Art vs Science of coaching.
A debatable question of 1000 cents.
Do you expect your coach to be a lab court with KMnO4 in a conical flask? Ready to attempt titration, to quantitatively explain the caching method?
Or
Do you expect your coach to be an artist or a wordsmith with a high intuitive power?
Some say coaching is an amalgamation of both. The brain can’t be expressed without art and the art comes from the brain.
THE SCIENCE OF COACHING
The science most related to Coaching is neuroscience.
According to neuroscience, the prefrontal cortex is used for learning new tasks and holds our working memory. It has limited resources and fatigues quickly and is able to carry a limited number of ideas at one time.
The basal ganglia controls the daily routines and habits. The daily routines do not require a conscious thought. Once the routines are settled and stored in this part of the brain, they are hard to change.
In coaching, transformation does not happen in a day. One’s daily activities- daily meetings, regular communications and other activities are registered in the basal ganglia. Transformation involves changes in the brain circuit in the pre- frontal cortex. Coach and the client have to be consistent to create these transformational changes into regular routines.
Brain science says we resist ‘offered advice’ when it comes from someone else. A coach never puts up advice for their clients. They provide them with questions challenging them and motivating them. Motivation gives energy to the transformational process and there is less resistance when the solution comes from the clients mind.
COACHING AS AN ART
We live in an era of numbers. Everything is measured here. Every experience has to be quantified. We put labels to validate things. For example, ‘I am not confident enough. On a scale of 1-10, I am a 6 on a self- assessment scale. I think coaching can be a fix.’
Whenever people see a problem in a person or an organisation, they feel coaching is the quick fix answer to it.
It is much more than that. Coaching is an art providing learning through a partnership. It is a deeper process, a transformational partnership to connect you with your spiritual self.
ART IN COACHING
Art in coaching is a wonderful way of discovering a deeper way of personal awareness. It creates a better space between the coach and the client where verbal thoughts fall short of. It helps clients externalise those things they find difficult to verbalise. It helps them make it more tangible.
Lines. Shapes, forms give a correct voice to the clients. Art is fun and makes a client more aware of themselves with a better understanding.
A dash of creativity can be a supplement to the coaching conversations. When multiple sketches of a person are seen in different situations, they all follow a similar pattern. Getting that pattern in your coaching conversations with imagery can help in self-discovery. These patterns can be an answer to so many unknown questions about you, that you never had answers to. A coach can help understand those patterns and help in the healing process.
WHERE ART AND SCIENCE MEET!
We believe what our left side of the brain has to say. It is logical and calculative. Most of us mostly use just the left part of the brain.
A creative person or the one thinking with art uses the right hemisphere of the brain. It helps us get connected to our unconscious self. Getting connected with the right hemisphere also gives perceptions and a better understanding of our thoughts.
What do you think? Are you on the sides of the scientists or the artists?
