Coaching for what’s wanted brings a solutions focus perspective to any formal or informal coaching conversation. Solutions focused coaching amplifies hope and the possibility of the achievement of change so that something is ‘better’. Better for the coachee.

However, this does not mean that the change the coachee seeks is easy, down to a few simple steps and actions. The desired change may feel a long way away, the road to it all uphill. And while hope ‘springs eternal’, doubt lies in the shadows - in an eternal tension between what’s wanted and what’s not. Doubt seeks to drag hope back to base and extinguish it with fear. The fear that “you” won’t be able to achieve the change, that “you” are just not up to it. The struggle against beliefs that are old stories surface our vulnerabilities with relentless ferocity.

What’s not wanted may often present at the outset of the coaching conversation as stronger than what’s wanted. This is the space between hope and fear that the coach and coachee will work in together. Grant (2012) articulates this ‘in between’ space as the difference between avoidance goals, which are about moving away from an undesired state, and approach goals, expressed as moving towards a specific state or outcome. Evidence suggests there are different effects associated with these types of goals. Studies have shown that people who set avoidance goals have lower levels of wellbeing. In the service of our coachee an approach goal enables a higher level of specificity and goal-striving behaviours.

Pfeffer & Sutton (2000) describe the Knowing-Doing gap and outline the opportunities that come from the paradigm shift from problem-based to solutions focused thinking. The gap between hope and doubt for a coachee is no less of a divide. It includes feeling gaps that are real, personal and weighed down by deficit thinking. While hope springs eternal, the fear is that what’s wanted is just out of reach. The coachee’s terrain is sloping uphill. Not only is there going to be work ahead for our coachee, they will be doing that work over the course of a steep, slippery climb. The coach will also be working, entirely engaged in the service of their coachee, but the terrain they stand on is very different.

Using a continuum, Munro (2020) describes various ‘stances’ a coach may take within a coaching conversation to position themselves to be agile and responsive to emergent needs as the coaching conversation unfolds. Utilising their coaching skills and understanding of the continuum, the coach can move back and forth on the continuum with intentionality. They can choose to be more or less directive, facilitative or dialogic as they hold space for their coachee to do the deep work of their climb.

Powerful questions, informed by listening and noticing, energise solutions focus thinking and give life and specificity to the expected outcomes of the coachee’s desired change. They acknowledge and respect the work already done. You’ve obviously thought a lot about this? What’s really at stake here? What’s that telling you? What do you think you should do?

Powerful questions shift the balance to what’s wanted. What would be different? What would be better? What else? What would others be noticing? What would you be noticing about yourself? What would you be seeing and hearing? What would you be thinking?

This understanding of terrain renews our understanding of the purpose of coaching. “A one-to-one conversation that focuses on the enhancement of learning and development through increasing self awareness and a sense of personal responsibility, where the coach facilitates the self-directed learning for the coachee through questioning, active listening and appropriate challenge in a supportive and encouraging climate.” (van Nieuwerburgh, 2012, p17)

And, in the context of educational leadership, whether it is a formal or informal coaching conversation, we can harness moral imperative and will. What will be better for the students? What’s wanted? What’s working? What’s next?

References

• Grant, A.M. (2012), An integrated model of goal-focused coaching: An evidence-based framework for teaching and practice, International Coaching Psychology Review (Vol.7 No. 2. Pages 146-165)
• Jackson, P.Z. & McKergow, M. (2007) The solutions focus: Making coaching & change simple, Nicholas Brealey International, London.
• Munro, C. (2020), A continuum of professional learning conversations: Coaching, mentoring and everything in between, CollectiveEd [11]. Pages 37-42. Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University.
• Pfeffer, J & Sutton, R,. (2000) The knowing-doing gap: How smart companies turn knowledge into action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
• van Nieuwerburgh, C. (2012). Coaching in education: an overview. In C. van Nieuwerburgh (Ed.) Coaching in Education: Getting Better Results for students, Educators and Parents. London: Karnac.