COACHING TOOLS

INTERNATIONAL METHODS FOR BETTER COACHING CONVERSATIONS

Coaching is more than just a game of questions and answers. Being able to listening attentively and ask the right questions remains essential to any productive coaching relationship. A capable coach knows how to create space for someone to look at his or her situation differently.

Aside from that, there are many tools and techniques to create insight in oneself, define one's goals, generate new solutions and/or overcome inner and outer obstacles. Here are some of the techniques YourCoach routinely uses to guide its clients to more autonomy and effectiveness.
Which techniques and models do coaches use to get their clients moving? How do they differ from the tools of other forms of guidance? How exactly do they work? How do you make them work?

GROW coaching model

YourCoach often uses the GROW coaching model to structure its sessions. The GROW coaching model is a proven model that leads to a clear end result in four stages. It’s a hands-on way of evolving: from reflection to insight into one’s reality, to defining a goal, researching options and maximising motivation to make a change.

Logical and neurological levels

The model of neurological levels was thought up by a British biologist, anthropologist and philosopher by the name of Gregory Bateson. His model outlines the 6 levels people are always operating upon and living by, consciously and unconsciously. Every level influences the other levels, creating a self-reinforcing network of environment, behaviour, skills, values and convictions, sense of identity and mission in life. YourCoach uses the content of these levels to create insight into one’s relationships and life situations. For example, this model explains and supports the observation that unwanted behaviour doesn’t disappear merely by changing one’s environment.

SMART goals

SMART goals bring structure and accountability into goals. Instead of vague resolutions, SMART goals create verifiable trajectories towards a given goal, with clear milestones and an estimation of feasability. Every goal, whether it be an intermediary step in a greater plan or a goal in itself, can be made SMART and thereby increase its chances of becoming reality.

Meta Model

Language is a random model that reflects our subjective experience (an experience that is, in itself, a filter of the infinite elements that compose reality). That means that the same experience can be lived and encoded differently through diverse linguistic models. The meta model is a collection of semantic structures that allow us to identify three processes: omissions, generalisations and distortions. It’s also a set of questions that allow you to complete and correct these omissions, generalisations and distortions.

Meta Programs

We don’t react to reality itself, but to our model of the world – our map of the territory. This model of the world (MOW) is created through filters that we use to organise the infinite information around us. It’s like a radio tuner: if we were to receive all stations at once (all visual, auditive, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory stimuli), it would be too much to handle. That’s why we have filters, and they’re different for everyone.

By recognising and mapping these filters, we gain insight into how people function within a certain context. By paying attention to the way we function with regards to thought processes, emotions, language (the metamodel) and behaviour, we discover how our internal programming functions. That allows us to find where things are going wrong, and adapt small things that can make major changes.

Enneagram

The enneagram is a personality model that describes conscious and unconscious behaviour, starting from people’s underlying fears and motivations. It creates nine rough types that are further divided into subtypes and a person’s preference for an assertive, social or self-preserving way of being. The model gives insights into one’s own character and one’s relationship with other. It also creates awareness for the most probable problem areas and what will allow a person to grow.