A successful coaching process supports clients in achieving their goals. However, as more clients face contexts of exponential complexity, their goals are expanding in scope and becoming harder to accomplish without a corresponding expansion in our clients’ internal complexity. Therefore, as coaches, we need to more purposefully support our clients’ psychological growth as a prerequisite to achieving meaningful goals in an increasingly disrupted world.
Often coaches have a sense of a client’s transformation and growth. Developmental coaching as a concept is not new. Much has been written about vertical development and “transformational” coaching. However, the exact mechanisms of development; the experience of it; and the precise triggers, opportunities, themes, lines, and conditions for development are not widely known. In this session, we will bring together research and practical coaching applications to offer coaches clarity and tools for fostering vertical development.
We will explore the Contrasting Emotions Space Theory of Vertical Development and how it translates into the specific developmental coaching process D.E.C.I.I.D.E.D. (Dilemma, Emotion, Critical Reflection, Insight, Intention, Discomfort, Experiment, Dilemma). The theory describes the lived experience of development as a client might perceive it. The coaching model guides coaches on how to apply it. Through exploring both, we will uncover triggers, conditions, and illuminate the inner workings of vertical development as clients experience it. We will also get to experience how to facilitate that process through coaching.
Learning Objectives:
Describe what vertical development coaching is and how it is different (and complementary) to other types of coaching.
Work with dilemmas and negative emotions in vertical development and coach your clients through the Contrasting Emotions Space Theory.
Conduct a developmental coaching conversation using the D.E.C.I.I.D.E.D. coaching process.
