🎙️ EP 6 : Three Reasons why Coaching Works – Learning – Motivation – Expectations

Today’s podcast is a background toolkit that aims to bring you into a position where you can answer the question: Is Coaching a proven way to help?

Why do I include this?

Coaching is often still seen as a technique that is ‘soft’ and optional; as a Leader who starts using coaching skills, you will often get into the situation where you might have to ‘win over’ someone to give it a try.

In these situations, it is helpful to have a few powerful arguments ready why coaching is so useful and practically made to help the typical human mind execute faster and with more conviction.

So what are those three points?

(1) Coaching follows exactly the way Neuroscience describes Learning. It is also effective as it is aligned to agreed adult learning principles. Sustainable Learnings happens when the Learner/Coachee construct their own solution
(2) Coaching is designed to build and expand internal motivation. It supports that by giving people autonomy, a chance of mastery and seeing a purpose in their way of proceeding.
(3) Expectation: The mindset of the Leader Coach plays a major role. If I expect nothing much from my coachee, nothing much is likely to happen. If I am in the mindset of seeing them capable, I act differently. Our mindset helps create our reality.

(1) Learning

(1A) The Neuroscience of Learning supports Coaching as a way to help people generate something new
Coaching is designed to ignite an insight in the person we talk to. We can call this a learning moment. One Neuroscience describes Learning through the AGES model

(Source: David Rock’s Popular Neuroscience Book: Your Brain at Work)

A – Attention
G – Generate a mental map
E – Emotion
S – Spaced Repetition

This way, coaching serves the so-called three H’s:
– Head: What we need to know
– Heart: What we want to feel
– Hands: What we should do

(1B) Adult Learning: Coaching fits snugly into the accepted ways how adults learn – also called andragogy (vs pedagogy).
– Self-Concept: Adult Learners are more self-directed in their Learning
– Experience: Adults have experience and accumulated resources. Learning that taps and builds on what is there, is likely to ‘stick’ better and longer.
– Readiness to Learn: Adults are likely to be ready for learning in respect to their social roles; Coaching is highly related to this.
– Orientation to Learn: Adults usually look for Learning that can be applied in their actual environment. Adults usually learn better when it is scenario-focused and almost immediately applicable, rather than postponed.
– Motivation to Learn: When people mature, their motivation to learn becomes increasingly internal.

(1C) Constructivism (I know..5000$ word. don’t run away yet!)
– It simply means that we know that reality is constructed in every individual
– even if the person you talk to seems on the wrong path to you, whatever they do makes sense to them in the very moment. Otherwise, they would not act the way they do
– when we coach, we have to accept that fundamental reality of the other person as true.
– this requires us to perceive it without judgment, even though it might be different to our own opinion.
– it also means that any change that the other person should own with conviction also must make complete sense to them.
– to have the highest chance for success in making a change, we should help people ‘construct’ their own solution as much as possible. This is exactly what coaching is designed to do really well.

(2) Motivation Theory
Dan Pink in is his great book ‘Drive’ brings it home well:
– External drivers for motivation are simply outdated. Carrot and Stick can only bring us so far in helping people unlock all the potential in them.
– To be motivated to walk their own path and find their own solutions, they need to have Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.
– When we use coaching skills as a Leader, we specifically think about where we can give autonomy to our team member.

(3) Expectation Biases
– The Pygmalion effect: high expectations lead to higher performance
– The complementary Golem effect: low expectations lead to lower performance
– Self-fulfilling prophecy: That’s why the coaching mindset is so central. The way we show up as a Leader makes a huge difference in the way to come across.
– this is compounded and increased further through confirmation biases. Once we made up our mind what to expect, we automatically look for it and find evidence that supports our belief

Enjoy!