Key Coaching Skills
There are fundamental personal qualities, coaching competencies and skills that are needed to be a good coach - irrespective of whether coaching is being employed externally, internally in the workplace or voluntarily. While exploring the essential coaching characteristics needed, it is important to acknowledge personal qualities, existing competencies and skills learnt through other experiences, in order to build and expand on these areas. This will give a framework to focus on further coaching development and learning.
There are four key phases that occur in the development of a coaching relationship and a sustainable, ongoing coaching process:
1. Creating a springboard for the coaching relationship that is of value and meaningful to the coach and coachee.
2. Facilitating planning , action, results, learning and development that is natural to the coaching process.
3. Providing a sustainable relationship that is creative, dynamic and productive to support the client's own agenda.
4. Closure to complete the current coaching progress, while supporting the client's future if they require further contact and check-up appointments with the coach.
During a coaching session several skills are being used at any one time during the four key phases.
Five Key Coaching Skills
Rapport: Rapport in a coaching relationship can been seen in several ways. For example: in the level of understanding between the coach and coachee; satisfied expectations, outcomes goals and energy levels in the sessions.
Listening: Listening focuses on both the verbal and non-verbal communication that enable 'listening' and an understanding of the intention of what is said and unsaid.
Questions: The purpose of powerful questions is that they make a client stop and think.
Communication: The way in which the coach articulates back what they have heard does not have to be rational or make particular sense in the scheme of things, but it can show the client what they are saying to the coach and therefore to the outside world.
Learning and experience: A mass of insights, discoveries and planned actions come out of the coaching process. These need to be learned from and experienced in order to benefit from the coaching process and develop the goals planned for future living.
