The usual working material of a coach is the judgments, beliefs and emotions of your client, needed to open or close possibilities for action. However, before reaching action and for specific client challenges, decisions or commitments, the coach can use values to discriminate between the important and the irrelevant: love, friendship, sincerity, money, courage, creativity, effort...
Values at the service of the challenge: working on values in coaching
– When the client's challenge involves making decisions, improve relationships, face conflicts. In this scenario, the coach can address the challenge through inquiry and the generation of awareness of the client's values in the specific area.
In other words, that the values they can vary depending on the scope (personal, familiar, professional, social…) and in each of these we can have different values or different priorities. For example, in my personal life, friendship might be the top value, and in the professional sphere, it might be fifth or sixth, or not even considered.
– When the client's challenge is related to engagement With the organisation, or the team, the coach can inquire about the values that are lived in the organisation, those of the person themselves, and how the two align.
The values cThey form the basis of ethics and a guide for life, allow us to align our decisions and challenges with what gives meaning to our lives and enhances our personal well-being.
The invisible presence of the coach's values
During a process and a coaching session, the coach's values are not (or should not be) present, but they can determine the framework of the session. This can happen if the coach feels that one of their core values is not being respected in the process.
In this case, the coach can either continue to support their client by overlooking their own value, or they can declare themselves incompetent for that process. In either case, their value should not interfere with or manipulate the client.
A matter of values
Reflecting on our values is a way to increase our level of awareness. In your personal life or in your practice as a coach, what is at stake, what is important to you?
