What iscoactivecoaching d_preuss_a4

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One coach’s summary of the powerful Co-Active coaching model
©Deborah Hartmann Preuss, January 2013 http:// abiggerga.me

What is Co-Active Coaching? A Coach’s Perspective page 2
© Deborah Hartmann Preuss January, 2013 http_//abiggerga.me
People often ask me: “What is Co-Active Coaching?” Great question! And so
I wrote this summary of the approach I use, and which I find so powerful.
-- Deborah Hartmann Preuss, Professional Co-Active Coach, Germany
Origins
Life coaching is not entirely new. In its present form, it started developing
in the 1970s, and in the 1980s it jelled into a few major schools of
coaching2
. One of these was outlined in the book, Co-Active Coaching1
by
Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House and Phil Sandahl. This book
translated the coaching relationship into a number of understandable
tools for coaches to use, shifting the emphasis from being a powerful
coach to creating a powerful relationship, with the focus on the client:
Coaching is defined as a relationship of possibilities. ‘Imagine a
relationship where the total focus is on you ... on what you want in your life
and on what will help you achieve it ... Imagine a relationship with
someone who will absolutely tell you the truth ... This coaching relationship
is one of trust, confidentiality and safety.’ “ 2
The Coaches Training Institute (CTI) is the oldest and largest in-person
coach training organization in the world. Its founders were among the
initial pioneers of the coaching profession.3
CTI has trained over 35,000
coaches worldwide. Their training program is widely recognized as the
most rigorous coach training and certification program in the industry.4
The book Co-Active Coaching: Changing Business, Transforming Lives, is a
recognised reference text5
for the coaching discipline. This paper
describes CTI’s Co-Active coaching model.
1
Co-Active Coaching: Changing Business, Transforming Lives, www.amazon.com/dp/1857885678 (link is to the 3rd
edition, 2011)
2
How Coaching Works: the essential guide to the history and practice of effective coaching. Ch 1
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0713682612
3
More about CTI: http://www.thecoaches.com/why-coaches-training-institute/
4
Source: http://www.thecoaches.com/coach-training/ September 2012
5
“With its third updated edition, Co-Active Coaching remains the bible of coaching guides.” — Stephen R. Covey.
Source: http://www.thecoaches.com/resources/multimedia/two-free-chapters-co-active-coaching.html

The Co-Active Coaching Model, 3rd
edition
The model diagram is a mnemonic device for teaching and coaching,
a reminder of the essentials of Co-Active coaching. It consists of
four cornerstones, all of which must be present in Co-Active
coaching,
three principles the coach applies separately or in combination,
five contexts, from which the coach works at various times to
keep the coaching fresh and relevant, and
the designed alliance between coach and client.

The 1st
Cornerstone:
People are Naturally Creative, Resourceful and Whole
The co-active coach works from a viewpoint that differs widely from
that some other professions: the belief that the client is not in need
of “fixing” and does not need us solve their problems. The client is
and remains the expert in their own situation. The coach guides, but
does not control the client's experience and the client is a full
partner in creating coaching experiences of value to him or her.
As a result, there is no boring, useless or unsafe topic in coaching -
whatever the client brings in is exactly right and the coach can work
with it. Although it is sometimes labelled “work-life” coaching, it is
more accurately called Whole Person coaching, and is suitable and
helpful for a wide diversity of people and situations.
The 2nd
Cornerstone:
Dance in This Moment
Although co-active coaches are rigorously trained, they are offered
no "templates" for excellent coaching sessions. Each session is a co-
creation between coach and client, and the two “dance” together to
create a session that brings the client the most value, in context.
The coach is vigilant for detours into the past or future, stories and
complaints - all of which distance the client from their immediate
experience. The coach uses the model and tools to bring the client
vividly into the experience of what is important now, in order to
explore and coach what is here in the moment.
This cornerstone makes coaching powerful – moving the client into
action via their own dreams, experiences and intuitions.

The 3rd
Cornerstone:
Focus on the Whole Person
The coach simultaneously sees the client in their current state, and
as the powerful and impactful person they are becoming, mirroring
this bigger view to the client through championing and challenge,
and always watching for confirming resonance in the client.
The coach discovers what is deeply meaningful to the client, and
helps them create a more satisfying, if ever changing, life balance –
by making choices that resonate better with their own values. The
coach also observes areas the client avoids or fears, and can help
them appreciate and learn from even these areas of their life.
This cornerstone helps the coach guard against trying to solve the
client's specific problems. Instead, the coach enlarges the client's
self-awareness and capabilities, and offers encouragement and
accountability as the client designs their own new solutions .
The 4th
Cornerstone:
Evoke Transformation
Clients want to apply their learning to practical matters, but in doing
so they also break old habits and learn new ones, transforming into
stronger, more satisfied and resourceful people in all areas of life.
As the coach poses open and truly curious questions to reveal new
perspectives, the client can safely explore, to discover invigorating
new options and responses not previously accessible to him or her.
Transformation depends not just on the coach, who evokes, but on
the client (the first cornerstone): the creative, resourceful and whole
client, who finds and chooses new ways of being in the world.

The co-active coach stands within all four of these cornerstones at all
times when coaching. This is the “what” of coaching.
The “how” is described by the three principles, three approaches
used separately or in combination, to help the client reflect,
experiment, learn and move into action:
Fulfillment Balance Process
The Principle of Fulfillment
Fulfillment is the joy of living a life of one’s own choosing – living
with actions and responses congruent with one’s deepest values.
The coach may use Fulfillment coaching when they notice strong
emotions under the surface, indicating that core values are being
offended. The coach helps the client develop their own vocabulary
of language or metaphor, which allow them to understand everyday
life in the context of their own unique purpose and values.
The client learns to see values dissonance as a resource; energy
formerly wasted in denial or anger can now be applied to make
desired changes and improve daily life. In this way, even before
problems disappear, clients can become more satisfied people.
The Principle of Balance
The coach may use Balance coaching when they notice stuckness in
words like "must, can't, have to, should.” And when the client does
not draw clear distinctions between facts and perspectives, Balance
coaching helps by making perspectives visible and returning them to
choice. Co-Active teaches Balance as a verb, and develops the
client’s skill of continual re-balancing to respect their core values.

Balance coaching helps the client recognise and enjoy the diverse
aspects of their life as parts of a whole, not incompatible competing
demands. Where they once felt threatened or overwhelmed, the
client starts to adjust naturally whenever they see imbalances
developing that do not support their own values.
The coach helps by raising awareness of any habitual stance that
keeps a client in behaviours that frustrate or harm them,
encouraging them to discover their own alternative perspectives and
co-designing useful new experiments, for which they will be held
accountable by the coach.
The Principle of Process
Clients who cannot experience life in real time are missing critical
lessons and growth opportunities. Situations that might lead a coach
to suggest a Process coaching approach include: rationalisation,
talking about emotions rather than feeling them; avoiding key
experiences, downplaying their importance (ex: not wanting to
celebrate success, or denying anger, fear or disappointment).
Process coaching slows the client down long enough to see what
they are avoiding, and really feel it. The coach provides guidance
and a safe place for the client to experience strong, difficult
emotions such as joy, longing, pride, fear and rage, so they can again
add these to their range of potential emotions, to use and learn from
them. This speeds up coaching, by giving the client and coach access
to more accurate internal information and intuition.
By giving the client access to more of their own experience, clients
learn to coach themselves, which accelerates their learning and
creates new resources for dealing with problems and relationships.

In addition, the five contexts of the model provide different
perspectives, or windows, through which the coach may decide how
to intervene (or not) during a session. The coach moves in and out of
these and they work together fluidly during any single session:
Curiosity Listening Intuition Self-Management
‘Deepen the Learning / Forward the Action’
Coaching through Curiosity
This is not "didactic questioning," in which leading questions set up a
learning scenario; even if the coach has an idea of where a question
could lead, she holds it very loosely, waiting to see and follow where
the client goes. Recognising the client as the expert, the coach asks
questions to surface what the client knows, guesses, and feels.
This honest curiosity is a gift to clients - the coach directs intense
energy on being with and knowing the client, helping the client also
to value and be interested in his own inner workings.
Coaching through Listening
The coach listens to body language, tone, breathing, pacing, and
what is, and is not, said. While the client stays in the “now”, the
coach listens deeply and broadly, holding the client’s agenda, aware
of the client’s values, their past and their future goals. She listens for
and surfaces the “voices” of the client to inform their work together.
In parallel, the coach is aware of her own distracting thoughts, ideas
and voices, and sets these aside in order to be fully present. By
listening intently and sharing observations, the coach teaches the
client to listen to their own emotions, body signals, intuitions.

Coaching through Intuition
Intuition is a deep way of knowing that operates faster than logical
thought, integrating information gathered through listening and
feeling. It suggests to the coach where to go next: when to pose
questions, where there is dissonance, how to challenge, and when to
be silent and wait. However, unlike logical thinking, it can be rather
difficult to interpret – so the coach brings it into the session openly,
immediately, asking the coachee to help interpret it (since the
coachee is the expert in their own life). This brings the speed of
intuition into the service of the client without the false steps of the
coach's interpretations. By modeling this fearless and reasonable use
of intuition, the coach teaches the client to listen for and trust their
own intuitions.
Coaching through deliberate cycles of
Deepen the Learning / Forward the Action
This is a kind of dance, informed by intuition, which the coach
judiciously guides. One client may more easily spend time in deep
reflective learning, another in practical active learning, and the same
is true of each coach. Both of these bring growth, and both are
needed. They operate best in a cycle, the one informing the other,
and the coach works to keep a balance between them.
New client “action” brings new evidence to inform the "deepen"
phase of learning. On the other hand, the slower "deepening the
learning" creates rich, broad learning, which impacts the client's
whole life the most when it is put into use by “forwarding the
action”. So Balance coaching may end with concrete action items,
and Process coaching may not produce anything immediately
tangible, but both feed into the learning cycle in important ways.

Coaching through Self-Management
This is a coaching practice that goes on quietly in the background, as
an expression of the coach's commitment to put the client's whole
person first. The coach notices her own distractions - such as
opinions, assumptions and inner voices - and simply redirects her
attention back onto the client. If she detects an assumption, she can
defuse it by asking the client to confirm it. If something important
comes up for the coach, she can park it (for example, a hint that
there is an ethical situation to consider), to be handled later, so that
she can return her attention to the client in this moment. This is a
judgement call - should she bring it into the session now or not?
Intuition is required to distinguish information useful in the session
from distractions.
This is a useful general life skill for all people, and when the coach is
transparent about doing this, for example, saying "I'm sorry, I was
distracted by the doorbell, would you please repeat that?" she
teaches the clients to accept their humanness and work with it
unapologetically. In french we say: “être bien dans sa peau.”

The Co-Active Designed Alliance
Co-Active coaching takes place within the safety of the Designed
Alliance, a critical aspect of the model. The Alliance builds trust, and
makes visible the “co-“ in Co-Active - the intentional collaboration of
coach and coachee in shaping the unique coaching sessions needed
to advance toward that client’s goals.
In its most concrete form, an Alliance is a set of working agreements,
designed to make a coaching relationship work. It is unique to that
relationship, co-created initially and adjusted over time. The coach
may propose some general working agreements at the beginning of
the relationship, to model how it works (ex: "is it ok if I challenge
you, even when it is uncomfortable?" "Yes, as long as you are
polite."). As situations come up, the coach continues to gently but
openly re-design the relationship (ex: "When you go silent for a long
time I am unsure whether you are thinking or distracted. Is it ok if I
ask 'where are you'?"), and she invites the client to do the same.
This design is not only at the overarching level of the relationship but
at the detailed level of creating a path through the session. Rather
than quietly controlling the flow of the session, the coach invites the
client to help shape it ("Where shall we go from here?" "What do
you want to do with this metaphor?" "How will you keep this
learning alive this week?"). The coach consistently communicates
“we are co-creating this coaching experience”.
The designed alliance is a tool that builds trust. It is also a key
coaching strategy to teach the client about their own power to
design a fulfilling life.

Coaching Paradigm and Ethics
The ideas and skills of Co-Active coaching are, of course, neither new
nor unique. You may have used these skills yourself, or seen them
used in a church, a business meeting, a doctor’s office. Perhaps
that’s why coaches are commonly asked: “What makes the work of a
coach different from the work of a consultant or a therapist?”
Paradigm Shift
Participants in coaching, familiar with these other fields, are often
surprised by the distinctly client-centric coaching paradigm.
For comparison: a consultant (a hired expert) evaluates the client’s
current state (against pre-set ideas and norms) and recommends
actions to realign the situation with these norms. If the consultant
remains, to guide implementation, they act as an agent of the
sponsor, and report back to the sponsor. Consultants represent
“best practices” and give advice... sadly, one frequent outcome is
that any unpopular recommendations are framed as belonging only
to the consultant, whereby they lose their power to truly help.
By contrast: In ICF-accredited coaching (including Co-Active
coaching) the coach does not use a pre-conceived standard of
behaviour or belief - it is the client who is the expert on their own
life, work and business. The coach offers no advice, but helps the
client to build their own model of success, and to discover what
stands in the way of this success. The client becomes more self-
aware, and creates their own norms. The coach offers perspectives
and accountability along the way, but responsibility for designing
and executing actions, and ultimately responsibility for success,
failure and learning, remain with the client alone.
Each coachee sets their own goals, moves at their own pace. A coach
measures progress only against the coachee's values & satisfaction.

Coaching is Not Therapy
Many coaches include this phrase in their client agreements, as do I,
though its meaning may be obscure to a new client.
Some therapists may use a coaching model, but the traditional
illness model of therapy places the therapist in a more parent-like
role, where they guide and direct the client because the client is
deficient in ability to do so safely, at least for now. Traditional
therapy comes from a medical paradigm, which assumes “patients”
are "broken", incapable of moving forward on their own, in need of
“help”. This help may include re-examining past experiences and
remedial homework assignments (neither of which is part of the
coaching method). Once the client is deemed functionally "normal,"
therapy ends - a judgement call, made or approved by the therapist.
This therapist-directed method may be needed by some people,
some of the time, but many do not need such directed interventions.
In contrast: coaching assumes the client has, or can get, what's
needed for a healthy, satisfying life. She helps create new
experiences and teaches tools the client can use to create this
desired life. The coach works, not to bring the client to "normalcy,"
but to excellence, to help the client discover and amplify their own
unique brilliance. There is no "normal" outcome in coaching - only
ever more awe-inspiring clients. Normally, it is the client who ends
the coaching relationship: as long as coachees are actively growing,
coaching may continue.
Deeply "stuck" coachees are another matter - coaches need to be
aware of clues suggesting a client belongs to the minority who will
benefit from therapy; clients who need to get unstuck in a way that
the coach cannot accomplish with coaching tools. Coaching may still
proceed in conjunction with therapy, with the therapist's knowledge,
or might halt, to continue again afterwards.

Ethics
Coaches, like other professionals, need to know and declare the
boundaries of their professional practice, so they can distinguish
situations where clients are more appropriately served by other
professionals. ICF coaches in particular agree to a code of ethics6
governing conduct, including confidentiality and finances.
6
The ICF Standards of Ethical Conduct may be found at http://www.coachfederation.org/ethics

Thank-you for your interest! I hope this summary
has brought you some new and useful ideas.
Deborah Hartmann Preuss
Karlsruhe, Germany, 2013
http://abiggerga.me
An invitation for you:
As you go about your work, I invite you to
get curious about your peers and clients: their passions,
their dreams and what’s holding them back from reaching them.
Ask and really listen. I wonder what will happen to your
interactions, as you start to frame each individual as the
expert in their own life, work, needs and methods?
Stay Curious!

Still Curious? Learn More...
Read more about coaching on the ICF site:
Benefits of coaching:
http://www.coachfederation.org/find-a-coach/benefits-of-coaching/
The coaching paradigm (core competencies):
http://www.coachfederation.org/icfcredentials/core-competencies/
Research repository:
http://www.coachfederation.org/icf-research/icf-research-portal/
Add coaching skills to your toolkit:
The web abounds with articles on applying basic coaching skills to
leadership, management and teamwork.
For something more orderly and coherent, pick up the 3rd
edition
of the Co-Active coaching text that is footnoted at the start of this
article (available in paper and kindle editions).
If you (like me) prefer to learn by doing, then invest in the richly
interactive “Co-Active Coaching Fundamentals” workshop, offered
worldwide by highly trained, practicing coaches. Each workshop
provides three full days of practicing new skills!
Find a coach:
Use the “Find a Coach” search at www.thecoaches.com to identify
coaches who speaks your language, in your price range. You can
apply a regional filter, but you should remember that most Co-
Active coaching is done on the phone, so location need not be
your primary search criterion. Do ask for a free sample session!
Become a coach:
The ICF evaluates and credentials diverse programs worldwide:
http://www.coachfederation.org/icfcredentials/program-search/
© Deborah Hartmann Preuss http://abiggerga.me

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