NLP Coaching FAQ’s

What is Coaching? Our NLP Coaching Model? Who Benefits? Who and What influences the result in Coaching?

NLP Coaching FAQ’s

What is Coaching?

There are many definitions and descriptions of coaching. Our preferred description of coaching includes 4 elements

  1. Coaching helps the client get from here to there, where there is an otherwise difficult to achieve objective
  2. Coaching helps the client be the very best they can be in any situation
  3. Coaching is a high relationship, high task intervention where the client is responsible for achieving or overachieving the results he or she wants and the coach is responsible to suggest whatever is necessary to help the client achieve those results
  4. The coach has the client’s best interest in heart and mind. This involves taking the time to understand the client’s ‘Worldview’  and is both supporting and challenging as appropriate

Because the client is ultimately responsible for the results we suggest the client has a choice of coaches and in corporate coaching is given the choice of at least two and preferably three coaches.

Who is responsible for the Results of Coaching?

We believe the client has the key responsibility, followed by their environment (including the clients stakeholders), and then followed by the coach. The coach can often be the difference between the client achieving their objectives or not. However it’s important not to ignore the work done by the client, or the impact of the environment to reinforce or sabotage the the work done by both client and coach.

In the best coaching both the client and coach work together to ensure the environment supports the process.

Who makes the best Clients?

The best clients have the basic skills and resources (or access to the basic skills and resources) to complete the task, a touch of ambition, openness, courage and discipline. They’re prepared to test new ideas. They have a determination to succeed on their own, but accept that having a coach will make the journey  easier and more fun.

Who makes the worst Clients?

A lack of the above attributes. Lack of the realisation that we all need help to achieve the very best we can be. Clients who want to blame the coach for the endeavour not succeeding. (Although the coach has a responsibility too.  They shouldn’t accept the assignment unless they believe their client will succeed.)

The twin illusions of willpower and multitasking

A good coach will be aware that willpower tends to dissolve in the occasional crisis that many clients live through in any day, and ensure that there  are a number of routines in place to support the willpower the client has. They will also be aware that multitasking works best with established routines and behaviours. New routines and behaviours need focus, discipline and time before they become habits.

Why/How does coaching Work?

A coach will bring a unique series of coaching frameworks, attitudes and skills to complement the resources we already have.

In addition the following tasks are not always easy to do on our own. A coach can ensure we don’t miss steps out and in some cases help us ‘join the dots’ quicker than we could do on our own.

A coach can help us:

  1. Set our long term goals, establish where we are now, and come up with a simple plan to move from where we are to where we want to get to
  2. Implement new success frameworks
  3. Consider and explore all options, some of which may seem ‘far out’, to determine which might be the most effective
  4. Rehearse actions so that we perform them in a better state and more effectively on the journey
  5. Be disciplined and keep on track
  6. Learn from any apparent setbacks
  7. Be a colleague on our adventure. Give us encouragement and support whenever needed. Challenge us when needed.

Learning to Coach / Learning to be Coached

There are at least 3 ways of learning coaching skills:

  1. Being coached. So we we learn what works for us
  2. Coaching others. So we learn what works for others
  3. Certified courses. So we learn what others think is best practice

The better we learn both skills the more we can coach ourselves.

Types of Coaching

There are hundreds of different approaches to coaching. Most are based on some combination of:

  1. Helping you clarify where you want to get to, understand why you want to get there, pinpoint your starting point and help you identify and follow a plan to get there.
  2. Developing a success model in a particular context and coaching the client to improve in areas that relate to the model, which (if the model is correct) leads to success in the area chosen.

Examples of Coaching Models

  1. Simply asking good coaching questions in a way that motivates!
  2. GROW Goal, Current Reality, Obstacles and Options, Way Forward
  3. Our NLP Coaching Model which includes a number of mandatory elements and a number of choice elements to use in a coaching intervention.  Beginning Frame, State, Outcomes (end goal), Rapport, Current Strategy, Milestone, Technique or Task, Future Pace, End Frame. (and where appropriate Beliefs, Values, Senses and Submodalities, Strategies, Profiles and Preferences, Hypnosis and Hypnotic Inductions, Time and Timelines, Stories, Techniques and Tasks and Modelling)
  4. Marshall Goldsmith’s Senior Leaders and Team Coaching. This is a powerful approach where the coach and leader sets up a safe process for the leader to be coached by their stakeholders in a year long programme.

Related links: Grow Vs NLP Coaching Model, MGSCC Leadership Coaching, MGSCC Team Coaching,

NLP Coaching FAQs

NLP Coaching FAQs