Supporting coaching clients in owning their stuff

Through the process of coaching, clients become more aware of themselves and their situations and are therefore able to see themselves and their strengths more clearly. This transforms their sense of self as they begin to ‘own their stuff’ which in turn accelerates their learning. ?

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The degree to which clients are willing to step up and take responsibility influences client coachability. Client coachability may be defined as a measure of the ease with which clients engage in the process of coaching. However, while clients frequently display some avoidance of responsibility at the outset of coaching, the fact that they are showing up for coaching at all indicates a willingness to take some responsibility.

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While a sense of responsibility leads to clients taking on coaching, responsibility does not necessarily extend across all topics which arise in coaching. Indeed, the coaching process itself involves gauging whether clients are ready or not to take responsibility for particular aspects of their situation.

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Through the coaching process, clients gradually begin to take responsibility by owning their emerging self-awareness, their learning, and, as a applying and integrating their learning, they also start owning their current circumstances and lives. The sense of ownership emerges when clients, through generating self-awareness, begin to feel a necessity to change their situations and realise that they are the only ones who can create such change. This is the point at which they integrate their awareness and learning, where they own their stuff and transform their sense of self. This is often the point when clients also begin to really take responsibility for the coaching process itself. Thus, by giving clients ownership over the coaching process, coaches empower clients to take responsibility not just for themselves, but also for their own learning.

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Reference:

Griffiths, K. (2008). Discovering, applying and integrating self-knowledge: A grounded theory study of learning in life coaching (Ph.D). Centre for Learning Innovation, Queensland University of Technology.