The Development of Coaches Survey: I. Do Coaches Change and What Are Their Competencies?

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Coaching Strategies

There are other items in both surveys that yield either low mean scores on both surveys or quite different mean scores on the first and second survey. Furthermore, they tend to yield variance scores that are comparatively high, indicating that respondents do not agree in their self-assessments. These items (from question two) have to do with coaching tools and strategies, as well as the theoretical underpinnings of the coaching process: (1) “How good is your general theoretical understanding of coaching?” and (2) “How much mastery do you feel you have of the techniques and strategies involved in practicing coaching?”

As in the case of the moment-to-moment item, these two items might simply be quite challenging for any respondent,. “A general theoretical understanding” might readily be declared a large task: what does it mean to have a general understanding of anything? How wide are the boundaries? How deep must we delve into anything to gain an “understanding.” “Mastery” is also a very challenging word. It presents us with a very high bar — when can any of us declare that we are “masters” of anything?

Given these cautionary notes, we can still pursue the implications of these relatively low mean scores and high variance scores. As mentioned previously, the challenge of coaching might be represented in part by what Kahneman calls “slow thinking” — which is the ability to stop for a time of reflection and reconsideration. It is a time for not just thinking-about-our-thinking, but also rethinking-about-our-thinking. We begin to strategize about what we are doing and plan for the next set of steps to be taken and the nature of outcomes we are seeking to achieve. This slow thinking is frequently the primary task we are taking on with our clients. We are encouraging them (and helping them) to slow down and reflect on their values, options, assumptions, visions, plans, support systems, and so forth. Perhaps as coaches we need to consider all of these things with regard to our own work–and not just the work of our clients.