The Reflective Coach

The updated ICF Competencies include “Embodies a Coaching Mindset”. They define it as ‘Develops and maintains a mindset that is open, curious, flexible and client-centred’.

This is about you as a coach and your professional practice. Who you are becoming as a coach.

One key element of this, is demonstrating that one “Develops an ongoing reflective practice to enhance one’s coaching”.

The Brain and Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is not just a cognitive process, it engages many areas of our brain such as the corpus callosum, which plays an important part in performance. The corpus callosum is a thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right sides of the brain. It is transfers information between the brain hemispheres.

Reflective practice encourages this communication, as it engages both hemispheres. It can tap into our cognition, emotion, our physical being, our values and social identity. The benefits are, it helps “regulate one’s emotions” and “mentally and emotionally prepare for sessions”.

Effective Reflective Practice

These five elements are worth considering to enhance your reflective practice.

Time and attention

Build reflective time into your routine. Start small to build a new habit. Give it your full attention. We think we can multitask but the research shows otherwise. Our brain is trying to do each task 10/10 so whilst we think we can, our poor brains are in the background struggling to keep up!

Pace

According to Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow, we have two brain thinking systems, System 1, fast and intuitive and System 2, which is more reflective. Slowing down and giving ourselves space taps into this system 2.

Curiosity

This is a lovely space to be in. Approaching your reflective practice none judgmentally, with compassion and curiosity. We can often be our own worst critic. Allow your reflection to be curious, looking at the situation from all perspectives. Effective questioning can help here.

Effective questions

Reflect before you reflect. For example you can ask;

• What is it I want to reflect on?
• Why do I want to reflect on this?

Then you can deepen you questions using these 8 questions;

Henley 8 (Henley Business School 2019)

1. Notice – What did you notice?
2. Response – How did you respond? (think about what you felt, thought, and did)
3. Implications for you – What does this say about you?
4. Implications for coaching – What does this say about you as a coach?
5. Strengths – What benefits might this offer?
6. Risks – What risks might this bring?
7. Learning – What did you learn about yourself?
8. New approach – What would you do differently next time?

Another way to reflect is to think about yourself and your client both before, during and after your sessions.

Seven coaching conversations  – David Clutterbuck (2006)

1. My dialogue with myself before the session
2. The client’s inner dialogue before the session
3. My inner dialogue during the conversation
4. The spoken dialogue
5. The client’s inner dialogue during the conversation
6. My reflection after the conversation
7. The client’s reflection after the conversation

 Experiment

Try out different ways to reflect, such as writing in a journal, creating visuals, walking. Play with different types of questions. And enjoy!