Comparing three health behavior change models.

Motivational Coaching: A Functional Juxtaposition of Three Methods for Health Behaviour Change: Motivational Interviewing, Coaching, and Skilled Helping by Courtney Newnham-Kanas et al, International Journal of Evidenced Based Coaching and Mentoring, Vol 8 No 2 August 2010 ( full articles are available to our Institute of Coaching members ) Special Thanks to Deborah Elbaum, MD for translating this article from theory to practice As coaches, we are often asked what coaching involves and what makes it different from other modalities of health behavior change. Recognizing that health care professionals need effective ways to motivate and support people working toward long-lasting behavioral changes, Newnhawn-Kanas et. al. explored the similarities and differences among three motivational change methods: Co-Active coaching (as taught by Coaches Training Institute), Motivational Interviewing, and Egan's Skilled Helper Model. In Co-Active coaching, clients are assumed to be naturally creative, resourceful, and whole; coach and client partner to help the client move forward in an empowered way. Motivational Interviewing (MI) focuses on addressing the client's behavior and ambivalence as a way to increase his or her intrinsic motivation to change. Egan's Skilled Helper Model (SHM) emphasizes empowerment; clients work through three stages of questions to become more effective at managing both problems and opportunities. In comparing these three methods, the authors focused on the following areas: the role and creation of the therapeutic alliance; the role of the client, how the client is perceived, and which aspects of the client's life are involved in the process; how each session's agenda is determined; and how the client's need and readiness for change is addressed. Overall, coaching, MI, and SHM incorporate largely similar core principles, beliefs, and processes. The main differences that surfaced involve:  ·      The training -- Individuals trained in MI and SHM are most often health care professionals. In contrast, Co-Active coaches come from a wide variety of professional backgrounds. ·      The specific terminology and methodology of each technique ·      The perceived stigma -- Life coaching is often viewed in a more acceptable light than counseling, because it is less likely to be associated with healing a person's dysfunction. Incorporating the key aspects of coaching, MI, and SHM, the authors created and proposed a new model of Motivational Coaching to help people change their behavior. As you reflect on your coaching practice, what do you see as critical in working with clients to make and sustain health behavior changes?

Does Coaching Work? Here's what the research says

Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context By Tim Theeboom, Bianca Beersma, and Annelies E.M. van Vianen The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2014, Vol 9 Issue 1 Special Thanks to Brodie Gregory, PhD for translating this research article Does coaching actually work? Sure, we all have great anecdotal evidence of the positive effects of coaching for our clients and the organizations in which they work. But one problem in the coaching literature in recent years has been a notable lack of data-based evidence that coaching really works. In their recent research, Theeboom, Beersma, and van Vianen conducted a meta-analysis on studies that have examined coaching outcomes. This research is a meaningful milestone for the coaching literature. In order to conduct a meta-analysis, you need to have a sufficient number of existing studies to draw from. In this case, the authors began by identifying 107 studies with potential, but after applying a series of criteria, based their findings off 18 studies. The authors focused on five critical outcomes for coaching from these 18 studies: performance and skills, well-being, coping, work attitudes, and goal-directed self-regulation. They found that coaching interventions had a positive effect on each and every one of these five outcomes. In other words, this meta-analysis shows that coaching consistently helps to improve work performance and skills, a client’s well-being and coping skills, their work attitudes, and their ability to effectively self-regulate their behavior and use meaningful goals. Theemboom, Beersma, and van Vianen’s research provides solid data that can be used to make a business case for coaching. And the best part is, this conclusion is not based on just one study, but on strong, consistent findings from 18 unique studies. How can you use these findings in your practice? How will this data-based evidence of coaching’s impact help you make the business case for your work?

What does the research say? Team Effectiveness and Team Coaching

Team effectiveness and team coaching literature review Jacqueline Peters and Catherine Carr, Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 2013 Vol. 6, No. 2, 116 136 Special thanks Brodie Gregory, PhD for this translation of research to practice. Team coaching is an increasingly popular tool for enhancing team effectiveness within organizations. This should come as no surprise, since team-based work is more prevalent than ever, with 82% of companies indicating that their employees work in teams. In their latest article, Jacqueline Peters and Catherine Carr provide a review of both team effectiveness and team coaching research. According to the authors and their research, the goal of team coaching is to foster team effectiveness and performance by coaching the team to enhance their effort, identify strategies to approach their work, and align work to individual team members’ strengths and abilities. Peters and Carr provide several recommendations that coaches can apply to their work with teams, including: 1.    Team coaches can help leaders be more strategic and purposeful in determining team composition and getting the team off to a good start 2.    Coaching sessions can be timed to match needs of the time. For example: ü  focus on motivational coaching at the beginning of the coaching engagement, ü  use consultative coaching when the team is in the midst of their work cycle ü  and using educational coaching at the conclusion of the team’s time together to enable learning and reflection. 3.    Coaches can help team members develop their own coaching and feedback skills, which will enable them to have more productive communication within the team. This paper is a great resource for anyone who is currently practicing team coaching or interested in getting started. How can you use their work to enhance your team coaching practice?

Optimism and your development as a coach

By Carol Kauffman PhD

What is on your learning curve for your personal and professional development?  As coaches, helping clients connect to a positive vision of the future is a core competency.  How often do we do this for ourselves?  How often do you? Painting a picture of the future can help us create it – that is help craft a future that just isn’t going to naturally happen – but it is more likely to happen if we paint it and look at that painting now and then. And remember; some paintings are crystal clear, nearly photographic, other equally valuable paintings are impressionistic. Make sure you “paint” in your style, not the one you think is correct.

I believe we all need to have an active versus a passive relationship with the future. In practice this means being highly alert to possibilities and having the courage to pounce (hopefully gracefully) when one comes along. When success has been a challenge I often depend on my personal motto:– I’m not in control of my destiny, but I am in control of my probabilities.  Then I judge my success not on the outcome, but on whether or not I tried.

Meaning and Purpose

Hello from Margaret Moore, Co-Director

September is our peak month for the Institute of Coaching, the Lift-Off of our annual Conference  for the sixth year. It is a relaunch of our connections with many coaches and kindred spirits in our community, and a launch of new connections with coaches and coaching supporters we haven't yet met or served.

In synchrony with peak experiences, finding and making meaning and purpose is perhaps the peak dimension of being human, a never-ending quest for coaches and our clients. The September MasterClass explores the topic of Coaching for Meaning & Purpose, and considers various models and approaches to meaning-making, including new research and publications. We hope that the MasterClass will inspire you to pause and re-ignite your purpose in each moment and in life.

Our Institute family (aka team) serves the coaching field because of a deeply held purpose. We want to:

• draw on the best that science and art have to offer...
• to help all of us as coaches, and all of those coaches touch...
• to grow and change when change is hard...
• in order to thrive in all walks of life..

We want to create ripples of thriving and positive change that keep on rippling.

We look forward to sharing our collective meaningful purpose and energy with you on September 27 and 28.

The power of compassion

By Margaret Moore, Co Director, Institute of Coaching

Recently I tweeted on a quote from William James: The greatest thing then, in all education, is to make the nervous system our ally, instead of our enemy. Substitute leadership or personal health for education, and this quote is just as powerful.

A potent path to calming the nervous system and improving brain function, including creativity, is to accept and appreciate one’s negative emotions and give them compassion, a little love, rather than push them away or argue with them. Inc.com just published an article on the 7 Traits of True Leaders, which highlighted Brene Brown’s work that shows the power of embracing vulnerability – of not knowing, of struggling.

Both compassion and suffering are deeply wired in our subcortical brains, as illustrated by two premature twins born in Massachusetts in the 1990s. The flourishing one is comforting the suffering one, which saved her life (Google - The Rescuing Hug - for more details). We share both basic needs and capacities – to suffer and to soothe the suffering.

To close with a little poetry: As Rumi advised (sort of), welcome negative emotions as helpful messengers and guides to growth and development.