated fears such as phobias.
In NLP, time is experienced subjectively as distance and each person has their own
individual timeline of the past, present and future. In coaching you can use timelines
to help Clients resolve issues in the past as a way forward to a more compelling
future, to access resources and to organise their lives.
Eye movement integration is a simple, clever NLP technique that helps Clients
identify where they are stuck on a particular issue and helps them deal with it in a
different and non-verbal way. The Coach metaphorically „holds‟ the Client‟s problem
while the Coach moves his / her hand through the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic
eye movements until the Client‟s gaze remains steady throughout. This enables the
Client to bring many different resources and ways of thinking to bear on a problem in
different and creative combinations.
CHANGING BELIEFS
In coaching, your Client‟s goals are more likely to be achieved if their values
are in alignment with their beliefs. An important part of coaching is helping a
Client discover what their values are and what beliefs are needed in order to
help a Client succeed with their outcomes. Often self-limiting beliefs hold
Clients back with managing change and NLP helps Coaches work with
changing a Client‟s self-limiting beliefs.
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Using NLP, there are various ways of working with beliefs. Several of these models
involve the splitting up of a belief to identify different components which are holding
a Client back. For example, one such model splits a belief into “realist – critic –
dreamer”; another one has different categories such as, “old limiting belief – positive
purpose – redefine – new empowering belief”.
These are particularly effective because they help a Client break down a problem or
belief into more manageable chunks. Also, using these techniques allow a Client‟s
unconscious mind to come to the fore in creating positive solutions.
IDENTIFYING THE LEVEL AT WHICH CHANGE

NEEDS TO TAKE PLACE
I really like the impact that Robert Dilts has made on NLP. His model of
neurological levels is masterful and really helps a Coach work with a Client to
identify the level at which change needs to take place. His model is
straightforward and easily explained to Clients.
At the core of Dilt‟s model is spirituality/identity, followed by beliefs/values,

capabilities, behaviour and then environment. As a Coach, you can work with a
Client by separating these levels and asking Clients questions which relate
directly to each one, thereby gathering useful information to help with change
work.
Dilt‟s model illustrates how change can take place at different levels but that if
you can make a change at one of the inner levels such as identity and
beliefs/values, this will in turn change all the other outer levels and have greater
impact.
MANAGING YOUR OWN AND A CLIENT‟S LEARNING
Coaching is concerned with managing a Client‟s action and learning and NLP
offers useful insights into this process. NLP says that learning takes the form of
four steps from unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious
competence to unconscious competence.
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NLP offers other valuable learning models as a Coach that you can use with
Clients such as “self-development” and „generative learning‟. “Self-
development” is helping Clients to understand the link between acting
differently, thinking differently and feeling differently. “Generative learning”
is taking into account your beliefs and assumptions when reviewing and making
decisions. If you can incorporate this feedback into your own learning model,
you will gain more as a result.
Another great NLP technique for a Coach is perceptual positions. This involves
looking at other people‟s points of view to aid understanding to any given
situation. There are 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions, the 1st being your own viewpoint,
the 2nd of the other person and the 3rd being an objective observer.
Taking note of these different learning models relate to many of the NLP
presuppositions such as increasing flexibility, there is no such thing as failure –
only feedback, respecting other people‟s model of the world and a person‟s
behaviour is contextual and reflects the best choice available to them.
PROBLEM-SOLVING TOOLS
People often come for coaching because they have problems they cannot solve
easily. The Coach, trained in NLP, will look for the difference that will make the
difference to help the Client find the solution and become more self-reliant.
NLP is concerned with modelling – that is, the process of „how‟ rather than „why‟. As
Sue Knight in “NLP At Work” says, “If someone can do it, anyone can do it.” By
decoding a Client‟s successful strategies, you can coach someone to learn how to
put these effective techniques into play for other situations.
Knight also refers to the point that, “We are creatures of habit. Our lives follow
patterns ….. It is our patterns in thinking and behaving that create our response to
circumstances, not the circumstances themselves……look within to uncover and
review those patterns that are making our lives what they are”.
I think NLP has the most wonderful range of problem-solving tools and strategies to
help Clients in a coaching context. I also think they help Clients look for ethical
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solutions to their problems because NLP is not just concerned with the individual
outcome but looks at how your decisions impact on others.
Conclusion
NLP encourages a Coach to look beyond the words of a Client, not to mind read, but
to explore a Client‟s physiology and senses, to understand better a Client‟s map of
the world – effectively, their perception of reality. NLP believes that, like in coaching,
a Client is creative, resourceful and whole and lends itself to the task that if
something a Client is doing is not working, it is better to make changes to reach the
desired outcome.
Likewise, it is the Client who determines what they want and NLP has many tools at
its disposal to help a Client find out what they are searching for and the means to
help them achieve their ends. Using the power of the unconscious mind helps a
Client realize goals in compelling ways. Working with a Client‟s value and belief
system encourages Clients to believe that they can achieve their outcomes.
I think one of the powerful presuppositions of NLP is that a person‟s behaviour is not
their identity or self – rather all behaviour is contextual – so NLP works on different
levels to help Client‟s discover where their issues are and, therein, where the
solutions lie. NLP helps a Coach work in detail with a Client to isolate problems
which a Client may be experiencing and help them find the resources within them to
lead to a more desirable state.
Likewise, with coaching, the relationship is a designed alliance because the Coach
and NLP practitioner act as facilitators to change. It is through respecting a Client‟s
model of the world and through the use of skilled questioning and listening that
Clients are able to grow in self-awareness that leads to change.
In my opinion, NLP makes coaching more fun, more effective and increases
your own learning as well. A great combination!
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Bibliography
Co-Active Coaching, Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House, Phil Sandahl,
The Life Coaching Handbook, Curly Martin, Crown House Publishing, 2001
The Tao of Coaching, Max Landsberg, Harper Collins, 1996
NLP At Work, Sue Knight, Nichols Brealey Publishing, 2002
The Structure of Magic 1, Richard Bandler/John Grinder, Science and Behaviour Books, 1975
Introducing NLP, Joseph O‟Connor and John Seymour, Thorsons, 1995
Way of NLP, Joseph O‟Connor and Ian McDermott, Thorsons, 2001
Influencing with Integrity, Genie Z Laborde, Crown House, 2003
Words that Change Minds, Shelle Rose Charvet, Kendall / Hunt, 1995
Using Your Brain for a Change, Richard Bandler, Real People Press, 1985
The NLP Workbook, Joseph O‟Connor, Thorsons, 2002
141 | P a g e
GERARD O‟DONOVAN
“Fortune Favours the Prepared Mind”
Gerard O‟Donovan is the founder of Noble-Manhattan Coaching, Ltd., a worldwide coaching

organization dedicated to teaching the skills necessary to attain success.
From his headquarters in England, Gerard travels the world, developing and consulting with
businesses and individuals passionate about achieving success. Employing a unique style of
public speaking that is at once dynamic, motivating, and humorous, Gerard is known
throughout Europe as a master coach and hailed worldwide, because his methods, training
and strategies work to help people achieve peak performance in everything they do.
Gerard‟s accomplishments include:

 Service in the Royal Marines
 A successful career as a financial advisor
 Founder of Noble-Manhattan, the only life coaching company in Britain with an A*
accreditation from the International Institute of Coaching (IIC)
 Professional accreditation and recognition as an expert in his field
 Talented public speaking
 Featured in Voices of Experience, a book by Jacqui Harper
 Coauthor of Good Question! with Judy Barber
 Coauthor of The Thirty Minute Life Coach with Curly Martin
 Privileged to write the foreword for The Coaching Parent by David Miskimin and
Jack Stewart
 Recognised by the Prince Charles‟ Princes Youth Business Trust
 Serving as a mentor, helping young people understand the challenges of business as
they produce a business plan and seek funding
142 | P a g e
by
Contact Details

No 5
105 The Esplanade
Weymouth
Dorset
DT4 7EA
Tel +44 1305 769411

143 | P a g e

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Written by Gerard O'Donovan

Owner and Founder of Noble Manhattan Coaching www.noble-manhattan.com

President of the IIC international Institute of Coaching

Europe's leading life and executive coach www.coaching-blog.com is

Life Coaching Defined .............................................................. 2

Coaching As a Profession .............................................................. 4

Who Has Coaching? .............................................................. 5

Benefits of Life Coaching .............................................................. 6

Key Elements of Life Coaching .............................................................. 6

 Equality of Relationship .............................................................. 7

 Mutual Commitment .............................................................. 8

 The Client Takes Action .............................................................. 9

 Temporal Focus ............................................................ 10

The Coaching Session ............................................................ 11

What can be Addressed in Life Coaching? ............................................................ 12

The Coach’s Mental Attitude & Skills ............................................................ 13

Who is the Client? ............................................................ 14

The Boundaries of Coaching ............................................................ 15

pt & Methods of Cognitive Behavioural Coaching ............................................................ 19

The Diamond Path ............................................................ 25

Select Bibliography ............................................................ 26

What is Coaching? ............................................................ 31

Coaching in the Workplace ............................................................ 34

Trigger Factors Responsible for Bringing

Why use Coaching? ............................................................ 39

Issues, Barriers and Potential Pitfalls to

Criteria to Consider in the Development of

III. The Past, Present, Future of Coaching as

A quest for change ............................................................ 57

The World Today ............................................................ 58

The Search for a New Way ............................................................ 61

What Options for Change ............................................................ 63

How Coaching Works ............................................................ 70

The Client-Coach Relationship ............................................................70

The Building Blocks of Coaching ............................................................ 73

The Way Head ............................................................ 79

IV. The History, Present and Future of

The History of Coaching ............................................................ 85

 What is Coaching ............................................................ 85

 The Origin of Coaching ............................................................ 86

 Early Coaches ............................................................ 86

 Why Enter The Coaching Profession? ............................................................ 87

 Coaching and Other Professions ............................................................ 88

 Different Types of Coaching ............................................................ 89

 The Benefits of Coaching

- The GROW Model ............................................................ 93

- The Inner Game ............................................................ 94

The Present of Coaching ............................................................ 95

 Current Approaches ............................................................ 96

- Tools and Technique ............................................................ 96

- Link to NLP ............................................................ 97

 Regulation and Accreditation ............................................................ 97

 The Coaching Contract ............................................................ 98

 Workplace Coaching .......................................................... 100

- Internal and External Coach? .......................................................... 100

- The Internal Coach .......................................................... 101