In Episode 22 of the Catalyst Coaching Certification, we flowed towards the second C in C.O.A.C.H Process. Connecting brings us to the jumping off point where we are equipped with Core beliefs and processes, clarifying Outcomes and having a deeper Awareness of our purpose and motivations into a liminal space in order to achieve Highpoints. Coach Joan Chepkemoi began by reviewing the key purposes behind coaching emphasizing that the end goal of coaching is to build capacity and an effective way is to focus our attention on strengths.
When it comes to coaching, emphasizing and focusing on strengths is a crucial aspect that can lead to significant growth and development. By directing attention towards an individual's strengths, coaches can help them build confidence, enhance their skills, and maximize their potential. Identifying and acknowledging strengths can motivate individuals to push beyond their limits, tackle challenges with a positive mindset, and achieve their goals more effectively. It also fosters a sense of empowerment and self-belief, which are essential for personal and professional success.
THE 7 CATALYST COACHIING PRINCIPLES OF STRENGTHS-BASED COACHING
THE PRINCIPLE | WHAT SHOULD COACHES HEED |
Your Coachee has unique potential/ qualities | Your Coachee is capable - don't rescue them |
Your Coachee is the storyteller of his own narrative | Your Coachee's story, are not your stories |
What your Coachee focuses on becomes reality | Your Coachee's focus, not your agenda |
Pay attention to your coachee's narrative | Your Coachee's narrative - help them reframe |
Encourage shifts/ changes to happen | Your Coachee's shift - it's their options and action |
Build upon experience to dream their future | Your Coachee's dreams - explore, challenge and encourage them to brave |
Be collaborative, adaptive and value difference | Be your Coachee's partner - flow with them, be flexible + value them |
Coach Joan then presented brief synopses of 3 strengths-based coaching tools - CliftonStrengths (or previously StrengthsFinder), Strengths Profile and Daniel Ofman's Core Quality Quadrant.
Reflections
Catalyst Coaching's approach to strengths-based coaching is consistent with its fundamental principles that the Coachee is creative, whole and resourceful and the Coach is only there to partner with them, be their sounding board and thinking partner. Therefore, according to the 7 principles above, if a Coachee innately believes that he has a talent, it is implied we should not try and convince him otherwise but see how we can fully support. This might not exactly work if someone who may be tone deaf aspires to be a worldclass opera singer.
It doesn't help when there are many definitions of strengths. Marcus Buckingham, the creator of Strengths Profile says "Strengths are not activities you're good at, they're activities that strengthen you. A strength is an activity that before you're doing it you look forward to doing it; while you're doing it, time goes by quickly and you can concentrate; after you've done it, it seems to fulfill a need of yours" which sounds more like Flow. Don Clifton, the Father of Positive Psychology defined Strength as "the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance in a specific task" and this could only happen when we identify our talents - our natural ways of thinking, feeling and behaving - and intentionally focus and use them."
Strengths-based coaching requires awareness of one's strengths, the Coach's and his Coachee
Strengths run the gamut from character strengths, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, physical abilities, team work - any quality that helps one succeed or progress is a strength but it does depend upon the context it is applied. Having a good memory is a strength eg being able to memorise every single product and recall which year it occurred in an Ikea brochure but it might not help me progress in a sport.
The internet cites research that only one third of people can identify their own strengths (Hill, 2001) and only 17% people say they use their strengths ‘most of the time’ each day (Buckingham, 2007). According to Dr Tasha Eurich, an organisational psychologist and author of Insight: The Surprising Truth About How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think, 95% of people claim to be self-aware but research shows that only 10-15% fit the criteria for self awareness. Hence, in the same way that we do not jump in immediately but probe deeply helps us to carefully guide in identifying the types of strengths needed to succeed in a specified area. We must know how the Coachee has labelled his strengths to be able to understand and assist.
Suggested ways of discovering one's strengths is to do self-reflection, considering feedback in the past and asking others what they perceive are their strengths. Gut feels and intuition may work but because of brain's predilection for safety and self-preservation, it may result in inaccurate assumptions and cause the person to use the wrong tool for the job. There are free online strengths assessment tools available on this page in Positive Psychology.
There is a matter of culture where what is someone's strengths is repeatedly downplayed and the person then grows up not knowing what his strengths are or even if he has strengths. Instead, people are trained to focus on fixing weakness. This is reinforced at the workplace where perhaps only 20% of an annual review is spent celebrating strengths and achievements and 80% of the time is used to look at areas of so called weakness.
Strengths-based coaching as is practiced today is a research-based approach, informed by world-class practitioners, researchers, and thought leaders in neuroscience, positive psychology, and appreciative inquiry. The more prominent ones are Gallup CliftonStrengths, VIA Character Strengths, Strengths Profile and they are backed by science and share the common goal of improving performance and wellbeing at the workplace although increasingly it is clear that coaching is directed at professional AND personal level (ie The Whole Person) There are also shifts to look at wellbeing and the correlation between strengths and resilience - it does impact productivity. Ofman's Core Qualities Quadrants is technically not a strengths-based assessment tool and validates what one perceived about a strength in relation to working with others. Nevertheless, it shares the belief with the other tools that one can overuse one's strengths and every strength might provide a higher perspective for good or used wrongly, may produce negative results (CliftonStrengths and VIA both refer to this as the Balcony and the Basement)
My CliftonStrengths Journey
I stumbled upon Gallup CliftonStrengths in 2020 because I was looking for a way to strengthen my team made up of very different individuals. My own management styles was out of date and the top down boss approach frustrated me and my team to the extent that there was a revolving door. I became highly critical and impatient. I was looking for a consultant who could help but in the end, bit the bullet and got my certification in 2021. Although I was not functioning as a fulltime coach and the demands on the team grew that the strengths building activities were sporadic, CliftonStrengths helped my team and me to see each other very differently. Most of them appreciated the fresh perspective of their abilities and how they could work better together. This team has survived a major organisational change and the team members fully support each other.
I was given the opportunity of working in a new department that fully embraced CliftonStrengths and became the Strengths Champion, onboarding the new hires by introducing them to CliftonStrengths and being the resource person. The satisfaction of seeing them light up and how some of them have incorporated an awareness of their own strengths and their team mates spontaneously. There has been no top down directive from the Head to say that they must use CliftonStrengths but the happiest teams do. Studies have shown that when people have the opportunity to do what they do best every day, the brain triggers the flow like state and the happy chemicals such as dopamine are also released. Naturally, if they derive pleasure from using a strength, they will do it more.
The opportunity of running the workshops revealed how we are more prone to look for the weaknesses. Participants have to do an assessment beforehand and the department opted for the full 35 report. More than 80 per cent of attendees admitted to looking first for their weakness or the bottom of their 34 strengths and those who had done the Introduction to CliftonStrengths in other organisations shared that their teams looked at how they should fill the spots where none of the present staff had those strengths.
On a personal level, whenever I talked to my then-colleagues about their strengths, you can see how this validation is very powerful. It's not just an opinion that I think that they are unique and amazing, it has been validated by 80 years of research. The science shows that they are one in 33 million with that combination of talents. In a world where people are easily cancelled for being different, needing to follow trends and mimic influencers and yet seeking to stand out from the crowd, knowing one's strengths is an extremely liberating power.
As Cathy Deweese, a colleague of Don Clifton once shared "A focus on what is strong isn't just nice and engaging, it's efficient. There is too much untapped potential in our world for us to spend our time fixing problems and filling gaps. The power of talent is too promising for us not to focus our energy on learning more about it, making the most of it and putting it to immediate use."
Final Thoughts
There is value to a strength-based approach to coaching without the need for strengths assessments. However, without a clear system because strengths can have multiple meanings, it becomes positive thinking and I am not sure this is enough.
The coaching process using psychometrics is different, might I say less free that other coaching models and require some training. However the CliftonStrengths [Name It-Claim It-Aim It] carries suffiicient breadth for the Coachee to delve deeper into what superpower he already has and what he would like to use it for, and the findings are a good springboard for exploring further
In pursuing the Catalyst Coaching Certification Programme, I have broadened my options and am adding to my toolkit but CliftonStrengths does remain my favourite. Whether the CliftonStrengths Coaching is used will depends upon the needs of the Coachee, on his communication style.
Whichever system one chooses, understanding and adopting one system and using the tools to nurture the strengths further is extremely powerful.
My Top 5 CliftonStrengths are as follows
Connectedness | Learner | Activator | individualisation | Deliberative
Personally, it has changed the way I see people and interact with them. My Deliberative or the critical eye to make sure that things are properly done has stonewalled new projects and shut down ideas. Knowing this can be a 'basement', I ask to be excused from brainstorming meetings and no have learnt how to dial this strength down. Even if my Empathy is No 22, I know my love for knowing what makes you special, makes you tick more than fills that gap/ I do not as a rule guess what a person's strengths might be because I am not sure that the other person understands the terms in the same way and because I hold to the processes quite faithfully as a beginning practitioner.
Coach Maire, peace off.
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