The Handbook of Existential Coaching Practice

Monica Hanaway

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000047233
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

In The Handbook of Existential Coaching Practice, Monica Hanaway presents a complete introduction to existential coaching, focusing on how coaches can incorporate key skills in all aspects of their practice. Practical and theoretical, the book explores how existential thought can offer a fresh re-orientation of coaching practice that embraces uncertainty, working towards a deeper understanding of the client's world and the challenges they face in the twenty-first century.

This comprehensive guide is presented in two parts, bringing together theoretical coaching models and Hanaway's extensive practical experience. In Part 1, Hanaway begins by clearly exploring what is meant by existential coaching and places it in the context of contemporary coaching culture, illuminating the key philosophical elements of the existential coaching approach and the differences between existential coaching and existential psychotherapy. In Part 2, Hanaway draws from her own experience and presents case studies to demonstrate how coaches can build relationships with clients, enabling them to face existential dilemmas in their organisational and social life to become their authentic self. She introduces key existential concepts relating to authenticity, relatedness, freedom, responsibility, values and beliefs, and encourages the reader to explore how these are relevant to the coaching process. The book includes case studies, questioning and reflective exercises to encourage development of good practice and build the skills necessary all the way through a coaching relationship, from contracting to ending.

This is the first guide of its kind, with Hanaway playing an instrumental role in the development and growth of existential coaching as well as designing the one of the world's first University-accredited MA programmes. It will be essential reading for coaches in practice and in training, as well as students and academics of applied philosophy and psychology.

PART I

The coaching context

INTRODUCTION

Existential coaching skills: a different way of working, thinking and writing

You will have noticed on reading the contents page, or when flicking through the main headings of each section, that there are rarely titles, only questions. As an existential coach approaching the task of writing this book, I tried to hold you, as the reader, in mind at every stage and tried to think about the questions you may have wanted to be addressed in reading this book. I hope that when you look through the book, you find answers to the questions you have in your head and that new questions will flow.

This hope is born out of one of the founding beliefs in the existential view of the world. Existential coaches understand that we all have ‘wants’ all the time. So if you are a senior leader considering executive coaching, you might have wants and questions such as, ‘I want to be a more confident leader … What makes it hard for me to tell my team what I want from them?’ The same is true of you in picking up this book … you too have wants and questions such as, ‘I want to know more about coaching … I wonder if existential coaching might be how I would like to work as a coach?’

If all of this is true I see it as my task as an existential author and coach to not only be aware of this but to respond to as many of these wants and questions as possible. Of course I accept that I can’t truly know what your wants are, or what your questions might be, but this is not a reason not to try. If there are questions left unanswered, or even unasked, then please do let us start a conversation about them. They may result in you answering them in a book of your own.

You may be very new to the idea of coaching and not be entirely clear what is generally understood by the term, so let us start with that

1

WHAT IS COACHING?

There is no legally agreed definition of coaching. This gives the process a high degree of freedom and has given an opportunity for many people to attempt to define the practice. The first identified study of coaching was as early as 1937. Early research papers saw coaching as an organisational intervention or as a complimentary intervention aimed at skill transfer (e.g. Holoviak 1982). By the 1990s, more students and writers were turning their research interests to coaching. By now, the emphasis was on coaching as a management skill with a case study led methodology.

Parsloe (1999:8) described coaching as ‘a process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve’. He believed that ‘to be a successful coach requires a knowledge and understanding of process as well as the variety of styles, skills and techniques that are appropriate to the context in which the coaching takes place’. In the business context the need for improvement in performance may be something identified by the organisation or by the individual. In other contexts, for example in life coaching, the coaching client would probably not use the word ‘performance’ but would be seeking to improve an aspect of their current functioning. This could present coaching as being about training and instruction. Other models present a coaching aim more closely aligned with counselling, with greater focus on ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’.

Coaching is not something new. The name derives from the word for a sixteenth century horse-drawn transport from the Hungarian village of Kocs. The aim of the transport was to take people from where they were to where they wanted to be, an objective which is also true for the coaching profession.

In coaching literature, authors such as Hughes (2003) and de Haan (2008) suggest that the coaching approach has its origins in Ancient Greece, with links to Socratic dialogue with its four main components –

• The concrete – Insight is gained by linking any statement to personal experience.

• Full understanding between participants – All participants need to be clear about the meaning of what is being said by testing it against their own concrete experience.

• Adherence to a subsidiary question until it is answered – People, in the coaching dialogue, need to be committed to the work and to the requirement to develop self-confidence in the power of reason. They need to persist when faced with challenge and be humble enough to accept a different course in the dialogue in order to return to the subsidiary question. The task is to honour any digressions whilst remaining alert and persistent. The coach needs to retain the role of ‘follower’ without allowing themselves to be diverted from exploring areas with which the client is uncomfortable. This speaks to the existential focus on relatedness and honesty.

• Striving for consensus – It is the striving process itself which is important and not necessarily the consensus itself. Participants are required to honestly examine their own thoughts and those of others. This speaks to the existential requirements of honesty and authenticity. De Haan (2008) also draws our attention to the classical origins of coaching, noting that coaching conversations have been passed down from classical times. He uses many classical links in his writing to back up this claim.

Throughout time the elders in any community have sought to share their experience, skills and knowledge with those with less experience. They have to all intents and purposes ‘coached’ them. We can also see evidence of a less practically based form of coaching, which emerged as part of ancient philosophies and religions which tended to use cautionary tales and parables as part of pastoral care, with the explicit aim being to show people the right moral path.

The origins of coaching as a profession can be seen as early as the 1950s. However, it is only relatively recently that it has become established as a profession beyond the arena of sports coaching, with its own set of principles, knowledge and skills. As early as 1918, Coleman R. Griffith made a psychological study of football and baseball and, on gaining his PhD, began offering psychology based courses for athletes at the University of Illinois, where he was assistant professor. He published ‘Psychology of Coaching’ as early as 1926, and although focused on sports coaching, he expressed the importance of psychological aspects such as handling spectators, the concept of a ‘jinxed star’, the problems of over coaching and the importance of learning theory.

In the 1970s, sports coaching took a leap forward when the Harvard tennis coach Timothy Gallwey, a devotee of Indian Maharaja Ji, wrote ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ (1974), combining the practical with the psychological and adding a dimension of self-awareness to coaching practice. He spoke of the inner game, which impacted on our outer lives, pointing out that our strongest opponent is not the player on the other side of the net but the opponent inside our head. He stressed the need to hold a mirror up to ourselves and be brave enough to fully examine what we saw there. We must not accept surface responses but must seek deeper truth, e.g. if I want a nice car, I must ask myself why? What is my motivation for desiring the car? Do I believe it will make me happy or more powerful? If these are my motivations I should also be asking if there are other ways to achieve those objectives.

One of the key theories Gallwey looked to was Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, developed in 1943. He believed that there is a clear hierarchy of human needs. These needs are required to be satisfied in a given order. Low-level needs such as physiological requirements and safety must be satisfied before higher-level needs such as self-fulfilment are pursued. In this hierarchical model, when a need is mostly satisfied it no longer motivates and the next higher need takes its place. Maslow starts with the basic human needs for survival and moves upwards to cover our more psychological and spiritual needs;

1 Biological and physiological needs – these are needed to sustain life – air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc. If such needs are not satisfied then one’s motivation will arise from the quest to satisfy them. Higher needs, such as social needs, and the need to protect self-esteem, are not felt until one has met the needs basic to one’s bodily functioning. Once physiological needs are met, one’s attention turns to safety and security in order to be free from the threat of physical and emotional harm.

2 Safety needs – protection from the elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc. According to Maslow’s hierarchy, if a person feels that he or she is in harm’s way, higher needs will not receive much attention.

3 Belongingness and love needs – work group, family, affection, relationships, etc. Once a person has met the lower level physiological and safety needs, higher level needs become important, the first of which are social needs related to interaction with other people.

4 Esteem needs – self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc. Once a person feels a sense of ‘belonging’, the need to feel important arises. Esteem needs may be classified as internal or external. Internal esteem needs are those related to self-esteem such as self-respect and achievement. External esteem needs are those such as social status and recognition.

5 Self-actualisation needs – realising personal potential, self-fulfilment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. This is the summit of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It is the quest to reach one’s full potential as a person. Unlike lower level needs, this need is never fully satisfied; as one grows psychologically there are always new opportunities to continue to grow.

Gallwey, in using this thinking, discovered that when he taught tennis trainees how to learn, they performed better than when he focused on teaching them how to hit the ball over the net. He considered the opponent in one’s head (‘the opponent inside’) to be greater than the one on the other side of the net and taught people to focus. He came to understand the importance of ‘directionality’ – the belief that it is not enough to be aware of where you are; you have to know where you want to be. Gallwey focused on applying self-directed learning to life and coined the term ‘life coaching’.

The emergence of a broader professional approach to coaching can be seen in the US in the 1980s when organisations began offering coaching training, and organisations such as the International Coach Federation (ICF) were established, setting competencies and establishing a code of ethics.

Yet, it was another sportsman, Sir John Whitmore, a motor racing champion, who in his book ‘Coaching for Performance’ (2009), developed one of the most influential models of coaching – the GROW model – which provided a useful structure for the coaching conversation, moving through from identifying the goal to a commitment to action. The model’s name is taken from the first letter of each stage in the process.

Table 1.1 The GROW model

Goal	What do you want?	Raises awareness and understanding of – own aspirations
Reality (current)	Where are you now?	Raises awareness and understanding of – current situation and beliefs
Options (or Obstacles)	What could you do?	Raises awareness and understanding of – the possibilities and resources open to them
Will (or Way Forward)	What will you do?	Raises awareness and understanding of – the actions they want to take to achieve their personal and professional goals

Let me offer a brief summary of each stage.

Goals – at this stage the process focuses on the goals that the client wishes to achieve, not only from the specific coaching session, but also in the longer term.

Reality – this is a time for exploring the real nature of the problem, ensuring that the session is not side-tracked by false assumptions, and for gathering information that will shed realistic light on the issue. It is not a time for problem solving.

Options – this stage of the process is to explore the possible options of behaviour or decision that will lead to the right solution.

Wrap Up or Will – at this stage the focus moves onto what the client is going to do in terms of specific steps to reach the goal. It is also a stage for examining the potential obstacles that may arise and for discussing ways of overcoming them and agreeing the resource.

The GROW model is still taught on many coaching courses today and many variations have emerged. These models (shown below) are predominantly linear and take the coach through the various stages of a coaching session or contract. In the table which follows I have listed the better known variants with the key author on that approach in case you wish to read more.

As you can see, these approaches are very goal focused. The clarification of the goal, and checking how relevant and realistic a goal may be in the client’s circumstances form the vital aspects of these models. They all then include work to analyse potential problems in achieving the goal and to identify strategies for overcoming these obstacles. Once the course of action is iden...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• PART I: The coaching context
• PART II: The practice
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Core coaching competencies
• Appendix 2: ICF core competencies
• Appendix 3: ICF Code of Ethics
• Bibliography
• Index