What makes coaching conversations so effective? To answer this we might need to first ask the question, effective at what? If the answer is ‘at helping with the mental and emotional state of a person’, then we can begin to look for the answer in our social brains and how we are hardwired to connect with one another.
Lieberman (2013)
The reason why coaching conversations in particular are so effective at helping is because the intention is to be helpful. The coach’s prime objective is to be an effective instrument of helpfulness in that coach – coachee live moment.
To be the most effective helping instrument in this moment the effective coach employs the most helpful psychological mindfulness possible at that time.
Bluckert (2006)
Keen psychological mindfulness offered by the effective coach is experienced by the coachee as authentic ‘human’ support. This is the live point in the process. From this live point both coach and coachee determine the level of challenge that can be risked in tackling the issue. Such coaching conversations are so effective because they draw upon a agile blend of experience and formal training that delivers a high level of resource to this live point between them. Connection is experienced as is trust. If this can be embraced all kinds of creative resources can be tapped into by both parties. Actually our social brains are wonderfully attuned and set up to learning new things in this kind of shared moment. We delight in the trust. The effective coach kindles lines of creativity between them so that new and emerging ways of thinking can form attainable goals and from there realistic plans and helpful strategies decided upon. In summary, transparent conversation builds the trust that brings realisation and the energy to change.