Co-Active Coaching

The coaching relationship is the framework for effective coaching, creating the conditions that enable the client to achieve their goals. As such it is represented as a circle on the model, encompassing the client’s agenda. As the relationship is tailored specifically to meet the client’s needs and is a collaborative partnership between two equals, the authors refer to it as a ‘designed alliance’.

It is the coaching relationship, not the coach, that empowers the client to meet their challenges, as both parties grant power to the relationship rather than to each other. As the client plays a key role in designing it and is ultimately in control, long-term change is therefore more likely. The notion that learning is more effective when individuals create it themselves and take ownership of it (‘Total Learner Involvement’) is supported by many leading thinkers in the field of Accelerated Learning, an approach to people development based on the science of how the brain learns best.

Five Key Coaching Skills

It is no mistake that the coach does not appear on the model. As the central focus is on the client and their agenda, the coach as a person is invisible. The coach’s role is to create the context in which the client can work on their agenda. The authors highlight five key ‘contexts’ that the coach brings to the coaching that allow this to happen. These could also be described as the key skills of coaching.

1. Listening

Co-Active Coaching attempts to offer a deeper insight into the fundamentals of effective listening skills than the superficial level offered by many coaching books.

The authors offer a three-level listening model for helping the coach to understand what constitutes truly effective listening:

1. internal listening – the listener focuses on what is being said and interprets what it means to them

2. focused listening – the listener becomes detached from their own thoughts and opinions, focusing instead on the speaker and understanding the speaker’s perspective, and looking out for what is said and how, but also what is not said

3. global listening – the listener uses all senses and tunes in to the most subtle of signals to pick up on every aspect of the speaker’s communication, including emotions, values and motivations

However, the key to effective listening, according to the authors, is not only in paying attention to all the information that is being received, but also in deciding what to do with this information. The coach creates an impact on the client by steering the discussion appropriately, based on the information that they have received through careful listening.

2. Intuition

As intuition can be vague and rather difficult to explain or verify, it is often regarded as unreliable, and is dismissed and mistrusted by many. According to the authors, however, it is ‘one of the most powerful gifts a coach brings to coaching’.[2]

It is not our intuition that fails us, they argue, but the interpretation that we attach to it when attempting to express it.

The authors encourage the coach to think of intuition as an intelligence that can be finely tuned with practice. By trusting it, learning to relax and tune into how it is received (through the senses, for example, or as a ‘gut feeling’), and being careful not to attach interpretations to it, the coach can use intuition as an effective tool. The best way of doing this, they say, is by expressing it in the moment as soon as it is received.

The authors also make a distinction between intuition and judgment, and stress the importance of not regarding intuition as being ‘right’. It is an observation, and should be communicated as such rather than stated as fact.

3. Curiosity

As the central tenet of Co-Active Coaching is that the client is capable of finding the answers to their challenges themselves, questioning is a fundamental skill of the Co-Active coach.

The authors are keen, however, to stress the difference between questions that merely elicit information, and questions that demonstrate a genuine interest in understanding the client and helping them to explore their world.

Unskilled use of questioning can lead to a defensive attitude in clients, especially if they feel that a ‘correct’ answer is sought. This can cause clients to either resist or give the reply that they believe is wanted. Curious questioning, however, breaks down defenses, encouraging the client to explore themselves and give an answer from within.

When the coach is curious, they are not in ‘expert’ mode. Curiosity demonstrates that the coach doesn’t have all the answers and is genuinely interested in working with the client to find them.

This helps to builds rapport and trust, and is also tremendously flattering and confidence-building for the client.

In this way, the coach is able to reach deep into the heart of issues with the client, making important discoveries that can contribute a great deal to the client’s learning.

4. Action/Learning

Co-Active Coaching provides a framework of accountability for generating change. The mutual support of the coaching partnership creates focus and discipline, helping the client to identify and measure their actions and learning.

Accountability, explain the authors, does not mean attaching blame or passing judgment, it simply means that the client reports on, or gives an account of, their actions in order to create feedback and forward the learning. As the agenda and the results belong to the client, the coach puts the client in charge and holds them accountable for achieving them.

For the coaching to be successful, it is essential for the coach to set expectations early on in the relationship, ensuring that the client understands that they are ultimately in charge, and making it clear that the coach will not force any actions or pass judgment on performance, but will notice and enquire about intended actions that have not been taken.

In Co-Active Coaching, claim the authors, the coach will ‘see effective ways to rigorously hold others to account and do it with a light hand’.

5. Self-Management

As the client is the focal point of the coaching relationship and the key aim is to help the client to work on their own self-management, there is no place for the coach to impose their own judgements and opinions. It would, of course, be impossible for anyone to deny the existence of personal thoughts and feelings, but the key, explain the authors, is in being able to recognize when they begin to intrude on the coaching session and put them on hold until after the session.

In this sense, the coach’s well-being is as important as the client’s. The coach must prepare themselves emotionally, physically and mentally to help the client by ensuring that their own fulfillment, balance and process are in alignment before the session.

Setting aside personal distractions, however, does not mean that the coach should avoid being direct or truthful when necessary. The authors point out that coaching, for both parties, cannot always take place within the ‘comfort zone’. Often, exploring the most difficult or sensitive issues can lead to significant discoveries, and skirting them means that some of the most important learning points for the client are therefore lost.

In this way, the Co-Active Coaching model resembles Mary-Beth O’Neill’s ‘Backbone and Heart’ approach to coaching, in that it expresses the importance of having the courage to articulate oneself clearly while still being in tune with the client.

Applications of Model

Co-Active Coaching is a useful reference for coaches for building core coaching skills and for maintaining a focus on the client in the coaching relationship.

Co-Active Coaching Model

Modified and reproduced by special permission of the Publisher, Davies-Black Publishing, an imprint of CPP, Inc., Palo Alto, CA 94303 from Co-Active Coaching by Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House, and Phil Sandahl. Copyright 1998 by Davies-Black Publishing, an imprint of CPP, Inc. All rights reserved. Further reproduction is prohibited without the Publisher's written consent.