Coaching manager, James M. Hunt

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More About Adler’s Approach and Conceptual Framework

1. THEORY  

Alfred Adler's philosophy and approach to living
The inner game
Appreciative inquiry
Positive psychology 
Leadership Studies
Co-active coaching 

2.   Conceptual Framework of Adler’s Leader as Coach Program
The Adler Approach to Developing Coaching Leaders

Coaching Mindset
Focus on Quality of the Relationship and the Conversation
Skills and Application
Key Success Factors
Impact of the Approach

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More About Adler’s Approach and Conceptual Framework

1. THEORY  

The Leader as Coach Program is based on a clearly articulated conceptual foundation.  We are able to draw from a wide range of fields and integrate principle and tools in a coherent way.  These include:  the Adlerian Approach; Appreciative Inquiry; Positive Psychology; Leadership studies. Some of the sources that significantly inform our thinking and teaching in the Positive Change Program include:

Alfred Adler's philosophy and approach to living
Adler has been called the “father of coaching”. While our program’s approach is not specifically Adlerian, the majority of our guiding principles can be linked to fundamental Adlerian assumptions.

The inner game
The principles of the inner game, as articulated by John Whitmore in Coaching for Performance and especially by Timothy Gallwey in The Inner Game of Work, provide an elegant and powerful conceptual frame for coaching. From our perspective, the concepts of “awareness”, “choice”, and “trust in real self” truly lie at heart of coaching, and of learning and growth more generally. These concepts can be expanded and deepened in several ways to provide a frame for coaching over a wide domain.

Appreciative inquiry
The Adler coaching program takes an appreciative, strengths-based approach to generating positive change. Appreciative Inquiry, in the words of its founder, David Cooperrider, focuses attention on “the best of the past and present”, in order to “ignite the collective imagination of what might be.” Our vision for coaching is aligned with Cooperrider’s vision for appreciative inquiry, that “the arduous task of intervention will give way to the speed of imagination and innovation, and instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there will be discovery, dream, and design.”

Positive psychology
Closely aligned with appreciative inquiry is the fast expanding field of positive psychology. With its focus on human flourishing, both for individuals and systems, it provides a rich knowledge base for our approach to coaching. The positive psychology literature provides insight and understanding of optimal human functioning, as well as empirically verified tools and processes to support change and growth.

Leadership Studies
Given our program’s focus on coaching in the work context, it follows that much of our work is also informed by leadership studies. In addition to highlighting the traditional visionary and directing aspects of leadership, we draw extensively from the literature that links leadership and emotional intelligence, leadership and values, and leadership and personal development.

Co-active coaching
We also are informed by the co-active approach to coaching (Co-Active Coaching, by Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House and Phil Sandahl), specifically aligning with the importance of the mutuality and collaborative nature of the relationship between the coach and client, and the notion that coaching is a process involving a fully resourceful client, in service of the client’s agenda.

2.   Conceptual Framework of Adler’s Leader as Coach Program

The Adler Approach to Developing Coaching Leaders
In our experience, it is important to take a multi-level approach when partnering with an organization to help them embed a coaching culture. Three key levels that need attention are:

• Strategic positioning (clarify desired outcomes and measures, determine how to position a coach approach to leadership in their context),
• Building of capability (provide coaching skills training to managers and leaders)
• Providing support for implementation (through follow up coaching and support tools).

The following briefly summarizes key elements of the Adler approach to developing coaching leaders.

Coaching Mindset

• At the core is adopting an appreciative and strength-based perspective geared towards development and learning, rather than seeing coaching as a feedback process to overcome deficits or to close performance gaps.
• Approaching the coaching role with a coaching mindset and enhanced self-awareness for the coach is essential to the success of the approach; this is much more important than skills, tools and techniques.
• The locus of enhanced performance and learning is clearly recognized as being internal to the coachee, linked to their own level of awareness, of being at choice, and their self-trust.

Focus on Quality of the Relationship and the Conversation

• The primary thrust is towards building the quality of the relationship and the effectiveness of the conversation between coach and coachee, and not on processes and structures.
• By highlighting the power of focused attention, clear intentions, collaborative thinking and problem solving, the learning about coaching conversations extends far beyond coaching.
• The approach enables a much broadened understanding of what coaching can accomplish beyond what leaders initially assume, which further build leaders’ motivation for coaching.

Skills and Application

• Key skills, particularly listening, questioning, observing and reflecting back, are explored and developed at a deep level.
• A broad range of coaching interactions are recognized (situationally appropriate, formal, informal, scheduled, unscheduled), providing flexibility in application and implementation. 
• Since the program is fundamentally about personal and leadership development, the learning is relevant beyond the coaching context, and indeed beyond the work context.

The following are the typical elements of an Adler designed program to embed a coaching approach to leadership in an organization:
Research – to determine the link to strategy, desired outcomes, and positioning of initiative.
Pre-workshop Self-assessment (on-line) - to raise participants’ awareness of their current practices against the practices of effective coaching leaders.
Workshop – a highly interactive blend of activities, supported by high quality participant materials, focused on motivation, mindset, knowledge, skills, tools, and implementation plans. 
Post-workshop support – including group coaching tele-learning labs and/or individual one on one coaching, and customized resources (e.g., Toolkits, Competencies Resource Guide, Conversation Guide, Job Aids).

Key Success Factors
This approach appeals in particular to:

• Knowledge based organizations where old style management practices are not considered effective.
• Organizations that are committed to high performance and/or successfully navigating a significant change.
• Organizations that see developing people as a key to business results and to leadership effectiveness.
• Organizations that recognize that a shift to a learning culture is a long term investment – not a quick fix – to create sustainable business results.

Impact of the Approach
Organizations that have embraced this approach to leadership have experienced significant gains in a number of areas. Some specific categories of benefits reported include: 

• Achievement of performance goals
• Increased engagement and satisfaction of both coaches and coachees
• Increased employee productivity
• Improved employee performance
• Better communication and relationships facilitating better strategies, solutions and overall success