Coach attributes

Most of us who have been coaching effectively for some time would say that we are strong believers in non-directional coaching – in other words, we work to the coachee’s agenda, not our own. Despite our best intentions, this is not actually true! The reality is that every question we ask has, to a degree, presupposed the structure of the expected answer. If we are constantly aware of the desired outcome for the session, it becomes more likely that the questions we pose will presuppose some movement towards that future.

Some of the other attributes exhibited by successful coaches are:

• supportive, positive, accepting
• non judgemental
• listen to gut, intuitions
• willing to challenge – requires courage as it may seem to put relationship at risk
• linguistic and behavioural flexibility – willing to try other approaches, and has the ability to choose whatever seems best in the moment
• registers non-verbal signals as relevant data
• asks what?, how?, what? when? of the coachee, but rarely why? (because why? can feel threatening, and rarely generates movement towards an outcome)