 Psychology, Coaching and Behavioral Change
Today, more and more coaches are becoming aware
that psychological competence, and particularly psychological-mindedness,
is one of the critical competencies of executive coaching. As such, there
is now greater attention paid to the psychological growth and development
of the coach.
As coaching is a vehicle to achieve
sustainable learning and behavioral change coaches require a
working knowledge of certain psychological tools and techniques and the
ability to use
them
effectively. Only by working in the realm of the
personal can a coach locate and assess the behavioral aspects and harness
the required motivators that are controlling an individual's
actions/performance.
Psychology
and Executive Coaching
Executive
Coaching
Practitioners today are working in a more knowledgeable,
demanding marketplace and realize the critical requirement for
any business coach training course is the
focus on psychologically-based models of change. However,
today's successful professional coach not only needs a grasp of both
psychological theory and practice skills to effectively
perform in a wide range of professional development assignments.
Supervision
by a professionally qualified
educator with some psychological expertise
is now a must -as this not only provides the necessary
credentials and skill sets but also contributes to the coach’s
learning and development -ensuring the coach is working within
his or her personal and professional limits of competence.
The Behavioral Coaching
Institute's
elite, short-course Certified Master Coach course (for executive
coaching students) only uses practical, proven,
psychological-based methodology, tools and processes that are industry-focused
and can be easily applied and learnt by participants who do not
require any training in psychology.
Psychological-mindedness
(self-reflection and insight):
Psychological-mindedness, business-mindedness (knowledge and experience);
and relationship development combined with personal and professional
psychologically-based
coaching skills, are now recognized by corporate clients as the critical competency requirements
for an executive or business coach.
Psychological-mindedness is a term which denotes a person's capacity to reflect on
themselves, on others and the relationship between the two.
Simply put, it means
to deeply consider the causes and meanings of behavior, thoughts and
feelings. One of the first objectives of any coach should be to develop
their psychological-mindedness. However, many new coaches first set
out to acquire a large set of coaching tools and techniques before
building their own essential platform of self-development. Coaches
from a corporate background, who lack psychological-mindedness, typically focus on
'hard' skills acquisition and problem-solving rather than engaging with
the coachee's personal issues.
Personal development of the new
coach is just as important as skill development.
Psychologically-minded individuals have the ability to observe
their own internal processes and to suspend judgement about the other
person's experience. However, most coaches get enrolled into the
coachee's story and quickly set about developing solutions or a
fixed stance on an issue. Self-awareness and awareness of others (social
awareness) are the key elements of psychological-mindedness or psychological
competence for coaches. It's all about recognising the patterns
in our own and other people's behaviour.
There are several means to achieve this
self-development. Some coaches locate a suitable long-term practising
'senior coach' as a means to pursue their personal development. For many
coaches it has been useful to supplement personally focused
activities with development opportunities in a peer group. The
purpose of personal development work is not just to better understand
oneself (cognitively and emotionally) but also to better understand
and respond to others. This connectedness enables a better
rapport to develop, trust to be built and better planning of
interventions.
|
