A Coaching Model Created by Kunnath Chandran
(Executive Coach, INDIA)
LAKSH is a word in Sanskrit which means Focus.
The LAKSH Coaching Model aims at making the direction of the client’s efforts to find fulfillment in life both finite and focused. The model represents a journey to
Rediscover Life and Rediscover Abundance
wherein the client is in the driver’s seat, but has got a coach also to hop in alongside!
Finding direction and remaining focused on the path to one’s goals is a multi-faceted endeavor which is cyclic and needs several aspects to be attended to at the same time.
The model recognizes the roles both client and coach play in moving forward. There is confidence that the journey will be exciting and fruitful for this team of two trusting people working together to make fulfillment happen.
a. The Client is the prime force in the journey, someone who has Faith, is constantly encouraged to be Open and Resolute, and exercise total Freedom to Choose unrestrained by any previous conditioning, while remaining ‘in Action’ as committed.
b. The Coach brings along Belief, Trust, Integrity, Confidentiality, Respect, Commitment and Patience into the relationship, and uses well tested Tools & Techniques to continuously foster client’s faith, resolve, freedom to choose, and commitment to be in action.
The model is built on a platform based on two principles. Firstly, the responsibility for one’s life rests entirely and inevitability on one’s own shoulders. This applies to both coach and client while pursuing their respective aims. The second, ‘an ounce of effort is worth more than a pound of theorizing’. Thus both coach and client are called upon to be in action more than they are in conversation.
The coach will utilize tools and techniques of coaching at each stage that will be appropriate to get the desired results. These have not been elaborated or defined in the model. Tools however will not be used merely because they ‘have to be used’!
The Broad Arrow represents both the direction in which the onward journey will proceed for the client and also the safe and trusting space within which the interaction between coach and client will occur. The journey progresses thus:
- Calibrating the compass. The coach creates that exquisite sense of who the client is by acknowledging all wins till then and the assets the client is blessed with. This brings to fore the client’s values, beliefs, and proven strengths. He/she becomes aware of his or her unique identity, the ways in which he/she is exceptional and an achiever with a thirst for more. This space of ‘positivity’ is used in an on-going manner to encourage the client, to connect with his/her innermost dreams without inhibitions.
- Where To? Once the ‘stock taking’ is done, the client explores what to bring next into his/her life – more achievements, or resolve vexing issues - and a new, specific and appropriate destination for personal growth and professional development is agreed upon. A realistic examination of Obstacles that may come up is also done alongside.
- Options, and a Road Map. Next, the steps to be taken to move forward & the order in which to take them are examined. Client weighs all options and thus arrives at an action plan. With mutual respect and trust in each other the client-coach duo discuss and agree to this road map, the Holy Grail, to the chosen goal.
- Get Going! And, the journey resumes. Road blocks appear, but the team finds ways around them by discussions and actions. The energy and determination of both are awesome, the client doing all that it takes to keep moving ahead and the coach providing the support with patience and diligence.
- Pause to Review, Re-define Path. Shifting paradigms will call for thinking afresh, ‘out of the box’ approaches, and tweaking the original road map. The coach ensures that the eye is never taken off the ball. The journey is pursued relentlessly – but always in a safe space of mutual trust.
- The Final Lap! The last lap takes the client to the destination in a burst of joy. The immense satisfaction of achievement is almost unbelievable!
- Celebrate! Celebration follows each lap, and at the final destination. And, another cause for joy is unmasked – an insight the client gets about a truly powerful inner self.
The coach also celebrates – the ecstasy of once again having ‘made that difference’!
