Solution-Focused Coaching

Wordplay employs Solution Focused Coaching (SFC) techniques for both individual clients seeking to improve their personal skills and for organisations looking to develop their talent or teams. 

SFC has been shown by research to provide better outcomes more efficiently than traditional methods because it is about future possibility rather than past difficulties.  

SFC is about transformation, possibilities, and the future. To be effective, great coaches encourage clients to focus on the controllable and move forward towards their goals, bypassing any barriers in the way. 

This solution-focused approach seeks to give clients the skill to identify and design their own solutions rather than provide a quick fix.  

Wordplay coaches provide a ‘Safe Thought Chamber’ for clients to consider their beliefs and determine their true potential. This safe space is built upon mutual respect between the client and coach to allow the client to creatively explore their ideas in a thought-provoking environment. 

SFC requires the client to actively participate in the coaching process, be open to any new ideas or information discovered along the way and to subsequently take the necessary steps in a learning development plan to cement the change to reach their goals.   

Coaching conversations involve holding a mirror up to allow the client to examine their thoughts and beliefs during potentially profound personal conversations. Powerful penetrating questions raise the client’s awareness of issues they may be blind to or view challenges from a new perspective guiding them towards the best solution. 

The coach recognises the vulnerability of this environment and commits to always communicate respectfully and with empathy to help facilitate any necessary change.   

SFC follows similar principles to the latest approaches to human performance and safety, focusing on the things people get right rather than just the errors they make which leads to an empowering process that expands the client’s world view.  

Coaching is principally a non-directive process and so the coach will avoid giving the client advice. If it is useful, with the client’s permission, the coach may offer suggestions or options based on their professional or personal experience, but the solution and its implementation remain the clients. When the picture becomes clear, the client often feels re-energised and recommitted to the change.   

SFC is based on the following fundamentals:

• The client sets the agenda for the coaching and establishes the goals they wish to achieve during the sessions

• The most important part of the coaching process is the relationship between the client and the coach. The coach will seek to raise the client’s awareness in a supportive but challenging environment, and act as a trusted partner on their journey of exploration

• The coach’s only interest is in helping the client to explore all the options fully to find the most appropriate solution to any challenges they face and determine the path the client determines suits them best

• Coaching concerns the client holistically and how their belief system drives behaviour 

• Professional dilemmas may be present due to personal challenges, or present behaviour may be affected by events from the past. With this in mind, the coach may occasionally explore potentially uncomfortable issues or feelings to help raise the client’s awareness; these conversations will be conducted respectfully and only with the client’s explicit consent