Yours Truly witnessing the Quiet Strength of the Pacific Ocean

Some insights come from serendipitous occurrences.

Like this one I just had: that “Solution-Focus” has the quality of Quiet Strength.

This insight was triggered by three unrelated events:

- via @dChickadee4Life, stumbling upon this blog post: Three Keys to Mindful Leadership Coaching. The three keys mentioned by Douglas Riddle are: an open mind; non reactivity; permissive attention. These are all characteristics of  the “Not-Knowing” Stance which is one of the distinctive features of Solution – Focus. One particular sentence by Douglas Riddle resonated deeply in me: How does a coach do that? By creating in the conversation with the coachee a sense of open, reflective exploration. The coaches who expand my mind, emotions and performance come to the coaching relationship from a place of inner calm. They have quiet minds. They are not beguiled by fancy techniques or elegant coaching models.

- reading the book: Quiet. The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I had a profound sense of recognition while reading it. I made peace with my style of coaching – I am definitely not a Tony Robbins. I do not talk much. I do not raise my voice. I am not “in your face” and I definitely do not pump my fists in the air!  I like to create space for reflection. Gently but purposefully. There is strength in quiet and deliberate effort.

- having to confront  the same misunderstanding about Solution-Focus three times in the past week. I discovered, in 3 separate conversations with fellow Executive Coaches, that “Solution-Focus” is understood as task-focused. One Coach characterized “being too solution-focused” as going straight to the solution and prescribing a task as opposed to patiently listening to the Client first. I was taken aback – because this is the opposite of what “Solution-Focus” is! But, alas, that is what those words evoke, apparently. So I had to articulate what “Solution-Focus’ is.

These 3 separate events listed above made me realize that Solution-Focus is Quiet Strength.

Quiet strength in the “Not-Knowing” stance and curiosity of the Solution-Focused practitioners; in our  faith that Clients have already experienced bits and pieces of the solution.

Quiet strength in not adding anything to what Clients bring, yet keeping them accountable. Leading from behind, gently but steadfastly, in the interaction.

Quiet strength in being a witness to the Clients’ strengths – and honoring those strengths with our compliments.

Quiet Strength.

I think I like that.

Tags: being with the client, coaching, creating space, deliberate practice, executive coaching, Introvert, leadership, listening, mindfulness, misunderstanding, not-knowing stance, Quiet, quiet strength, reflection, Solution-Focused coaching, strength, Tony Robbins

Guest post by Coert Visser

Solution-focused principles and techniques, orginally developed in psychotherapy, have found their way into coaching, over the last decade. While an evidence base of solution-focused brief therapy is beginning to come off the ground, little research is done on the effectiveness of solution-focused coaching (one researcher who is already doing interesting research in this area is Anthony Grant). It is important that an evidence base on solution-focused coaching is built, too. Individual clients, client organizations and society at large rightfully demand that solution-focused professionals not only discover things that work but also justify what they do by scientifically testing their claims.

Standard effectiveness research approaches involve randomized controlled experiments in which the treatment of interest is compared with a reference approach and a control group. A recent review summarizes this type of coaching research, which is still in its infancy. While this approach is indispensable it is not the only useful approach and it is not without weaknesses. For one thing, this type of research requires the existence of generally accepted definitions of the treatments (coaching procedures) that are researched. This type of research comparing coaching approaches does say something about the relative effectiveness of these approaches but does not say much about the relative contribution of the constituent elements of these approaches because these are not examined separately in these types of experiments but in combination with each other.

Research aimed at a micro level of coaching can be an important addition to these standard research approaches. One example is micro-analysis research done by Janet Beavin Bavelas and her colleagues. Micro-analysis research will, in the near future, I predict, be supported by software to analyze language used in coaching conversations. As this type of research will develop a much more nuanced and specific kind of knowledge will emerge about what works and what not.

Survey based research also offers some interesting opportunities to analyze the specific interventions and behaviors of solution-focused coaches. Recently I published such a study: Testing the Association between Solution-Focused Coaching and Client Perceived Coaching Outcomes. I designed a web-based survey and administered it to 200 clients of coaches. The survey consisted of a list of 28 coach behaviors, 14 of which were solution-focused behaviors and 14 of which were behaviors solution-focused coaches would deliberately avoid. I asked clients to describe what their coaches had done and what they had not done (without referring to the solution-focused approach or any other approach, by the way). In addition to that, I asked clients to describe on several dimensions how effective the coaching had been. Solution-focused coach behaviors turned out to be were strongly positively correlated to positive coaching outcomes. Non-solution-focused coach behaviors, on the other hand, turned out to be moderately negatively correlated to positive coaching outcomes.

Then, I used a statistical technique called multiple regression analysis which gave insight into which specific coach behaviors were predictive of coaching success. This showed that the following 10 solution-focused coach behaviors in particular were associated with positive coaching outcomes:

• The coach responded with understanding to what I said (coach understandingness)
• The coach let me decide whether the coaching should be continued or terminated (client continuation choice)
• The coach focused on topics that I found useful to talk about (client topic choice)
• The coach encouraged me to describe how I wanted my situation to become (desired situation description)
• The coach encouraged me to describe what I wanted to be able to do differently (positive future behavior description)
• The coach gave me positive feedback (complimented me on what I had done well) (positive behavior feedback)
• The coach encouraged me to choose which step(s) forward I would to take (client chosen action)
• The coach used the same words as I had used (language matching)
• The coach checked several times whether our conversation was useful to me (client usefulness check
• The coach asked questions about what I had already done that had worked well (exploration of what worked)

The number of non-solution-focused coach behaviors that was predictive of positive outcomes was smaller. Three coach behaviors were, as expected, negatively associated with coaching outcomes:

• The coach told me whether the coaching should be continued or terminated (coach continuation choice),
• The coach gave me negative feedback (criticized me on what I had done wrong) (negative behavior feedback), and
• The coach chose what topics we talked about (coach topic choice).

Surprisingly (and interestingly), two non-solution-focused coach behaviors were, contrary to this study’s expectations, positively associated with coaching outcomes:

• The coach analyzed with me what the causes of my problem might be (problem cause analysis)
• The coach asked questions about when my problems were at their worst (problem peak focus)

I hope this is a good (while modest) beginning of survey based research into the effectiveness of solution-focused interventions in coaching. The details of the study can be found in the full article. Soon, I hope to publish a study into the effects of the coaching approach on coaches themselves

Tags: coaching behaviors, coaching questions, Coert Visser, Evidence-Based, Guest Post, paper, research, Solution-Focused coaching, Survey, What works

Here is a short story that very well illustrates why I love Solution-Focus Coaching and its magic in bringing out clients’ expertise.

My Coaching Client is the Administration Manager for a small but fast-growing company, and we are having a Coaching session over Skype.

Topic of the session: he wants his co-workers to be “more motivated“.

I know that the concept of “motivation” is a tricky one.

Personally I am very skeptical about the whole construct.

And recently published works by Daniel Pink and by Dan Ariely show how the notion of “motivating someone” is little more than a myth.

However, operating under Solution-Focused assumptions, I am not supposed to share these recent insights from psychology with my Client. Even though the role of the “know-it-all” nerd fits me perfectly well, I have to bite my tongue.

As it often happens during tough moments in Coaching, I look at the card pictured above, that sits prominently on my desk. It reads:  “Slow Down, Calm Down, Don’t’ Worry, Don’t Hurry, Trust the Process.”

So I did just that: I relaxed, got my hands off the steering wheel and let the Solution-Focused process unfold, one question at a time.

“Suppose your co-workers are more motivated. What would you notice? What would they be doing differently? What would you be doing differently? What else? Have there been times recently when your employees behaved in the desired manner?…”

The client answers eagerly the first questions – however, as we go into more details of how things would be different, I can sense his frustration. A sort of tension simmering.

At some point he stops and says: “I am wondering… maybe I got it all wrong.”

Me: “what do you mean?”

Client: “well… I do not think I need to motivate them. They are already motivated! It’s just that they like to work in a different way -  each with his or her own area of responsibility rather than as a team! And to be working in this company as a team would mean a huge cultural change, given our history. This has got more to do with my expectation of how the company could grow in the future than with actual motivation or work performance!”

What an insight! Without me suggesting anything, the client got to the same conclusion as that of current cutting-edge research: you cannot “motivate” employees. You can only create the right conditions for them to be engaged in their work.

I looked once again at that card – and I smiled to myself.

Tags: biting your tongue, case study, Clients are the Experts, Dan Ariely, Dan Pink, Insight, motivation, Questions, research, Solution-Focused assumptions, Solution-Focused coaching, Solution-Focused Protocols, Trusting the Process

Production line at the Cepina Levissima Factory, Italy

From 2003 until 2005 I was heavily involved as a Solution-Focused Coach / Consultant in support of a major Organizational Development Project for Sanpellegrino, the Italian bottled-water company owned by Nestle Waters.

It is one project I am still very proud of.

Here is one lesson learned re Coaching and Organizational Development:

Coaching was introduced as a way of helping them once they were already facing problems, i.e. first they were given the new role and thrown into the field, then they were offered the opportunity of having a coach to help them meet the challenges they were facing. I believe this is a key success factor. First, coachees need to experience the problem so they can experience the need for coaching. In this scenario, management does not need to sell coaching – quite the opposite, management can play the role of the saviour by graciously offering them this much-needed support.

You can read the whole case study I wrote for eO&P (e- Organisations and People) and published in November 2010 here.

Tags: article, case study, Cepina, e-O&P, High-Performing Factory, HPF, Levissima, Nestle Waters, OD, Organizational Development, Sanpellegrino, Solution Focused Consulting, Solution-Focused coaching

Solutionsurfers’ PURE Brief Coach Training – participants busy in coaching conversations

“Embodied Learning” Coaching, “Limbic” Coaching, “Emotional Intelligence” Coaching, “Law of Attraction” Coaching, “Somatic” Coaching… and what about “Solution-Focused” Coaching itself?  So confusing!!  Too many names, too many claims.

But Coaching is simplicity itself.

Becoming an effective Coach is a different matter – if Coaching is a simple concept, that does not mean it is easy to execute.

Here is my own take on Coaching:

1. Coaching is a purposeful conversation. Nothing more, nothing less.
   According to the ICF (International Coach Federation), the purpose of a Coaching conversation is to “help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives.”
   To do that, Coaches are trained in different “protocols” (i.e. sets of assumptions, questions, communication strategies…).
   I use ‘Solution-Focused‘ protocols: they are well supported by research and they have at their core the assumption that is featured in the ICF definition of Coaching:   “the Client is the expert in his/her life and work and … every Client is creative, resourceful, and whole.”
   What kind of change can a conversation bring about? As Liselotte Baeijaert brilliantly put it, a Solution-Focused Coaching conversation “leaves the client changed: with more hope, with more creative ideas, with a feeling of competence, with a clearer view on possibilities“.
   No quantum mechanics or spiritual laws need be involved.
2. Coaching can also be Observing and Giving Feedback (i.e. constructive comments on the performance observed, with the aim of improving the performance itself). This kind of Coaching is often referred to as “Behavioral Coaching“.
   ‘Behavioral Coaching” is not that different from coaching in Sports. It is at the root of “Deliberate Practice“.
   Clients might want to develop some specific behaviors or skills (e.g. public speaking, interviewing skills…) and the Coach helps Clients practice. By simulating and observing the Client’s performance and by giving appropriate feedback, the Coach helps the Client acquire the desired capability. Think a tennis / swimming / ski… instructor. With a sprinkle of psychology.
   Again, there is an art in observing and giving feedback and the Coach is an expert on that.
   But that’s it.

   A good conversation. Strategic and scripted in the mind of the Coach, but naturally flowing (if the Coach is good) from the Client’s perspective.
   Or a keen eye and a good checklist.
   I know, no glamour here – in terms of marketing appeal no competition with terms like  ’energy boundaries” or “somatic matrix”.
   But conversations and checklists have something going for them – they work.

Tags: back to basics, Checklists, coaching, Coaching Definition, deliberate practice, ICF, simplicity, Solution-Focused coaching, the Art of Conversation, the Art of Giving Feedback

When I meet prospective clients, I can see there are still many misconceptions in the business world about what coaching is and what coaching can do for you.

Some of these misconceptions are due to lack of information, or information that is not correct: for example, the incorrect idea that the coach is a therapist, or the incorrect assumption that the coach is the expert in the clients’ field who is there to tell them what to do.

Some of these misconceptions have a cultural flavor: for example, here in Italy there is still  an underlying machismo which permeates the business community. The high-powered executive is supposed to do everything on his own, with no help or support from – invariably this is how they call us executive coaches – “a shrink”. Any sort of professional help is seen as a sign of weakness.

Some of these misconceptions have their roots in human nature. For example, it is very common to see prospective clients falling into the trap of all-or-nothing thinking, more specifically bouncing along the ominipotence – impotence continuum: the clients can either do everything and anything on their own, or they can do nothing at all on their own; the coach is either the one who knows everything and can make their life perfect or he / she is somebody who can not understand a thing about how the world (or the company, or real life, or business) works and therefore he / she is useless.

I would like to address a variant of this all-or-nothing thinking.

More specifically: you did a good job as a coach NOT when clients have solved ALL their problems and feel they have NO problems to solve, but when clients feel ready, willing and capable to tackle the issues they are paid to deal with, and feel they are making progress in handling them day in and day out.

This distinction was brought home to me recently by a client of mine, MS.

He is the Head of Personnel and of Administration of a large import-export company. He also sits in the Board of Directors, since it is a family business and he is a member of the family.

It is amazing the ground he covered within a few coaching sessions.

When we started our coaching relationship, his complaints where the concerns a typical middle manager would voice – how can I deal with employee X? how can I organize my activity by projects? How can I avoid spending too much time micro-managing basic operational problems like proper invoice registration? How can I shift from doing things myself to actually managing my department?
There was no thought, no space for issues like: strategically leading his company; re-organizing his department to better support the company’s key strategic objectives; organizing operations in a European country where they recently established a presence; leading his department (vs. managing).
After four coaching sessions, the items listed above were exactly what MS was starting to focus on.

At the end of our coaching relationship, as we were wrapping it up, he made a comment to this effect: “problems never end; but at least now I am dealing with the right set of problems, problems that have a wide organizational and strategic impact for the company. Now I feel I am in the position of making a difference. Now I feel willing and able to make a difference!”

Congratulations, MS!

* note: some details have been changed to protect the privacy of my client; even so, I have permission from the client to share the outline of his story.

Tags: all-or-nothing thinking, executive coaching, gradual progress, misconceptions, MS, Solution-Focused coaching