Coaching Principles

The Beehive approach to coaching

There are many models and approaches to coaching, but we define coaching in the following way:

“A relationship, based on mutual trust, respect and equality, in which the coachee(s) decides the outcomes they want to achieve within the bounds of the coaching relationship, and the coach facilitates the coachee in achieving those outcomes.”

We base our coaching on the following six principles:

1. The client has the answers.
   Coaching is not about telling the client what to do. Coaching works from the basis that the client has the resources, the answers and the capabilities they need within themselves. Only the client can determine their own actions as only the client has full knowledge of their situation and it is the client who has to live with the consequences.
2. The coach’s role is to uncover the resources, answers and capabilities that the client has within.
   Though many clients may expect advice and to be told what to do it is not the role of the coach to give it. Advice-giving assumes that the coach knows best and also opens up opportunities for unhealthy dynamics. The coach may offer information but only on the strict understanding that it is for the client to decide how useful the information is or is not.
3. Coaching addresses the whole person.
   It is impossible to coach without addressing the whole person. Issues at work often parallel issues at home, and lessons learned in childhood have a major impact on how individuals behave, think and feel as adults. Coaching is not therapy, it is focused on here-and-now issues, but it is impossible to successfully coach someone without understanding something about their life story and past.
4. The client leads each session.
   This model of coaching is ‘client focused’ which means that each session is led by the needs of the client. The coach works with whatever the client presents. There is no set agenda – each meeting is time specifically for the client to use as they want to within the boundaries initially agreed with the coach. When the client agenda is finished, coaching must stop, even if temporarily.
5. Coach and client are equals.
   The coaching relationship is based on trust and mutual respect, and is a partnership of equals. A relationship in which it is assumed that the coach knows best is an invitation to dependency, which is exactly what the process is trying to avoid.
6. Coaching is about change, and everyone can change. 
   Clients come to coaching because they want to change, which usually means they want to improve their effectiveness in either their professional or personal life. The role of the coach is to facilitate this change. A client who does not want to change or who believes that they cannot change cannot be coached, and in this situation the relationship should be discontinued.