What makes this coaching so powerful?

Guest blog written by Tim Small.

Tim Small is a former secondary head and consultant in education who now practises as a qualified psychotherapist, counsellor and coach.? Based near Bristol, he has been an Integrity Coaching Associate since 2016.

Formal evaluation

Back in 2018-19, we participated in a formal evaluation of our coaching programme, in partnership with the National Education Union (NEU) and Leeds Beckett University.? I was deeply moved by the shared stories of significant positive change; they were both personal and professional, often representing community-wide impact.? The Research Report, ‘Sustaining a Vital Profession’ (Lofthouse & Whiteside 2019) reflects a systematic enquiry into the programme’s scope, value, impact and limitations.? (You can find the link to a pdf version of it in the references below.)

Distinctive nature

What distinguishes the work of Integrity Coaching is a commitment to work with the whole person, rather than simply the role and behaviours of a leader; this means attending unashamedly to wellbeing, authenticity and sustainability in leadership.? Exploring professional identity and personal trajectory are foundational to the business of unpacking strategic goals, resources, options and decisions.? This raises a simple but primary question: ‘How do I really wish to show up, every day, in my work (and at home)?’? And then, ‘What would need to happen for that to be true?’? Finding the answer is likely to be therapeutic.

Therapeutic change

Becoming qualified as a psychotherapist, over 11 years, required me to enquire deeply into the theory and practice of therapeutic change.? The enquiry never ends, of course, since the questions are so deep and open-ended.

Coaching and therapy are different and the boundaries between them are important to acknowledge and attend to.? However, that doesn’t stop there being important aspects in common, especially when the coaching is ‘person-centred’.? I believe coaching is essentially therapeutic, although we do not and would not call it therapy.

The therapeutic relationship

Research strongly supports a commonly shared perception that the ‘quality of the relationship is central’ to the effectiveness of therapy (Hargaden & Sills 2002), notwithstanding the school, approach or model being applied.? So, I would suggest it’s no accident that coaching is powerful when experienced in the context of a therapeutic relationship.? The question is, what does an effective coach do to achieve this quality in relationship?

Ten hallmarks of a ‘powerful’ coach

Drawing on what I’ve learned so far, I propose ten ‘hallmarks’ of the kind of help we’re talking about here: ten ways a coach ‘shows up’ in this work, commitment to which creates, I believe, the ‘relational space’ in which profound change becomes possible.

I would welcome feedback from our associates and our coaching clients, whether or not they agree: firstly with the assertion that these qualities are important and, secondly, that they are present in the coaching they offer and experience.

References

Brene Brown Twentyonetoys.com video log: https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy?srsltid=AfmBOoqkAURikzrgtlXF5ju7YFFVfuSGQPQH8JIzgB_pNWaQniApeRkc

Clark?(1991)?‘Empathic Transactions in the Deconfusion of Child Ego States’,?Transactional Analysis Journal,?21:2,?92-98

Clarkson, P. (1992) Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy: An Integrated Approach London, Routledge

Clarkson, P. (2003) The Therapeutic Relationship (2nd Edn.) Whurr Publishers, London and Philadelphia

Creasy, J. (2005) Leading coaching in schools, National College for School Leadership, Nottingham

Deakin Crick, R. (2007) ‘Learning how to learn: the dynamic assessment of learning power’, The Curriculum Journal 18,2: 135-153 British Curriculum Foundation

Erskine, R.G.? and Trautmann, R.L. (1996) ‘Methods of an Integrative Psychotherapy’, Transactional Analysis Journal, 26 (4): 316-328

Hargaden, H., &?Sills, C. (2002) Transactional Analysis: A Relational Perspective Routledge, London:

Lofthouse & Whiteside (2019) ‘Sustaining a Vital Profession: evaluation of a headteacher coaching programme’, Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University: https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/carnegie-school-of-education/research/collectived/-/media/files/schools/school-of-education/sustaining-a-vital-profession–final-report.pdf

Rogers, C. (1980).?A way of being.?New York: Mariner Books

Schiff, J. et al. (1975) The Cathexis Reader: transactional analysis treatment of psychosis. New York: Harper and Row.

Siegel, D. (2010) The Mindful Therapist. A Clinician’s Guide to Mindsight and Neural Integration. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company