Coaching Model: Truth

A Coaching Model Created by Raluca Paun
(Executive Coaching, ROMANIA)

Coaching is a powerful relationship that enables self-discovery and change. It is essentially a self-directed journey where you need to be true to yourself.

What is the Truth?

According to Wikipedia the truth involves both the quality of “faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty, sincerity, veracity”, and that of agreement with fact or reality.

In today’s world for most of us, live, is about “running and adapting”.  Running to work; to friends; to family, adapt to society, to the company/work environment and its rules. But just sometimes we have the courage to stop and wonder “Where am I running to? What do I really want? What is my truth?

The “Truth”coaching model is a journey in facing the truth about the reality you are living in, finding the truth about yourself and be able to unlock your inner potential to move on.

The coach’s role is to accompany the client in the journey of self-discovery and guide them into positive change by following few steps:

1. Create trust

Trust it is not easy to get, trust is something you earn form the clients, so this should be practiced in each of the coaching conversations. You earn the trust if you are true to your clients and to yourself  by demonstrating active listening, not being judgmental, showing a genuine curiosity towards the client and their stories and being keen to learn more about them. Be confident and positive in the relationship with the client!

2. Set the desired outcome of the session

Being true to you means also to clarify together with the client what would be the desired outcome of the session. Sometimes the client walks in with no specific issues or with many at a time. It is important for both coach & client to clarify which is the desired result or which is the goal the client wants to achieve?  It makes it more specific & gives the process a direction.

What is the goal for you now? What do you want to get from the coaching session? How do you want to feel after the session?  Etc.

3. Introspection and check the true reality

Introspection and checking the reality becomes an important part of the process. Asking powerful, reflective questions and challenging the client in taking the time to be true to himself will help the client speak up. The coach should give a lot of space to the client in this moment, but in the same time always add clarification and help him in the reflection process.

Where are you now? How do you perceive the situation you are in? How do you feel where you are now?  How do you see yourself in this current reality? How do you think others see you?  What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?

How and how much do you use your strengths in the current reality?

4. Identify the motivations and fears. Fuel the optimism and also challenge the client!

An important part of our way in finding the truth is discovering our inner motivation and our inner fears. The path of knowing ourselves and facing our motivations and fears takes a lot of courage, self-awareness and responsibility from both client and coach.

The coach’s role in the this part is to empower the client, to fuel optimism in the conversation and to focus not so much on the end point, but rather on the first step on agreeing to know the truth about our inner motivations and fears. This means change, power and growth for our clients.  In the same time, the coach should challenge the client about his truths when we see that these truths (beliefs) are holding him back.

Remember the moments when you had success in your life. What was important for you in achieving that?  What strengths helped you in achieving that? What triggered you to realize that?  What was your biggest fear during the process until you had success? How did you manage to overcome that fear? Is there a valuable learning from that situation that you want to carry forward?  Where do you get your energy from? What inspires you?

5. Design Alignment

Design Alignment contributes to closing the gaps between the “where I am now” and “where I truly want to be”. In the context of knowing the inner motivations and fears, the coach should use powerful questions that evoke discovery and insights for the clients and also be a consistent reminder of real priorities and of the true reality.

Creativity and curiosity are great tools to help clients feel comfortable to embrace the uncomfortable reality and reinvent themselves in agreement to their inner motivations.

6. Take Actions

This is the action stage where the client is being true to himself and starts building an action plan and timeline in reaching the goals or even in transforming his life according to what really motivates him. The client now comes with the emotional and mental understanding. The coach works with the client every step to ensure a solid and achievable action plan can be set in motion. As part of the action plan, coaches should ask provoking questions such as:

How will achieving this goal make your life better and how will it affect you if you don’t achieve the goal? What will the outcome look like, how will you feel and think after this has been completed?

7. Always get back to the truth. Manage the process

Finding the truth about you is a long process and does not end with taking actions, it’s about a way of living. Living in truth is a great responsibility and takes a lot of courage. The coach’s role during the whole process is to accompany the client in his journey and be a constant reminder of what the truth is. We need to remember that in our lives we are “the sun”and it is only up to us to make a change.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. Steve Jobs