Empowerment in coaching

The translation of Empowerment into Spanish is 'empowerment' and it is something fundamental that a coach must know how to transmit to his client for the coaching process to be successful.

This "empowerment" should not be confused with simple motivation, with encouragement, or with sharing positive phrases so that the coachee feels encouraged. In fact, this is one of the false beliefs that coaching has to deal with the most, that of believing that when talking about empowering the coachee, they are talking about simple motivation.

In this article we want to try to better explain how this 'empowerment' is worked and what is achieved with it in the way of facing a coaching process.

• Related article: "5 false beliefs about coaching"

The two facets of Empowerment in coaching

As a starting point, it should be noted that empowerment has two aspects: make the coachee discover and be aware of his potential and, another, that he knows how to access "his center" or "be in the zone".

Trust the client's potential

One of the fundamental characteristics of being a good coach is having absolute confidence that the coachee has the capacities and sufficient potential to achieve that objective that he wants to achieve and for which he has requested his services.

Empowerment in this sense consists of the coach help the client remove all those obstacles that they are not allowing him to see the tools he has to achieve his goal: limiting beliefs, conformism, not being clear about his purpose, lack of connection with his true values…

During the coaching process, the coach works with different tools and techniques to break down these obstacles and achieve the necessary empowerment in the coachee. Two empowerment tools that prove to be very effective are:

the 5 virtues

An exercise to be aware of the positive qualities that the coachee has and that at first sight are never considered. It consists of saying to the client (taking into account the previous session work in which he has been able to get to know him better), 'when you enter a room what you bring with you is...' and list those 5 virtues that the coach has detected that the client has.

The key is to make the coachee connect with them and that he is aware that he has them because others see them.

connect with achievements

This tool is one of the most effective. It is to make the coachee list the different achievements that he has achieved in his life, either personal or professional. We are not talking about great achievements such as finishing a university degree, but achievements such as learning to swim, getting an appointment with that person you loved, facing a difficult situation successfully...

With this exercise you become aware that we achieved many things successfully throughout our lives, but we do not give them the value they really deserve.

Maintain the center or connect with the zone

This part of empowerment consists of help the client to know how to access their center or zone of excellence from where he finds the fullness and drive to address circumstances without limits.

This area that seems almost mystical is actually being consistent with values. A value is what is important to a person above all else. If we do not act in accordance with the values, we are outside of that center because we are not being and doing in congruence with ourselves and that is where doubts and fears arise.

Once the client is clear about those values ​​that guide his life, he goes from the state of "have, do, be" to the state "be, do, have". You can work from his center or access his zone because you know what is really important to him. and the objectives and actions that will be set to achieve it will be very different.

Concluding…

In short, the empowerment process is linked and linked to the coaching process itself, because while the different steps of the action is worked, in turn, with the different empowerment tools that will give the coachee the freedom to achieve the objective with success.

Knowing how to perform a good Empowerment is key for a coach. Within the training to be a professional coach, you have to work especially well on this part of the client empowerment because, as we have seen, it is vital for a coaching process to be successful.

In the different training courses in coaching that we give in our school D'Arte Human Business School We treat empowerment with the seriousness and rigor it deserves, always seeking that the coaches that come out of our classrooms are high-level professionals.