5.1 Building your skills

Van Nieuwerburgh has an interesting model which sums up the whole coaching process. And he divides it into coaching skills, and the coaching process, and the way of being. And I think there are different approaches that you can adopt for each of those three if you would like to increase your skills. So thinking about the coaching process-- and that could be the approach that you choose, or the model that you use, the way you structure your conversation-- and I think probably the best way to engage with improving your skills in that field is just reading. There are thousands of fabulous books published around all sorts of different kinds of approaches to coaching. And the more you read, the more you'll feel comfortable with which one's going to see you and how to become a bit more confident about using it in practise. So the second, thing, then is the coaching skills. So those would be things like using open questions, summarising, how to challenge, how to build rapport. And I think the best way to enhance your skills in those sorts of areas is probably just practise. Just think about, how do I use open questions? What are they? What impact do they have when I use them? And just try them out. And the third area that Van Nieuwerburgh talks about is the way of being. So that's a bit more of an intangible thing to unpack, but it's kind of about being non-judgmental, about having unconditional positive regard, being self-aware, being non-directive. And I think probably the best way to approach improving your ability in that arena is just by noticing what you do. So perhaps writing a reflective log, having a think about what sorts of judgments and assumptions went through your mind when you were having that conversation, when you were having that coaching process, and just noticing how you feel and respond to things.