Coaching Presence

Nov 28, 2020

By Shivakumar Venkatraman

Coaching is a process. The coach and the coachee (also referred to as Client) come together and form a partnership, for executing this process. This process should be thought-provoking and creative. Its aim is to maximize the personal and professional potential of the coachee.

The ICF has defined eleven core coaching competencies to explain the skills relevant to the coaching profession. All eleven competencies are considered equally important. We may consider the significance of ‘Coaching Presence’ here.

The Coaching Psychology Manual defines ‘Coaching Presence’ as follows: (1) “A way of being with clients (mindful, empathetic, warm, calm, zestful, fun, and courageous) that facilitates growth and change through connection.”

It is clear that the term ‘Coaching Presence’ should be understood here in association with ‘Co-creating the Relationship with the Client’.

It is ‘co-creating’. As such establishing the relationship is the task of both the coach and the client. But creating the efficacious coaching presence as an essential feature of that relationship and making it work is fully the responsibility of the coach.

In this respect, the coach provides the experience, and the client experiences it. The common goal is, of course, for the client to maximize his personal and professional potential.

The coach has to build and shape his coaching presence and make its influence perceptible and beneficial to the client.

The coach cannot make a presentation of his coaching presence and explain how he would like the client to perceive it. If the client does not grasp it perfectly, it is for the coach to change and sharpen his ways and methods for the manifestation of his coaching presence till the client observes and absorbs it.

The coaching presence is much more than mere physical presence. It is not necessarily imposing and domineering in nature. If it is domineering, it goes against the principles of coaching.

It is a subtle and deep influence, which the client is able to feel and experience its positive impact, sometimes even in the physical absence of the coach.

The coaching presence developed fully to an ideal level stays in the mind of the client forever. It inspires the client. It cheers him up and enables him to face the task on hand confidently. It destroys the client’s self-doubts and releases him from the clutches of escapism. It is so strong and helpful in the mind of the client that he is able to clearly visualize his goal and the right path.

Does the description look like something otherworldly and surreal? It is nothing of that sort. There is nothing magical about it. It is the dedication, creativity, skill, and commitment of the coach coupled with the sincere participation of the client that brings about such a coaching presence.

A highly developed Coaching Presence, not only sustains the relationship between the coach and client but also leads them to success.

It is all fine. But how the coach is going to achieve this seemingly impossible task?

More about the Coaching Presence

If it is not magical, it is not a cakewalk as well.

Throughout the coaching exercise, the client is mainly expected to deeply search within himself and work hard. The path is clearly laid out for him. But the coach is supposed to deal with all ticklish and challenging issues.

There is a crowd of 100 persons in a public meeting, with two policemen in their midst. In physical terms, two policemen do not count much. But it is a police presence and it does maintain orderliness, leave alone exceptional cases.

The desired coaching presence is to be developed by the planned efforts of the coach. The success of the coach lies not in causing a few behavioral changes in the client; he has to ensure that lasting attitudinal improvements happen to the client. This has to be achieved not by directions; but by helping the client to bring out the best from within and empowering him with relevant and valuable insights.

The coach molds his presence in the mind of the client by his disciplined, dignified, purposeful interaction in such a manner that the client’s inspiration and enthusiasm reach higher levels. 

Doing something very well does make a good impression of the doer in the minds of the viewers. But doing the same thing in a special manner portrays the doer with a radiance that the viewers not only remember the impressive action; what is more, the doer stays in their minds and becomes a positive influence.

For example, fifty students in a class are asked to solve a mathematical problem. Forty of them come with the right solution. All of them get full marks. But out of them, one student becomes a presence in the mind of the professor because he had solved the problem not in the usual manner in twenty steps; he had designed an innovative twelve-steps-approach to solve it.

If the coach should succeed, he should ensure that the client not only succeeds; but also achieves it with distinction.

In this highly competitive world, if the client should succeed, he should venture out of his comfort zone. He should learn to do hard work in a smart manner. He should have a strong commitment and also should seriously engage in the coaching process. If all this should happen, the coach should command an unshakable faith in the mind of his client.

In other words, it is not enough if the client has respect for the coach. He should also exert to find the answers for the dynamite questions of the coach that could expand his horizons of relevant knowledge and experience. 

The coach should be a permanent source of inspiration for the client. The thought of him should spur the client on to achieve the goal. The client should cherish the words of the coach, which in turn would lead him to success.

Whether the coach is physically with the client or not, his presence should always work as a catalyst in the mind of the client and nudge him into meaningful action.

The Steps to be taken to Develop Coaching Presence

Coaching Presence is defined as ‘the ability to be fully conscious and create a spontaneous relationship with the client, employing a style that is open, flexible, and confident’.

The following guidelines give us some ideas on how a coach should conduct himself to acquire and use the ability mentioned above. (2)

The coach should:

? be present and flexible during the coaching process.

? access own intuition and trust one’s inner knowing.

? be open to not-knowing and taking risks.

? see many ways to work with the client and choose what is most effective in any given moment.

? use humor effectively to create lightness and energy.

? confidently shift perspectives and experiment with new possibilities.

? demonstrate confidence in working with strong emotions and self-manage, and not become overwhelmed or enmeshed by the client’s emotions.

It may now be obvious that the coach should possess two types of relational skills, viz., Being Skills, and Action Skills.

How the coach is? How he remains in various coaching situations? What are his inborn qualities? The answers to these questions determine his ‘Being Skills’.

How does the coach act? How does he react? What are the qualities that govern his actions and reactions? How does he maintain cordiality and persuasiveness even when he highlights the difficult tasks lying ahead? How he makes us dissect our projects and see for ourselves the challenges, without allowing us to be gripped by fear or lack of self-confidence? The answers to these questions determine his ‘Action Skills’. (Some authors prefer to call these ‘Doing Skills’.)

(i)                      The coach should see that there is no rigidity in the exchange of ideas. Being flexible to different ideas and suggestions would help establish a friendly atmosphere and strengthen the coach-client relationship. The coach should ensure that through logical discussion, open-minded analyses, and intelligent examination of the issues involved, appropriate and effective conclusions should be arrived at.

(ii)                     The coach should encourage the client to break new grounds.

(iii)                   The nature and effectiveness of my presence are shaped by two things.

The first is the state and posture of my body and mind, as I present them at a given moment. Suppose a coach meets his client, ensconced in a sofa with drowsy eyes; or begins a discussion without lifting his eyes from his mobile phone in an insipid voice. Whenever the client thinks of him, the thought would be clouded by sluggishness and indifference. The coach should always be ‘alive’ and ‘enthusiastic’.

(iv)                   Ignorance is not abominable. Only indifference and lack of learning spirit should be guarded against. The coach should, therefore, be tolerant while dealing with the ignorance of the client; and be efficient in enabling him to become free from it.

(v)                    The coach may have to face a number of situations ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea’. He should radiate boldness and take risks in a calculated manner.

(vi)                   The coach should wisely use humor to remove monotony and dullness. Thought-provoking, witty, decent humor, when used with a proper sense of time and place is the best tool for gaining acceptance of the client. Humor is very helpful to inculcate even intricate and delicate ideas in the clients.

(vii)                 The coach should be a picture of culture and calmness and overcome the emotional issues. He should also help the client to do so, whenever necessary.

(viii)               The coach should be resourceful and try new approaches and methods to solve the problems when the usual practices are inadequate.

IDEA HAMSTER

I have coined an acronym for remembering the fundamental ‘Being Skills’ and ‘Action Skills’. The acronym is IDEA HAMSTER as explained below. (Idea Hamster means ‘A very creative person; someone who is always able to come up with fresh ideas) (3)

Being Skills

Intelligent and sharp-witted

Daring and risk-taking

Efficient and intuitive

Alive in the present

Action Skills - Making full use of

Humor

Acclamation

Mindfulness

Self-confidence

Thoughtfulness

Emotional Intelligence

Resourcefulness

In fine

A coach may be brilliant. He may be having highly valuable ideas and techniques that could catapult the client to success. But none of this would help if the coach does not command the respect and confidence of the client.

Unless the client is fully convinced about the ability of the coach to help him, he would not take his words seriously. He would not diligently work to find the right answers to the questions raised by the coach.

It is essential that the coach successfully creates an indelible impression in the mind of his client about the relevance and efficacy of the coach’s presence for the achievement of his goals. This, he has to do only by the way he conducts himself and carries on his work. In other words only his ‘being skills’ and ‘action skills’ should speak for him in volumes and build his ‘coaching presence’.

These qualities/skills are much more than tools to achieve a few goals of the clients. They are related to the person’s standard of human life. Through these skills, the coach does prove his competency on ‘coaching presence’. What is more, the coach helps the client generate and enhance his own Life Force; and bring out the best in him.

A coach can never do all this by himself unless he has strengthened his skills by deeper philosophical convictions. A case in point is the suggestion of 15 frameworks by Thomas Leonard, founder of the modern life coaching movement, (2002) (4)

It is not a matter of surprise that the Life Coaching Movement seems to be moving fast toward the age-old Indian concept of Guru.

(The Eleven Core Competencies have been re-organized recently. The Coaching Presence has been co-related as 'Maintains Presence' in the updated version.) (5)

References

(1)  https://www.wellcoach.com/newsletters/images/Chapter-11.pdf (page3)

(2)  https://coachfederation.org/core-competencies

(3)  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/idea_hamster

(4)  https://www.coachville.com/basic/cvcc/15frame.html

(5) https://carlyanderson.com/icf-releases-updated-core-competency-model

About the Author

Shivakumar Venkatraman, MCA, MBA, CPNLP is an Agile Transformation Leader at Wells Fargo Bank based in India. He has more than twenty years of global experience, having worked with Fortune 500 companies across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. He has led several business transformational initiatives and coached individuals and teams across various lines of businesses. In his coaching, he leverages his rich global business experience, cultural awareness, experiential learning, human resources development, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming.