3 Learning from the humanist approach

Humanist theory suggests that people are their own best experts and therefore best placed to understand their perceptions and decisions (Rogers, 1983). If you were mentoring Stewart in his role as a team manager, your relationship with him would be facilitative and you would use a welcoming and safe environment to promote self-confidence and self-esteem. Stewart would be encouraged to speak freely about his frustrations and feelings of anger without the fear of criticism (Rogers, 1983). This person-centred approach is often what counselling practice draws from.

Figure 3 Understanding humanist theory

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One person with a clipboard listens while another person talks during a counselling session.

Figure 3 Understanding humanist theory

The psychologist Carl Rogers outlined how practitioners can make a relationship a ‘growth-promoting climate’ supported by:

• congruence – the practitioner is genuine and authentic
• empathy – the practitioner feels and demonstrates empathy, and
• unconditional positive regard – the practitioner maintains a positive feeling without reservations, evaluations or judgements.

Counsellors who work in this way often take up to four years to fully understand themselves before they can achieve this growth-promoting climate. Coach developers striving to work in a more person-centred way are unlikely to be able to develop themselves to this extent but it is valuable to think more about how humanist principles might influence their work.

Now, listen to this short audio clip of Lucy Moore and Stuart Armstrong discussing the extent to which the scope of their non-judgemental behaviour towards coaches very much depends on the scenario. There is a useful way in which Stuart describes how he introduces himself and his intentions in his first meeting with those he is supporting.

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Transcript: Audio 1

LUCY MOORE

To be non-judgemental, and to watch truly nonjudgmentally is really, really hard. I'm not saying I can do it.

STUART ARMSTRONG

Can you do that?

LUCY MOORE

I don't know if you can.

INTERVIEWER

I'm not sure you can. Well, I certainly find it very-- because isn't it part of the job? Essentially, to get oh-- go ahead. Then, what does it depend on?

LUCY MOORE

So I would say it depends on why you're there. Who are you in that scenario, what are you doing there? Am I more senior, am I there to help you advance your practise to the best that you can be? Am I there to pass judgement on what you're actually doing?

Am I assessing you to something? Is why are you there? I might have a different opinion to you, which could spark some thinking for you. But does my opinion take precedence?

STUART ARMSTRONG

That's one of the things I think about coach development is really difficult, is how rarely have I been given clarity, either by the deploying agency, or by the other person, around what my role is. So I find myself clarifying that role to the individual, before we start. So I would have a kind of pre-nearly always, wherever possible.

For somebody to have their first sort of formal coach development, and watch them and observe them coach, is a pretty scary thing. And so for that interview, I always, always sort of try and pre-clarify what I'm going to be there for. And also get a sense of what they would like.

And it is definitely, too-- usually what I would say is look. Certainly do not think of me as somebody who is senior, somebody who is here to, in any way, assess or critique. My job is to help you make sense of what's going on in your coaching, and to perhaps, sometimes, make you aware of things that you might not be aware of.

That then can help you with your learning journey. So I'm just another coach, I'm another pair of eyes. And we can have a conversation afterwards, and I will share with you what I observe. And you can use what I observe as much as you want to, or not. Because I want to kind of disarm them a little bit, as much as possible. And usually, I find that's helpful.

End transcript: Audio 1

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Audio 1

Keep Stuart’s comments about the way he introduces himself in mind during the following sections in which you explore how first impressions matter when meeting others in contrasting situations.