By Dennis Sale
OVER the past three decades I have coached over 15,000 teaching/training professionals – from novices to principal level – across most vocational sectors, and in many countries.
The experience has been extremely insightful in terms of developing a deep understanding of the structure and workings of the human mind. It has also been good fun. In this series of columns, I will share my key observations about how best to coach professionals from an evidence-based approach.
Initially, I will frame what I see as the key underpinning psychological principles for effective coaching, as these shape the strategy and practices of the coaching process. You may have noticed that coaching has become an increasingly popular term in the language of professional development. Previously, the term was mainly used in other training contexts, especially sport. In practice, coaching in any area of learning typically involves training and mentoring, so it’s a hybrid competence involving a range of technical, pedagogic and interpersonal skills.
There are many definitions of coaching. A noted one is that of Costa and Garmston (2002), who offer a process orientated perspective: ‘Coaching serves as a foundation for continuous learning by mediating another’s capacity to reflect before, during and after practice.’
Of specific importance for professional development, good coaching enables the clarification of important knowledge, stimulates good thinking, provides structure to focused deliberate practice and includes quality feedback. For example, in the context of education, Joyce and Showers (2002) noted that coached teachers:
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Practised the new strategies more frequently and developed greater skill.
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Used the newly acquired strategies more appropriately in terms of curriculum alignment.
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Exhibited greater long-term retention of knowledge and skill use with the strategies.
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Were more likely than uncoached teachers to explain new models of teaching to their students, ensuring that students understood the purpose of the strategy and the behaviours expected of them when using the strategy.
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Exhibited clearer cognition regarding the purposes and uses of the new strategies.
Effective coaching requires excellent sensory acuity and interpersonal skills (eg observational awareness, empathic listening, and focused questioning). These build rapport, trust and credibility with those being coached.
As we know, our state of mind, which is shaped by our beliefs, emotional state and perception of situated experience, is crucial to how we perform in real-life situations. We have all seen top professional sportspeople underperform (eg appear to freeze, even fully implode) at very crucial stages in major events (think of a double fault at match point in a grand slam tennis final, or a miss-kick of a penalty in a World Cup shoot out). Hence coaching is a whole-person activity, involving a range of skill sets that must be customised to the individual and his/her life context.
Gallwey’s (1987) famous work on the Inner Game focused on understanding what goes on in the heads of tennis players that enhance or inhibit their performance. This applies to all people in all situations where performance is involved (especially where it is high stakes and under observation from others) and many factors can come into play in affecting it.
Gallwey’s key theoretical position was that performance at any time has what he referred to as ‘potential’ – a person’s level of actual capability/skills. Hence, if they truly played to their potential this would be their best performance at this level of capability.
For example, you will have experienced doing things (eg a work project, or playing a sport) when you felt your were putting in your best effort. Well, that would be near your potential.
However, as human beings, in our minds (hence the term ‘inner game’) there is much that can significantly impact our thinking and feelings – both positively and negatively. Negative aspects that can undermine performance he refers to as ‘interference’. Interference is anything that enters our mind (and sub/unconscious stuff is involved here) that creates disturbance that significantly mitigates performance. Most documented interference involves feelings of anxiety and fear that seriously affect concentration and bodily control. Limiting beliefs and images that come into the mind are the typical causes of interference at the psychological level, which quickly impact emotions, brain behaviour and psychomotor functioning. This is often epitomised by the phrase, ‘I feel like jelly’.
For Gallwey, much of coaching is about improving potential and reducing interference to increase performance. The ability to reduce interference also has a synergistic effect, as increases in performance enhance belief and confidence which, in turn, builds a resource for better future management of negative interference.
For example, I remember Garbine Muguruza winning the ladies Wimbledon Title in 2017. In her post-match interview – while referring to her defeat in the same final two years earlier – she said that she was a ‘different player now than then’. This was not about her specific tennis skills, but her mental resources to manage the interference in her head (note: she did not use such terms, but the intended meaning seemed congruent). For illustration, she reflected on how she played in this final, and her thinking when faced with set points that would have resulted in the loss of the first set.
Following her victory she said: ‘When I had those set points against me, I’m like, hey, it’s normal. I’m playing Venus here. It’s so I just keep fighting. And I knew that if I was playing like I was playing during the two weeks, I was going to have eventually an opportunity. So I was, like, calm. If I lose the first set, I still have two more. Let’s not make a drama.’
In summary, to achieve highly productive outcomes in coaching relationships, it is necessary to understand fundamental psychological aspects of human functioning relating to perception, thinking, and behaviour. Enhanced performance typically necessitates specific changes in these areas of human functioning by people being coached.
Furthermore, those being coached must believe in what the coach is doing and feel a strong sense of trust and rapport in the relationship. This is where the competencies, practices, and techniques of the coach really come into play, and these will be explored, analysed, and evaluated in the forthcoming columns in this series.
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Dennis Sale worked in the Singapore education system for 25 years as an adviser, researcher and examiner. He coached over 15,000 teaching professionals and provided 100-plus consultancies in the Asian region. He is author of the books Creative Teachers: Self-directed Learners (Springer 2020) and Creative Teaching: An Evidence-Based Approach (Springer, 2015). To contact him, visit dennissale.com.
