04: Coach Development, Self-awareness and the Concept of Self

In this podcast episode, Dr. Natalie Lancer hosts a discussion on the role of coach development, self-awareness and the concept of self in coaching. Dr. Julia Carden presents her research on self-awareness, distinguishing it from self-knowledge and self-consciousness. Heather Frost explores the concept of self, drawing on her doctoral research looking at 25 belief systems, highlighting its complexity and the practical impact of understanding a client’s concept of self. Dr Elizabeth Crosse details the three developmental strategies that emerged through her doctoral research: the craft, the being and the art of coaching.

We examine:

•     Why is self-awareness important for coaches?
•     What is the difference between self-awareness and the concept of self?
•     How are self-awareness, self-knowledge, and self-consciousness linked?
•     What are the challenges involved in demonstrating competency vs capacity development?
•     How can we utilise the coach’s and coachee’s self-awareness in coaching practice?
•     What do clients’ beliefs about self mean for how coaches tailor their coaching?
•     How can the three underpinnings of concept of self: stability vs instability, thoughts of self as a unique expression of me vs the self as an illusion, and unity versus multiplicity, be used to generate a concept of self scale?
•     How does understanding the concept of self increase the coach’s self awareness of beliefs and bias? And how can this benefit coaching outcomes?
•     What is the difference between Continuous Personal and Professional Development (CPPD) and Continuous Professional Development (CPD)?
•     Why is it more helpful to think of coach development as a learning journey than a linear progression?
•     How do we know what coaching development opportunities to invest in?
•     What are some practical ways to develop self-awareness?

Self-awareness enables coaches to forge deeper connections with clients and furthermore, it seems we can only take clients as far as we have gone ourselves. We discussed how a focus on preparing the self rather than content, allows coaches to trust their abilities and concentrate on other aspects of their practice. As we wrapped up the episode, the guests shared how engaging and reflecting in formal and informal professional and personal experiences have influenced their development. Our guests today are:

Dr Julia Carden is an accredited Master Practitioner Coach with the EMCC, a Professional Certified Coach with the ICF, an accredited coaching supervisor and is a Visiting Tutor at Henley Business School.  Julia was an officer in the Royal Navy, and then specialised in assessment and development centre work, and Learning and Development.  She fundamentally believes that as coaches we must first, and continue to do, the work on self – because who we are is how we coach.  This approach is underpinned by her PhD research which explored the role of self-awareness in the development of the coach. She is a NLP Master Practitioner, an accredited Time to Think Coach, a Fellow of the CIPD, and is licensed to use a range of psychometrics.  Julia completed the Henley MSc in Executive Coaching and Behavioural Change in 2014.