The Psychology Of Personal Coaching

The Psychology Of Personal Coaching

Coaching is a term that we often hear in connection with sports and so we associate it so. However, the realm of coaching is far more than just sports. These coaches may not be experts in the specific technical skills of their clients, but they surely have experience and training in providing motivational and inspirational guidance as well as advice. Coaches help a person analyze and address their own behaviours and challenges instead of offering a lot of specific advice or direction. Personal coaching refers to helping people in areas such as personal relationships, personal growth, health, business, career: absolutely anything about a person. 

Positive Psychology Coaching aims to eliminate the positive versus negative question from the picture and rather explore and identify the where what, how and why of positivity for the individual success of a person for them to flourish. It does not seek to remove the negatives that life offers but instead tries to bring balance between the two concepts and make people understand how negativity can serve a purpose to actually help us flourish.

The concept of positive psychology is backed by a large body of professional research, which means that a coaching model that is based on it can offer a much more structured and reliable approach in supporting individuals to achieve their dreams. A scientifically rooted approach that can help clients to better their well-being, refine and apply strengths, ameliorate performance, and achieve valued goals, Positive Psychology Coaching (PPC) believes in the power of science to come up with the best methods for development.

Within the realm of positive psychology, there is a multitude of tools, assessments, resources and feedback models which can help a coach build up a highly structured coaching journey that is tailored for an individual that is ultimately backed up with measurable evidence.

As mentioned earlier, exploring negativity is a prime component of positive psychology. Coming up with a detailed understanding of negative thoughts and behaviours against positive thoughts and behaviours, and realizing which is actually required to achieve goals and objectives is the core of Positive Psychology Coaching.

The positive psychology model offers coaches the tools and insights that can help their clients identify what they require– more positivity or more negativity, and the 'correct’ forms of either one (or both).

Positive Psychology Coaching also helps clients in exploring their strengths, weaknesses and values, as well as their resilience and resourcefulness. Once again, backed by the resources and tools developed with the help of Positive Psychology, coaching that uses this model can accurately and quickly help clients achieve the results they desire.

This is done simply by being able to offer more precision regarding specific goals and their related areas in order to help clients become better focused on what changes they might have to make for them to achieve the desired objectives.

There are several coaching resources that can supplement the coaching relationship and even encourage conversations that can help the client to raise their awareness, understand and get an idea of the way they prioritize their values, and work towards their goals. These resources can be used in one-on-one sessions, group workshops, or as self-led homework.

One of these resources is the Positivity Ratio. This is a simple measurement tool that aims at measuring both the positivity and negativity ratios so that they can learn what adjustments need to be made in order for them to flourish. The ratio states that for an individual to flourish, they will have to think and feel positive three times as much as they feel negative at the least: and this needs to happen on a regular basis as well. 

The Positivity Ratio has been studied thoroughly over the past few years, and even though it is not without its criticisms, it is an excellent reflection tool that is used with clients in Positive Psychology Coaching to encourage dialogue and take into consideration their feelings of positive versus negative.