Abstract
As coaching research has demonstrated, coach behaviour could influence the client. Hence, knowledge about ‘how’ a coach can influence the client during a coaching session, and more specifically, during distinct phases of coaching, is lacking. We attempt to fill this research gap (1) by considering active coach ingredients: coaches’ expressed empathy and appreciative behaviour summarized as positive supportive behaviour, and (2) by taking single coaching phases (contact, exploration, operationalisation, conclusion phase) into account. Therefore, we analysed 52 videotaped coaching sessions by using the interactional tool act4consulting. First, to examine if a coach behaves differently in each phase, we analysed expressed positive supportive coach behaviour. Second, we analysed if the coach behaviour was significantly linked to client’s interest to change. Third, we assumed that coach’s expressed positive supportive behaviour is more positively linked to the client’s interest to change in the exploration and in the operationalisation phase. Results yielded that coach behaviour differs significantly across all phases, and that expressed positive supportive coach behaviour in the contact, operationalisation, and conclusion phases was linked to the client’s interest in change. A variance in the coach’s behaviour on client’s interest to change in the single phases could not be found.
Highlights
Coaching is popular, and shows significant positive effects on several outcomes, such as performance, work attitudes, well-being, and goal-directed self-regulation (Theeboom et al 2013)
Based on the assumption that coach’s expressed positive supportive coach behaviour is positively linked to client’s interest to change per phase, we further focus on potential differences within these correlations
In order to test the first hypothesis where we wanted to examine whether the expressed positive supportive behaviour of the coach differed among the phases, we used a repeated measures ANOVA with a Greenhouse-Geisser correction, which determined that the coaching phases yielded a statistically significant variation between the phases (F(1.97, 100.68) = 49.33, p < 0.001)
Summary
Coaching is popular, and shows significant positive effects on several outcomes, such as performance, work attitudes, well-being, and goal-directed self-regulation (Theeboom et al 2013). The coach expresses his/her understanding of the internal state of the client and tries to understand the client’s mind The coach values the client’s statements and encourages him/her to achieve the coaching target (Bluckert 2005). Both of these expressed positive supportive coach behaviours are emphasised to be important behaviours a coach should show (Kilburg 1997; Peltier 2001), scholars often use questionnaires which ask a coach or client for their perception of these behaviours A small amount of coaching research has analysed the real interaction, and has focused on the coaching process (e. g., Gessnitzer and Kauffeld 2015; Greif 2010; Ianiro and Kauffeld 2014; Ianiro et al 2014, 2013; Klonek et al 2016), with only one study focussing on empathic behaviour (Will et al 2016)
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