Coaching, Coaching Psychology and improving performance

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Coaching, Coaching Psychology and improving
performance

• Beyond GROW
• Dr Alison Whybrow
• Special Group in Coaching Psychology,
• British Psychology Society

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Route Map

• Coaching why and the how
• GROW and similar models
• Is there more to coaching than GROW?
• The Psychological underpinnings of Coaching
  three frameworks
• Practical tools
• Reflections

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Why? Improved effectiveness

• Increase practical skills
• Increase resilience under pressure
• Enable a focus on the outcomes
• Increase decision making and personal
  effectiveness
• Increase self-awareness

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Coaching is.

• .unlocking a persons potential to maximise
  their own performance. Its helping them to learn
  rather than teaching them
• (Whitmore, 2000)

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GROW
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The underpinning questions

• G
• What is it you are trying to achieve?
• What does that look like?
• How will you know when youve achieved that goal?

• R
• Where are you now?
• What is happening at the moment in relation to
  this goal?
• What is a realistic deadline for achieving the
  goal?

O What options do you have? Who can support you
to achieve this goal? What information / training
do you need?
W What is the first step that you need to take
towards this goal? How motivated are you to
achieve this goal? What small action will you
take when you leave this session?
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Other models

• STRONG
• T-GROW
• Any others

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Some of the basic skills.

• Rapport / engagement
• Delivering messages
• Listening skills
• Questioning skills
• Process skills
• Self Awareness

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Psychology and Coaching
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A little exercise

• Spend 4-5 mins reading the story AND answering
  the 18 statements with true, false, and
  dont know.
• Add up the subtotal for each column
• Be prepared to share those results

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• There is no one
• truth or right world view
• We dont see the world as it is, we see the world
  as we are
• (Anais Nin)

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More on perception
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Three Psychological Frameworks

• Gestalt Existential Perspective
• Cognitive Behavioural
• Solutions Focused

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Fritz Perls and Gestalt

• Full awareness in the moment
• Patterns of behaviour / thought in coaching
  sessions are mirrors of patterns outside sessions
• Mindful interventions noticing a word, a
  pattern, a position
• Two chair work / meta mirror/ field experiments
• Exploit and explore the physical senses

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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

• There are three core ideas we hold about the
  world that underpin our thinking patterns (Albert
  Ellis).
• Our beliefs about the world lead to situation
  specific responses that guide our choices (based
  on Aaron Beck)

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We think like this because

• Elliss three core beliefs
• I must be perfect If I dont do well then it is
  awful leading to stress, anxiety, depression,
  shame and guilt
• Others must like me If you do not then you / I
  deserve to be punished leading to anger,
  passive-aggressiveness and violence
• Life should be easy If not, I cant stand it
  leading to self / other pity, procrastination,
  addictive behaviour, depression

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Thinking errors
Specific thinking patterns that lead to situation
specific Automatic Negative Thoughts including

• All or nothing thinking
• Magnification
• Minimisation
• Personalisation
• Emotional reasoning
• Mind reading
• Labelling

• Discounting the positive
• Demanding-ness
• Focusing on the negative
• Fortune telling
• Overgeneralisation
• I-cant-stand-it-it is
• Blame

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What does this mean?

• People are not disturbed by events, but by the
  view they take of them (Epictetus)
• Everything is but what your opinion makes it and
  that opinion lies within yourself (Marcus
  Aurelius)
• Hamlet Why then tis non to you for there is
  nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it
  so (Shakespeare)

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The good news.

• People can learn to notice and change their own
  thoughts with powerful emotional and behavioural
  benefits.

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The Psychological Management Model

• A Activating event
• B Beliefs
• C - Consequences
• D Dispute
• E Effective

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Techniques

• Thinking skills to create realistic (replacing
  the unreaslitic positive/negative thinking)
• Imagery techniques
• Self acceptance exercises
• Hard work and practice

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The Director makes me so angry
The lift gives me panic attacks
My workload makesme feel so depressed
Company politics make me furious
Common Statements
Making an error makes me useless
Giving presentationsmakes me feel dreadful
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Investment Fund Manager

• PITs
• this is a complete waste of time
• Im not doing particularly well
• this is terrible
• I will be seen as the junior guy whos just come
  along for experience

• PETs
• I can do this, Im good at this
• The implications of making a mistake are not so
  bad
• Just because Ive made one mistake, it doesnt
  mean Im entirely bad

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Joe, Climberfrom touching the void

• SITs
• I am going to die
• This wasnt in the game plan, this shouldnt
  happen to me
• I can sit here hoping for things to get better

• SETs
• I am a fit 25 year old, who wants to climb the
  world
• Look back and realise how scary the night had
  been
• Could be sitting here for days
• Have to keep making decisions if you dont
  theres no hope.
• Didnt tie a knot in the end of the rope then
  it would be quick

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Joe, Climber (Contd)from touching the void

• SITs
• you havent even started mate, its miles and
  miles and on really bad ground

• SETs
• it occurred to me that I should set definite
  targets.
• I can get to that crevasse in 20 mins

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Exercise

• Focus on one aspect of your performance that
  youd like to improve
• Examine the thoughts that might be inhibiting
  your performance
• Write these down in the left hand column
• Challenge these thoughts Are they realistic,
  Logical, Helpful?
• Write down any performance enhancing thoughts in
  the right hand column

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Solutions Focused

• Part 1 In pairs, decide who is A and B.
• B think of a time (sparkling moment) when you
  were at your best and spend 3 mins describing it.
• A Get as much detail as possible, observable,
  positive, concrete details. Listen carefully to
  and note what your partner says
• What was it about the moment that made it sparkle
  for you?
• What do you remember most about yourself as that
  moment?
• What might others have noticed?
• What did other say / do?
• What else?

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Sparkling moments

• Part 2 Giving Affirms/ Identifying Resources
• Based on what your partner has just said.
• Reflect on what you now know about their
  excellent qualities, skills and resources as a
  person thin for a moment.
• Then tell them and wait for them to say Thank
  you

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Sparkling moments

• Part 3 find small actions
• Based on the discussion youve had so far
• A asks B Choose a small action that will
  increase the likelihood of more Sparkling moments
  happening at work in the following days and weeks
• Make sure the action is small and specific.

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Solutions Philosophy

• Problem talk creates problems. Solution talk
  creates solutions.
• (Steve de Shazer)

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Bringing coaching and psychology together

• Psychologically based tools and techniques are
  used everyday by coaches, line managers and
  individuals to enhance their performance and
  effectiveness.
• The tools and techniques discussed here today can
  be easily applied.
• Psychological understanding is particularly
  helpful for coaches.

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Ethical practice

• Working to improve individual performance at work
  can take unexpected directions
• Whatever tools and techniques used, there are
  boundaries to competence, where reference to a
  psychologically trained / more experienced coach,
  a counsellor, or therapist is the best next step

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References

• Lee, G Leadership Coaching From Personal Insight
  to Organisational Performance CIPD
• Neenan, M. Dryden. W. (2002). Life Coaching A
  Cognitive-Behavioural Approach. Hove
  Brunner-Routledge.
• Palmer, S., Cooper, C., Thomas, K. (2003).
  Creating a Balance Managing Stress. British
  Library, London
• Peltier, B. (2001).The Psychology of Executive
  Coaching Theory Application. Brunner-Routledge
• Szarbo, P and Berg, I.K (2005) Brief Coaching
• Pemberton, C (2006) Solutions for Managers.

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Contact Details

• Dr Alison Whybrow
• alison.whybrow_at_btinternet.com
• Tel [phone]
• Mob [phone]