Facilitative Coaching

I've been reading as much as I can about coaching over the past few months and have been exploring many different types of coaching - I really didn't know there was so many and every new book I read seems to advocate a different approach.  Today this post is about facilitative coaching which seems to have 3 main approaches:

The Cathartic Approach - this involves 3 main features

1. Allowing the coachee to release and express emotions, for example the fear of failure, the feeling of incompetency, frustration or of not being motivated.  Expressing emotions (both positive and negative) can be a powerful form of energy and a coach can use this energy to help the coachee to move forward.
2. In order to allow the coachee to release these emotions, the coach has to be tuned in to the nonverbal cues.
3. Once the coach realizes that there is a "hidden" emotion, it can be useful to ask questions such as "what did that feel like for you?" or "would you like to talk about your feelings?"

One thing I discovered as I was learning about coaching this summer is that sometimes you need to say something out loud - to actually hear yourself saying it - before you really know what you think. The cathartic approach allows people to talk through issues and deepen their understanding.

The Catalytic Approach - this acts as a stimulus to change

This type of coaching relies on asking questions to stimulate change, while at the same time being sure not to push change.  It can help the coachee to reflect and learn for him/herself.  Probing questions are used for this approach, for example "how did you deal with that?', "how do you intend to start ...", "how important is this to you?" and "What would you do differently next time?"

The Supportive Approach - drawing attention to positive behaviours

The aim of coaching is to impact beliefs and behaviour and coachees who, as they are moving forward, often have to step out of their comfort zone, take risks and sometimes fail in order to arrive at a place where their behaviours have changed.  Supportive coaching offers encouragement and motivation through building up the coachee's self-esteem and self-confidence.  The supportive approach draws attention to the successes and so encourages further risk-taking and learning by pointing out all the micro-movements the coachee is taking towards reaching the goals s/he has set.

Photo Credit: Spencer Finnley via Compfight cc