How can you create a supportive environment for coachees to discuss well-being?

Nothing builds trust like sharing your own vulnerabilities. Stories told in an honest and vulnerable way create oxytocin in the listener’s brain, which is a hormone for trust and bonding. Try not to talk about yourself too much, but when your coachee shares a frustration or insecurity, look for the moment to let them know they’re not alone.

My approach is to create a safe and confidential space where you can be present, build trust and intimacy and listen whilst the coach shares their thinking. I’m not an advocate of sharing personal stories, for me it’s about the coachee and absolute focus on them, giving them uninterrupted space and time to think, to make meaning and to make better decisions. Creating a #thinkingenvironment for better thinking and better results

One of the most effective skills to build trust is ‘bottom lining’. Ask the coachee a relevant open question (as any good coach should) and be fully present and truly listen (also as any decent coach should). Rather than paraphrasing back what the coachee says as is standard good coaching practice, ‘Bottom-lining’ is capturing in 3-8 words the emotion and what has been said e.g. so you’re terrified of sinking back into depression? If you can do that well, the coachee (or anyone, for that matter) feels instantly deeply understood and oxytocin does the rest. Be prepared for possible tears or strong emotions though - some people have never/rarely felt someone really gets them.

Content can sometimes be less important than presence. As a coach, do you embody calm and groundedness? Whatever they share, are you fully non-judegemental? How attuned are you to them? does your breathing synchronise spontaneously? I rarely need to share personal vulnerabilities because I have done enough self work to bring a fully open, compassionate, and curious attitude to what the client is saying. That is a felt experience for them and it allows them to be vulnerable.

Humor can work like an universal key. Having a laugh with your coachee builds an immediate and strong bond. But be careful first to understand your coachees sense of humor and second not to stay in a humoristic mode.

Some key strategies to consider include having open and honest conversations, normalizing discussing well-being as an integral part of coaching, regularly checking in on well-being throughout the coaching process, tailoring your approach to individual needs and preferences, educating yourself on well-being resources and strategies, and seeking external guidance when necessary.

One of the most powerful realisations I have come to is that I can't make guarantees of safety; that it is arrogant to assume I know what is and is not safe for others, and it ultimately it is unhelpful as it diminishes and dismisses others as powerless. One of the most important premises that has served me is to see that everyone is powerful and my work is to hold space that acknowledges that and recognises our humanness and vulnerability. In that space power trumps safety and trust becomes a connection of equals.

Intersubjectivity is a key quality for creating a safe space in coaching. It goes beyond understanding the connection between the coach and their clients; it delves into working on a deeper level. By being attuned to their own and their clients' emotions and thoughts, a coach can establish a profound bond and create an environment where clients feel safe to be vulnerable. When clients feel this connection, trust flourishes, leading to a more effective coaching relationship.

At the beginning of any coaching engagement, I design an alliance with the coachee. This is the "container" that we do our work in. We both share what is important to us in order for them to get the most out of our time together. This alliance is also fluid. It can be shifted and changed. The design is done with no judgement and no assumptions.

Trust as well as safe spaces in coaching get built only when the coachee see the intervention less as a transaction and more as a genuine effort from the coaches part to make it about them and not an activity that's transactional. Needless to say the most important thing for the coach is not to "Try" but to "Be" " Authentic, Honest, Open to exploring their own vulnerability in the process to make it fruitful..

Coach the whole person, not just an aspect of them. This means nurturing a trust that enables personal factors, including health and family, along with professional considerations, to be discussed and explored in a meaningful way. When people feel heard, it creates an opportunity to step back and thoughtfully problem solve in order to move forward—often in creative but simple ways.

Another useful tool is the 1-100 scale. Ask the coachee where their current well-being is on a scale of 1-100 (or where they’d like to be). 1-100 is more effective than 1-10 because it allows more granularity and depth. When they give an answer, ask “what’s your thinking about giving it that number?” and then "what do you feel about having that as your number?" Feeling and thinking aspects will give different perspectives.

I fully agree here. Well-being is about how we as humans see our life. It brings emotions, it is looking back to your experiences, it is a self-reflection on what well-being means for us individually. The holistic conversation about wellbeing create new perspectives to explore.

As a licensed coach for the HeartMath Institute, I adhere to the HeartMath Institute's domains of the resilience model to assess the holistic well-being of the coachee. I also conduct stress and well-being surveys to understand the level of stress, feelings, emotions, life changes, and stress response of the coachee, aiming to explore holistic well-being.

Keeping an open mind by exploring several asssessment tools and coaching models, and not restricting one's coaching approach to a single, pre-set and pre-planned method. When it is always about the client, discovery of the clients perticular nuances and uniqe situation is a prime and critical factor for looking at their well being holistically.

Peer mentoring is an invaluable asset when it comes to executive coaching, especially when discussing well-being. The journey towards personal and professional growth is often fraught with challenges that can be best navigated when shared with like-minded individuals. Here are 5 tips how to encourage this: 1. Assess the needs of your coachees and identify the areas where peer mentoring can provide the most benefit 2. Pair or group coachees who have complementary strengths and weaknesses 3. Be sure to create safe spaces 4. Cooperatively establish guidelines, frameworks, and best practices and 5. Do follow-ups and regularly checks

As much as the advantages of peer mentoring can be easily achieved, the building of trust within organizations, especially toxic ones, can be extremely challenging. How can an individual rely on their peers when there is a highly competetive and toxic environment? It all starts with identifying the organizational culture and dtermining if this is a viable option to start with.

An excellent idea - if you can get the right mix of people in the group. It helps if it is qualified and exclusive. and invitational. so people want to be part and contribute.

Já experimentei a mentoria de diversas formas. Cruzando os pontos de vista convergentes e divergentes entre profissionais da mesma área é foi incrível perceber que independente de serem senior a mim em muita competências, ainda podia usar meu senso crítico e avaliativo para chegar às minhas próprias conclus?es e aprendizados. No caso n?o eram coaches de bem-estar e nem era esse o intuito, mas sempre que promovi o diálogo aberto entre os pares, acabava por me tornar mediadora e eu cresci muito com isso. Como fiz isso? Ah isso eu prefiro contar de outra maneira aos interessados em saber mais sobre #cnv #comunica??on?oviolenta e #altaperformance por observa??o e media??o como deve se chamar o título do post . ( breve )

Self Bias and preconceptions is probably the ultimate barrier, especially when the coach has a sincere desire to "fix". Once the coach over comes this driving urge to fix, and transforms their approach into facilitating an awareness-increasing session every single time, the coach can move away from these preconveiced conceptions.

In my experience nothing works better than sharing examples from real life of your own or people you you know who had similar challenges and how they solved it.

Initial barriers that coachee's feel could be pre conceived notions, peer or senior induced views and at times their own biases in thoughts.. Its important to let them explore and open some of the doors where a coach sees there's help needed. Self realised impediments will be worked on more honestly than implied ones through the coaches perspective. It's important for coaches to maintain open ended enquiry than suggestions for success..

Overcoming obstacles and improving well-being can be achieved by changing one's perspective. Instead of simply trying to eliminate barriers, it is more effective to focus on moving towards a positive outcome. By visualizing a system where well-being thrives, one can better formulate strategies to reach that state. Merely changing the existing system that hinders well-being does not provide true motivation, as the underlying emotional response remains the same. To truly be productive, it is necessary to change the emotional charge associated with the goal. Adopting a moving towards perspective can significantly enhance overall well-being.

As humans we naturally want to evolve, change, adapt and learn. I think the most helpful activity though can often be exploring what works well for you - what are you amazing at doing? As opposed to constantly looking at the growth gaps. Identify those areas where you excel, and find opportunities to do more of that stuff. That's often where the magic happens

Celebrating and appreciating coachees is a critical step in fostering a supportive environment for well-being. Especially when it matches the personality of the coachee. Some ways to celebrate include: Personalized Praise: Avoiding generic praise. The more personalized, the more impactful. Visible Recognition: Utilize public forums like team meetings or online platforms to highlight successes. It boosts confidence and encourages others. Incentives: Offer tangible rewards. They serve as lasting reminders of their progress. Express Gratitude: Make it a point to express gratitude sincerely and often. Regular Check-ins: Make recognition a regular part of the coaching interaction. Encourage story telling and sharing.

Ask a coachee to think of a time when someone they knew was out of balance, or struggling with their own well-being. See if they are comfortable sharing that (anonymous) story. They will unconsciously auto-relate to the story of someone near to them, and this leads to a path of open well-being discussion in my experience.

Make coaching a process not an event. Especially when discussing a team member's well-being a single coaching event may be perceived as a HR check-the-box exercise. Wrapping up with "so when would you like to reconnect on what we talked about today?" Or "would you be comfortable if we had another conversation about this in X weeks to talk about what's changed since today?" tells our team member that we are there to support them. When our team member responds with a date say, "how about we get that in our calendars now so neither of us gets booked?" Tests for resistance with our team member and again tells them that we are focused on support them long term.

Well-being of your team? I believe this is an important question to explore with executives, as they reflect on how they impact the well-being of their teams.

There is a lot of value in engaging a coach external to the organisation who doesn't report to the coaches line manager or formally feed back the contents of the coaching relationship. As long as coachees feel they need to say the right thing and hold the party line, they will not tell you what is really going on and this dynamic will actually worsen their sense of wellbeing.

I believe it is very hard to have transformational experiences if you don't look at the entire person. I was working with a client who wanted to make more money and potentially start a business. But when we dug into it we found out he was way out of alignment with his spiritual desires. We spent most of our time working on getting this piece into alignment and because of that everything else began falling into place with it. Addressing well-being should be a focus for every coachee.