What Coaching Styles are out There?
When working with a coach, their style will depend on three things:
Their education and background
Their preference or coaching brand
The needs of each individual client
The coaching profession draws in a collective of people with varying backgrounds. Some have psychology, social work, teaching, medical, athletic coaching, public speaking, corporate, or community engagement backgrounds. Academic achievement can vary from high school diploma to having advanced degrees.
Each coach is uniquely drawn towards a specific or certain set of coaching styles due to their own experiences, what they believe to be most effective, and what they enjoy doing. Well-established coaches will have the ability to identify which styles they use and apply them flexibly as they see fit to meet the client’s needs.
Here is a list of commonly used settings, styles, and models used by coaches to use as you explore working with a coach, including information about which ones Living with Gusto uses.
Settings
Living with Gusto provides coaching for all of the above settings.
Where does coaching take place and who else is involved in the sessions?
Individual, Group, or Team - coaches work with people as individuals, providing coaching in group settings where the people in the group may/may not know each other, and for groups that are teams who work together in some capacity.
Virtual vs. in-person - coaches provide services in-person and online using a virtual meeting tool like Google Meet, Teams, or Zoom.
Styles
Living with Gusto primarily relies on the Laissez-faire style to empower the client to set and reach their goals. This is based in the premise that each client is unique, heir unique situation and needs should be honored, and that the client knows themselves better than anyone else can.
What role does the coach and client play during their sessions?
Authoritarian - the coach makes all decisions about what the goal is and how it will be achieved.
Autocratic - the coach determines the goal and works with the client to perform so they meet the goal.
Democratic - the coach offers ideas, guidance, and options and the coach and client determine together what the goal is and how to reach the goal.
Laissez-faire - the coach provides the structured setting and supports the client as they work to determine the goal and how to reach it.
Models
Living with Gusto uses a variety of models as needed by the client, with the top 10 models underlined:
Models for Internal Change
Narrative: Identifying and changing the stories you believe about yourself and the world around you to help you become your own narrator and create opportunities for change.
Gestalt: Providing a neutral, motivating and healthy environment to allow you to find your own strengths, voice, mission and passion.
Mindfulness: Enhancing ability to be present and more aware in order to better identify abilities and opportunities for growth. Staying present while adjusting approach to find new ways to do things.
Intuitive: Building ability to know what is right for you through enhanced self-awareness
Existential: Exploring what it means to be human and how you experience being human by looking at how relatedness, uncertainty and existential anxiety (mortality) affect your experience.
Developmental: Enhancing awareness, focus, and ability to relate to the world.
Psychodynamic: Identifying the emotions related to a challenge or goal to avoid emotional barriers and strengthen drive for achievement.
Models for External Change
Performance: Improving tangible outcomes through assessment of abilities, habits, and barriers.
Behavioral: Identifying and improving routines and habits
Visionary: Providing a plan and encouragement to achieve goals effectively; collecting lessons from each effort to apply to the next one.
Transactional: Targeting a specific short-term goal of performance
Models for Internal and/or External Change
Ontological: Examining your whole nature of being (thought patterns, beliefs, emotions, moods, and physical) to create new habits in these areas for sustainable change.
Holistic/Transpersonal: Understanding how interconnected factors impact life as a whole to enhance all areas.
Transformational: Supporting through major life changes
Person-centered: encouraging you to listen to inner self and listens without judgement to provide a safe space for you to work through your own self-improvement goals.
Solutions-focused: Shaping how you think and talk about a goal to find the solution that best fits your needs.
Positive Psychology: Strengthening positive sense of self and strengths for further growth.
Inspirational: Supporting you in achieving your goals through encouragement.
If you’d like to learn more about potentially hiring Living with Gusto, check out our About Us page, or follow us on Facebook or Instagram. Or contact us to set up a consultation, or share with us a challenge you are facing that you might want coaching support with. We’ll respond with a couple ideas for free.
Resources used in this blog: