Client: Which is best structured or unstructured coaching?
Coach: In structured coaching the coach uses a process, a series of steps, that they will take you through in order to complete your coaching.
In unstructured coaching you are the centre of the coaching. We start with your goals and the issues that are preventing you from achieving those goals. Then we work together to create paths to your objectives. There is no set pattern to the coaching, we simply go where you need to go to break down the barriers that are preventing you from becoming what you want to become.
Client: Which is likely to work best for me?
Coach: If you are a person who likes the reassurance of structure and feels the need to know what the next step is going to be, perhaps a structured approach will work for you. I don’t recommend any particular supplier or approach but you can find many coaching courses and programmes on the excellent site Coaching-courses.net.
On the other hand if you believe that you need to explore the issues that are holding you back and find answers that are specifically tailored to work for you, then an unstructured approach will work better for you. After all the whole purpose of the coaching is for your personal development, not the slavish following of a process.
Client: You don’t sound convinced about the value of structured coaching; what have you got against it?
Coach: If a coach is following a system a part of their attention is always on the system. They are not devoting one hundred percent of their attention to their client. It is almost as if there is a third person present at the coaching.
By following a system is makes it more difficult for the coach to make full use of their intuition.
If you want to follow a structured programme would it not be better to go on a training programme rather than work with a personal coach?
Client: Why do you believe that unstructured coaching works best?
Coach: I believe that the whole point about coaching is that it is personal and entirely about the individual. Therefore the individual should be the centre of the work and everything should be focussed on their objectives and needs.
The coaching process is a dialogue in which the coach asks questions in order to build up a picture of the client, to encourage the client to think deeply about themselves and to develop their own solutions.
In training programmes most of the thinking is done for you and you then decide whether to adopt the suggested solutions and you decide how you will implement those solutions.
In good coaching you invent your own solutions with the help of your coach, you therefore own the solutions and have a strong motivation for making those solutions work for you.
Client: That makes sense. Do you believe that coaching works better than training courses?
Coach: I believe that both training and coaching have roles to play in the development of people. In my mind the role of training programmes is to impart information and develop an individual’s bank of skills.
Coaching is about self-discovery, digging inside of yourself to reveal your own unique direction and your own unique way of following that path.
Every person on the planet is unique. Each one has their own collection of strengths, weaknesses and issues. Sometimes we are not even aware of our own strengths and weaknesses and these are only revealed during the course of dialogue with our coach.
It is because you are unique that the coach needs to take an individual approach with you. The coach has to be fully alert and adaptable to the issues that can suddenly arise during the course of the coaching as you explore your own nature and the drivers that make you the way you are.
Client: Can any coach use an unstructured approach?
Coach: In theory it is possible, but as a client you really need to be certain that the coach you are dealing with has the necessary coaching experience to be able to keep moving towards your goals despite the lack of structure.
Client: Why did you decide to adopt an unstructured approach to your work?
Coach: Because I noticed, when using a structured approach, that there were many occasions that I was spending time on activities that simply were not relevant to the needs of my client at that time.
Client: So, does an unstructured approach achieve results more quickly?
Coach: Sometimes it is quicker and sometimes not. The key point is that we always achieve a result because we are totally focussed on the needs of the client; we are not just going through a process.
If you have found this article informative and useful I suggest that you ask for a “free sample” coaching session to find out more about how I can help you become what you were born to become. Please use the Contact form to get in touch.
Best wishes,
The opinions expressed in this article are not based on any scientifically proven evidence, they are simply what I have learned during my fifteen years of working as a professional coach with senior and middle managers and with private individuals.
