The mind has built a swing between consciousness and the unconscious. All earthly creatures, even supernovas, sway between two trees, and the wind never ceases. Angels, animals, men, insects, numbering in the millions, Also the revolving sun and moon; Years go by and the process continues. Everything sways: heaven, earth, water, fire, And in the mystery the body slowly matures. Kabir saw this only for a moment, And then became a servant for life. — Kabir (translation by R. Bligh)
Helping people improve their quality of life is one of the oldest professions in the world. It takes many forms: philosophy, fortune telling, shamanic healing, religious rituals, informal relationships, psychotherapy, and so on - but the essence of a person's search for guidance, which underlies life changes, remains the same. The generative coaching practice that I developed with Robert Dilts is the third generation of an earlier tradition of professional helping people. This brief article places generative coaching first in historical context and then describes the five main steps of the approach.
Generative Coaching: A Third Generation Approach
Over the last century, many different methods have been developed to help people change their lives. In relation to coaching, we can distinguish three generations of such approaches. The first is traditional psychotherapy, originally developed by Freud and others. Basically, in this approach, the orientation is on the problem (which is often considered as a “mental disorder”) and on the client’s past (exploring the negative events that “led” to this present problem). The idea is that an intellectual understanding of the history of cause will free a person from the shackles of his problems. Essentially, it is an attempt to remake the past by releasing it into the present with the help of a therapist, an outside expert who diagnoses the client's pathology.
For many, this approach was not attractive because it: a) was too time consuming, b) was too expensive, c) pathologized and stigmatized patients, and d) often made little or no difference in real life. In turn, the second generation approach focused on human resources and positive goals, on the predominance of action over analysis, on the future and the search for solutions. Initially, various methods of brief psychotherapy were developed, such as Gestalt therapy by Fritz Perls, transactional analysis by Eric Berne, and the hypnotic principle of utilization by Milton Erickson.
At the same time, in the 1960s and 1970s, the human potential movement that accompanied these areas began to grow. This movement rejected authoritarian and pathologizing approaches in favor of positive change through expanded awareness, self-actualization and altered states of consciousness. These new approaches were characterized by a customer-centricity and a positive focus, which made them strikingly different from the first generation of methods.
The second generation approach flourished in the 1990s with the advent of what can now be called “traditional coaching.” Coaching was not for "sick" or "broken" patients, it was for healthy people who wanted to improve their professional or personal lives. Freed from the labels of "madness" and strict hierarchies, coaching has been attractive to many people and has found application in many areas such as life development, business, health and sports.
Yet, in contrast to traditional therapy, coaching treated, for example, working on emotions or inner awareness as taboo or unimportant. We believe that such restrictions are neither helpful nor necessary, and that the best coaching pays equal attention to both the “outer game” of a person's goals, experiences and practical choices, and what Tim Gallwey (2000) calls the “inner game” of a person's mind. This approach assumes that all reality and identity are constructed, and that the state of an individual or group, i.e. beliefs, intentions, perceptions, somatic patterns, motives for behavior are all the basis for such constructs (Gilligen, 2012). This focus on integrating various dualities in a both/and approach—external/internal, problem/resource, past/future, cognitive/somatic—constitutes what we call the third generation approach.
To understand the differences between these three generations of change work, here's a quick example. John is a forty-year-old man who lives with his mother and works as a telesales specialist. If he comes to traditional psychotherapy, he will most likely be diagnosed with whatever mental disorder he is stuck in, such as depression, anxiety, personality disorder - and the work will focus either on medication, managing symptoms through awareness of them historical reasons (any negative childhood experiences) or on challenging his negative or unrealistic way of thinking. Traditional coaching places more emphasis on positive, future-oriented goals (eg starting a business) and finding resources (mentors, helpers, positive communities) and the actions needed to achieve those goals.
Generative coaching focuses on ensuring that John's goals/intentions are congruent and resonant (as will be revealed below), then developing the best state of mind to allow that positive intention to be realized. This adjustment to an optimal state may include somatic centering; identifying and changing negative beliefs; discovery and integration of various resources; drawing up an action plan; detecting and changing negative emotions and attitudes related to the goal; opening of creative consciousness.
Thus, we see that generative coaching is a much broader and deeper type of work than traditional coaching. Generative coaching emphasizes the idea that one is in charge of one's own life, and generative coaching invites people to learn how they can manifest their dreams by mastering their own creative consciousness. While generative coaching maintains a positive orientation toward the future and "infinite possibilities," it also embraces a person's entire experience—positive and negative inner experiences, historical experiences, creative imagination, somatic states, and so on—as potential resources for achieving positive goals. To understand this process a little better, let's look at the five basic steps of generative coaching.
What is career coaching and career consulting?
There are two similar concepts - career coaching and career consulting. They are often confused due to the fact that in Russia there is not yet a single professional standard for either coaching or consulting.
Practicing Russian specialists and schools interpret the term “career counseling” differently and often call all services in the field of career development this way.
I will share my vision. It is based on studied international practices and observation of the development of this area in our country.
Career coaching can be either an independent, core practice or one of the tools of a career consultant - a specialist who helps clients manage their professional development and career transitions.
The key goal of both career coaching and counseling (in a broad sense) is the same. In both cases, the professional accompanies and supports the client in the process of professional change and search for professional identity.
The main difference between these practices is in the philosophy and basic technology of the specialist’s work:
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as follows:
Let's introduce two specialists - Olga and Sergei.
Olga is a coach. While working with a client, she becomes his partner. One of her main tasks is to create a safe, supportive space so that the client moves comfortably towards their professional and personal goals and is not afraid to change. Olga does not have ready-made solutions, but she will help her client develop their own ideas. As a career coach, Olga focuses primarily on the professional self-realization of the client.
Sergey is a career consultant. When working with a client, he acts as an expert or mentor. Sergey is well acquainted with the situation in the IT market, knows specific technologies for professional development and job search, so he is ready to recommend to his client a certain list of actions to take a new position (for example, IT recruiter) in the company he is interested in. Sergey knows how to create an informative resume, how to present himself and pass an interview, and is happy to share this knowledge with his clients.
Is it possible to be both a coach and a consultant?
The roles of a career coach and consultant can be intertwined depending on the professional experience, qualifications and range of services of a particular specialist. The target audience also influences this: some clients are skeptical about the very word “coaching”, so sometimes practitioners avoid this word in their positioning, calling themselves consultants, strategists, etc.
The career counseling and support market in our country is just beginning to take shape.
Specialists providing various services in the field of career development must clearly indicate to clients the boundaries of their competencies and professional training and explain the specifics of their work.
For example: “I use a coaching approach in my work, I am trained and certified to X standards, but I can also be useful as an interview coach because I used to work as a corporate recruiter.”
With the support of our Association for Career Consulting and Support (ACCS), I am conducting a review course “Career Consulting and Support. Foundation of Private Practice”, where we examine in detail what specializations career development specialists have and how they can build their own professional development trajectories based on international standards and practices.
Summary
We view generative coaching as the third generation of change work. It incorporates most of the core principles and techniques of traditional coaching: an emphasis on positive goals, a future orientation and action plan, and a strong focus on the person's state of mind, including negative emotional states. By paying equal attention to both the “inner game” and the outer life, the generative approach helps to create new possibilities. By bringing positive curiosity and skillful orientation to negative experiences (putting them in the service of positive goals), lost energy is revived and new skills are discovered. The primary goal of generative coaching is to connect clients with the creative consciousness necessary to create a happy, successful, and deeply meaningful life.
Robert Dilts and I were students at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the mid-70s, and we were also part of the nascent neurolinguistic programming group. While Robert became one of the most important developers and teachers of NLP (Dilts, 2003; Dittles/Delozier/Bacon-Dilts, 2010), my path led through Ericksonian hypnosis and psychotherapy to the generative approach. (Gilligen, 1997; 2012). We reconnected about ten years ago and since then we have been jointly developing various techniques in generative change (see Gilligan, Dilts, 2009). Generative coaching is the culmination of this collaboration. The material from this article is discussed in detail in our forthcoming book, Generative Coaching: The Art of the Creative Mind.
Original article: https://www.stephengilligan.com/new-blog/2017/3/16/generative-coaching-the-practical-use-of-creative-consciousness
Translation by Alexander Onoprienko: https://www.facebook.com/alexandr.onoprienko
Career coaching within the company
Coaching skills can be useful to HR people in their professional activities.
To retain key employees
Company employees are becoming more and more professionally conscious and are independently managing their careers. They develop their personal career strategy, and the organization is often perceived as a specific resource for gaining experience and skills in order to move to another organization in 2-3 years - more prestigious and consistent with their long-term goals.
The stronger the specialist, the higher the risk of losing him. To retain key employees, it is important to have an open dialogue with them, learn about their career goals, and create opportunities for career development within the company. This can be achieved through well-designed and operational talent management systems.
Career coaching is one of the tools of such systems, along with internal career counseling, building career routes and developing internal mobility programs.
The skills of conducting coaching conversations will help the HR and immediate manager to build a dialogue with the employee so that the person openly shares his professional interests and goals, and also feels his value and significance for the company, understands that he has opportunities for professional growth here, and remains in company for as long as possible. However, this approach only works in those companies where such opportunities are not only promised, but actually provided in practice.
To improve the performance of employees and teams
Coaching tools are actively used in organizations to develop key competencies and soft skills of employees. There is also a separate direction of executive coaching - coaching, focused on working with top managers on their key tasks.
Team coaching helps to organize the work of the group so that it becomes more cohesive and effective. In such teams, tasks are performed with an understanding of shared values and the global vision of the company.
Both an invited external specialist and an internal company employee who has undergone the necessary training can work as a corporate coach.
How to become a career coach
Let's say you already have experience in talent management and want to become a career coach.
There are two ways: go through a general coaching training program or immediately choose a career coaching program (there are significantly fewer of them).
For basic training in coaching, in my opinion, it is better to choose educational programs from schools certified by professional societies, such as the International Coaching Federation (ICF). You can also pay attention to programs from competing, slightly less well-known organizations.
ICF certified programs offer training based on the federation's coaching competency model. There are about 25 schools in Russia where they teach in accordance with these standards. However, only one school offers a full-fledged career coaching program.
When choosing a training program, pay attention to the standards on which it is based and the authors of the program - what training, qualifications and experience they have.
The training is based on studying the professional competencies of the coach, as well as the tools and techniques used in his work. During training, students study the structure of a coaching session and figure out how to build communication with a client. The more skill a coach becomes and the more practice he has, the less he can adhere to this structure and the more he can improvise.
Much attention is paid to the development of professional competencies of a coach, for example:
- compliance with professional ethics;
- creating partnerships and concluding coaching agreements;
- the ability to ask open, strong questions and the skill of deep listening - the ability not only to hear the client, but also to understand what is behind the spoken words;
- direct communication skill - the ability to correctly share your observations and give feedback.
Of course, you can find many sources in the public domain for learning basic coaching technologies. However, specialized courses are distinguished by a systematic and proven program and, most importantly, a supportive environment where the student not only learns information, but also gains practical experience. Serious coaching training programs must include work outside the classroom. Students practice skills in small study groups, conduct coaching sessions with real clients, and analyze audio recordings of sessions with professional mentors.
In addition to general-profile coaching programs, there are specialized programs for training HR managers. Their focus is shifted to coaching in the organization and business tasks of clients, working in a corporate environment.
Coaching as a management style
The coaching approach to management is a rejection of directive leadership.
This is changing the culture of the company and awakening the internal motivation of its employees. The use of coaching allows you to maximize individual potential, which ultimately helps the individual achieve maximum efficiency.
Modern coaching is a structured system of techniques and principles that are aimed at developing the internal capabilities of an individual and a group of individuals working together, as well as the full disclosure of their potential.
However, it is worth noting that coaching is more of a help and support rather than a learning process. Today, successful leaders actively use this technique in business and management. It is with its help that they reveal the potential of each member of the business team and the entire team as a whole.
I am absolutely convinced that without proper coaching, a person will never be able to maximize his or her abilities. (Bob Nardelli, President and CEO, Home Depot)
The use of coaching in management allows you to develop the following qualities in employees:
- awareness
- involvement
- responsibility
- effectiveness
- learning ability
- initiative
- ambition
If we consider the coaching approach as a management style, then we should take into account that its fundamental aspects are the following:
- defining goals;
- searching for resources necessary to achieve goals;
- building intra-team relationships that contribute to achieving goals;
- analysis of the obtained results.
Coaching is always only about the present and the future.
There are three main components of coaching in modern management:
- joint awareness of the future and its vision;
- support and feedback;
- exercise of choice and responsibility.
It is more logical to introduce coaching as the main management style in an organization using a top-down approach. The role of the head coach should be assumed by the head of the organization.
The main goal of introducing this management style is to build partnerships between employees who are guided by the same goal and work in this direction on the principles of awareness and responsibility.
When a manager uses management coaching, he simultaneously achieves two very important goals: achieving better results from his employees and increasing the level of their personal and professional development.
Coaching in team building
The principles of coaching in creating a team are identical to the methodology used in working with an individual. The coach's responsibilities include setting goals for the team and facilitating the process of finding solutions.
However, there are still some peculiarities in working with a team, which consist in the need to use additional interaction technologies related to group dynamics.
The main stages of the coaching approach to team building are:
- discussion and formation of team goals;
- drawing up and adopting general rules for team interaction;
- holding group discussions of goals and objectives;
- discussion and fair assessment of work;
- refusal to judge and criticize;
- building a support system within the team;
- peer education and mentoring.
The teamwork technique can be implemented both in the direction of individual work with each of its members, and with the team as a whole.
The results of effective team coaching should be the following achievements:
- the team can conduct effective internal dialogue to solve any business problems;
- reducing decision-making time and improving their quality;
- increasing indicators of responsibility, awareness, discipline both among individual employees and the entire team;
- understanding by each team member of the importance of personal contribution to achieving common goals and the importance of internal interaction;
- revealing the internal potential and creative capabilities of each team member;
- improvement of interpersonal communications, formation of a unified field of functioning;
- awareness by each team member of the priority importance of achieving common goals, rather than individual self-affirmation;
- the formation of a respectful attitude within the team as the basis for fruitful and comfortable activities;
- achieving unity, interaction and satisfaction with the results of this process.
Using a coaching approach to team building provides clarity and understanding of goals, unlocks the potential of all team members, awakens initiative and commitment, strengthens self-esteem and self-motivation.
