This week I met Richard Boyatzis via Zoom, it was needless to say a total honour and a pleasure. Professor Boyatzis is Distinguished University Professor of Case Western Reserve University, and has been researching in the fields of organisational behaviour, psychology and coaching for over 40 years. Richard will be speaking at the Coaching in the Workplace conference this Friday.

Coaching Career Journey:

When I meet an expert in any field, I’m always fascinated by their career journey. One seminal moment in Richard’s journey was serendipitous.  Looking for a potential career change from aerospace science, Richard somewhat sceptically decided to take an MIT university class with David Kolb in Organisational Psychology. The decision to take the course was simply on the back of the course description saying ‘no tests’ (Richard describes himself as ‘test-phobic’.)  It turned out to be the start of a fruitful collaboration with Kolb in the late 1960s, applying research on motivation via management training, leading to the inclusion of 1:1 feedback and coaching in their programmes. Since then Prof. Boyatzis has made significant contributions to research in the area of the science of coaching, including 39 behavioural studies, 3 FMRI studies, and supervising 30+ dissertations.

Allowing the client to dream

Professor Boyatzis’s research shows us that the best place to start a coaching relationship is to allow the client to dream. That’s not to say goal setting isn’t important, but that should come later. Research shows that creating the opportunity for the coaching client to enter a dream-like exploration regarding what they would love to do, the person they would love to be and imagining a situation where everything in life was perfect, is the most effective way to create Intentional Change.  Research shows that the “push” type of helping i.e. giving advice and offering tips and solutions closes the coachee down by arousing the Negative Emotional Attractor, (NEA),  resulting in emotions such as guilt and shame. Prof. Boyatzis calls this type of helping behaviour “the helping bully”, a deliberately strong term, which reminds us that true helping interventions require the “pulling” type coaching behaviours, arousing the Positive Emotional Attractor, leading to emotions such as joy, elation and hope.   Professor Boyatzis argues that arousing the PEA is essential when helping a coaching client create a motivating personal vision, and this is the core of his Intentional Change Theory.  This process allows a coaching client to connect to a deep sense of purpose and results in real, sustainable change.

Coaching with Compassion required more than ever in our COVID and Post-COVID world

Prof. Boyatzis believes compassion is the key ingredient in a coaching or leadership.  He and colleagues have shown that coaching with compassion results in more openness in the client, and helps them learn and change. This is described as the resonant relationship , a relationship which involves kindness, mindfulness, empathy and hope.  This, he believes, is the antidote to our current state of fear due to the pandemic, financial worries and social unrest. In order to be the best coach in these circumstance,  Prof. Boyatziz recommends paying attention to your own (the coach’s) personal renewal during the day. Renewal practices include mindfulness, meditation, yoga and prayer which lead to positive mental renewal, reducing stress.  In turn the coach can encourage these practices in their coachees, and combined with a compassionate coaching approach will result in a positive, enabling experience for the client.

The Infection of Possibilities

So, in this current pandemic environment, coaches can, as Professor Boyzatis would put it, create an “infection of possibilities” by creating positive emotional contagion through acts of kindness and empathy.  As coaches we are best placed to lead this type of contagion and can start with our clients, who in turn can create resonant, compassionate relationships with their colleagues and families. The first step is to engage in renewal practices for ourselves to ensure we are resilient, positive and hopeful.

See Richard Boyatzis this week

Coaches and leaders will get the opportunity to hear Prof. Boyatzis speak this week at the Association for Coaching’s online conference Coaching in the Workplace. The talk entitled The Science of Effective Coaching will draw on decades of research into emotional intelligence, competencies and coaching, as well as hormonal and neuroimaging studies, showing the audience examples of what effective coaching feels like and what neural processes foster or inhibit it. The audience will have the privileged opportunity to engage with Prof. Boyatzis in a Q&A session, an opportunity not to be missed for coaches who are serious about understanding the science behind their profession.

Blog writer: Alex Morgan, Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader, Post Graduate Certificate in Professional Coaching, Leicester Castle Business School

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