Human Assets

The term 'coaching' covers a range of interventions and the glib definition is that coaching deals with the future whereas counselling deals with the past. However, inevitably, there are occasions when a good look at the past helps secure the future. Understanding our habitual behaviour and its origins helps us change for the future. For example, for someone to change from their usual style of being overly-aggressive in meetings, it helps not just to resolve and practise a new response but to understand where all the aggression was coming from.

 

An article in the current issue of the International Coaching Psychology Review by David Drake explores and illustrates the use of attachment theory in coaching. Attachment theory has been highly influential in child psychology and it has a clear application to adult psychology, including people at work. The basic tenet of the theory is that quite early in childhood we develop ideas of how trustworthy people are and we then behave to people in line with the view we have formed. This sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we think people are basically OK, we behave in a reasonably relaxed way to them and they reciprocate. On the other hand, if we think people are unreliable, we behave to them with distance or in too clinging a way and, in turn, they behave equivocally towards us thereby confirming our view that people are unreliable.

 

There are three major attachment styles. Secure attachment speaks for itself and results in the person approaching others in a reasonably positive and confident manner, giving people the benefit of the doubt with trust being the default option. Second, there is the anxious-ambivalent style which leads the person to seek reassurance. Sadly, this neediness can create a reaction that only causes the anxious person to become more anxious. Finally, those with the avoidant style tend to distance themselves from others, preferring to avoid the risks involved in relationships.

 

As David Drake points out, in developing leaders, we are generally trying to help them display the behaviours of a secure attachment style. For some people being coached, this will involve them doing some work on the past - exploring how they have come to view people and getting them to challenge this legacy and try different ways of viewing and approaching others.

 

We can also employ the attachment metaphor to how organisations treat people. Employers who show little sense of commitment towards people are not going to foster a secure style of behaviour in relation to organisations.

 

Clearly people who come to coaching should not suddenly find themselves in something akin to psychotherapy. However, coaching can benefit from an appropriate exploration of the past and, fairly obviously, this is probably best done by a psychologist than by the average line manager. Coaching covers a huge range of interventions with many different sorts of people best placed to carry out the coaching role. Perhaps the most vital stage in coaching is diagnosing the type of coach that will yield most benefit.

 

David B Drake. Using attachment theory in coaching leaders: The search for a coherent narrative. International Coaching Psychology Review Vol 4 No 1 March 2009., pps 49-58.