Displaying or acquiring optimism
Several strands of pscyhological research over the last quarter of a century have highlighted how much 'getting along intelligently' plays a valuable part in work as well as personal life.
The scope of 'getting along intelligently' varies on the demands of a situation. It ranges from being a courageous enough follower to challenge leadership when circumstances or the actions, or ommissions, of the leader require. It also includes rising above setbacks to view them in the context of life's larger pattterns. Above all, it involves displaying perspectives that dwell on the silver lining in cloudy situations. It means learning to dwell on 'optimistic' options.
A cycle of inquiry and experimenting
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Based on a constructive approach to inquiring and making sense, appreciative coaching works at your own pace and leads you through a process of understanding, acceptance and commitment. |
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Like any conversation intended to help you deal with a very important concern, Appreciative Coaching starts with information you give and with observations about how you, as a client, think, feel and behave.
The job of a coach in this situation is to serve as your partner in a constructive style, so that you can effectively bring about change you value. The coach may offer information, techniques and tips but the really important tasks are to be supportive to your concerns and to stimulate you to stretch and to pace yourself in relation to the purpose you have agreed on.
A cycle of four stages typically mark out this style of coaching. It is also supported by a set of six principles; we introduce a client to these principles according as they are relevant to what's on his or her mind. What we tend to find is that by changing the nature of the questions we discuss from a focus on failures to appreciation of what really works when the person is at their best, positive and hopeful, basically truthful visions of future possibilities gradually emerge.
This style of coaching is rooted in a set of principles which are have been a focus of research for over twenty years. As clients works with these principles, they reconnect with encouraging past successes; together the provide a theme or themes that make up the entry point to new intiatives. A 'virtuous cycle' is sparked and gradually builds on itself.
What is most likely to happen?
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Making it possible for you to create this shift in YOUR questions is often the most helpful approach to your concern. For they often what help you to trace and evaluate evidence about what is most likely to happen in matters important to you. We emphasise 'special' questioning designed to generate new ideas, conversations and action - for, in our experience, well-phrased questions function as an anchor of hope to the mind in panic. |
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And yes, we answer questions when appropriate, too.
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." (Marcel Proust (1971 - 1922), French novelist)
While we draw on a selection of methods below, we emphasise two things: one is that the end-game in 'Appreciative Coaching' is to respond to each client and enable him or her to behave in new ways to deal with realities in 'the real world'; and the other is that this style of coaching also requires use of 'traditional' methods of assessment and exploration, depending on the individual, the circumstances and the issue.