Best Coaching Techniques from Psychology Studies
Benefits of Business Executive Coaching and Personal Life Coaching
Nov 16, 2009
Perhaps a quarter-million people are now actively engaged in intensive personal and professional growth efforts with the aid of a hired professional coach (Marketdata Enterprises press release).
Though this is a small subset of all those estimated to be actively pursuing self improvement on their own, more and more people are taking this approach to growth by hiring a personal or business executive coach.
Before engaging the services of a coach — which can cost upwards of one-hundred dollars for each coaching session — one might first consider whether to seek coaching or counseling, and if coaching, whether some coaching techniques are more effective than others.
What is Coaching?
The International Coach Federation (ICF), which sets coaching certification standards, is the voice of the coaching industry with over fifteen-thousand members in ninety countries. ICF defines coaching as "partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential."
Anthony Grant, Ph.D. is the director of the Coaching Psychology Unit in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. Dr. Grant defines coaching as "a collaborative, solution-focused, action-oriented conversation that facilitates the enhancement of life experience, goal attainment, self-directed learning, and performance in the coachee’s professional and/or personal life."
Coaching is clearly a process of interaction between coach and person being coached, often called the coachee. Unlike counseling, which is more directed on the part of the counseling professional, coaching effectiveness depends on active and thoughtful participation by the coachee in the process of self-improvement and is based on goals sought by the coachee.
Coaching Counseling Differences
Dr. Grant describes the differences between coaching and counseling: "Where counseling” is more oriented toward restoring 'normal' function, coaching is..about enhancing people who are already doing well."
Psychology Studies on the Benefits of Coaching
ICF's web site cites several research studies of coaching effectiveness. Among the findings, over ninety percent of people utilizing coaching to help with issues of self-esteem and self-confidence reported improvement.
Dr. Grant's rigorous, randomized studies of coaching benefits find that coaching can "enhance goal attainment, well-being, resilience, and (can) reduce stress, anxiety and depression." Further Dr. Grant finds that business executive coaching "can enhance resilience and workplace well-being as well as facilitating goal attainment."
Psychology Research on Best Coaching Techniques
Based on Dr. Grant's studies of coaching techniques and effectiveness, it appears that coaching is most effective when:
- The coach is a trained professional.
- Coaching technique focuses on solution construction rather than problem analysis.
- The coaching technique develops actions in regard to solutions.
- Coaching is focused on building on the coachee's strengths.
- The coaching technique helps the coachee develop insight rather than stressing self-reflection.
Life and Executive Coaching Effectiveness
Personal life coaching and business executive coaching are effective in helping people achieve goals, improve self-esteem, self-confidence, and resilience, especially when the coach is a trained professional. The most effective coaching techniques focus on actions that create solutions and developing insights.
Source:
International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) Newsletter, May, 2009.
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