What is mindful coaching?

Mindful coaching is where mindfulness and coaching meet. In mindfulness we learn to shift from doing mode into being mode. The ‘doing mode’ is typically characterised by stories, thinking, oriented towards past or future, automatic pilot and reactions or impulses. ‘Being mode’ on the other hand entails concepts like process, feelings, orientation to the here and now, intention and creative choice.

One could say that mindfulness meditation fancies being mode more (to be still and compassionate), whereas coaching prefers doing mode (goals and action plans). The combination, however, enhances both, says one coaching study (Spence et al, 2010), which found that mindfulness training combined with solution-focused coaching helps clients attain their health goals.

In her book on Mindful Coaching, Lizz Hall, a senior practitioner coach in the UK, lists 10 tips for mindful coaching. They apply mainly to the coach, although I feel the client might benefit from taking these tips to heart as well.

1. Start doing an 8-week mindfulness course. Research shows that attention training for 8 weeks literally rewires our brains.
2. Practice mindfulness (including meditation) regularly.
3. Take a systemic approach to coaching, “being mindful” of the wider systems in which you and your clients operate.
4. Approach coaching (and life) with non-judgment, openness, curiosity, and compassion.
5. Prepare mindfully for each coaching session – this can take as little as a few minutes. E.g., walk mindfully to your coaching session, or sit in the park and pay attention to your breath for a few minutes.
6. Share mindfulness practices within coaching sessions and as “homework” where useful and appropriate for the client. If the word mindfulness is off-putting for clients the exercises can be called centering practices, breathing practice or attention training. All these will help to become more resourceful and creative, more emotionally intelligent, more able to be resilient and manage stress – the research backs all of this up.
7. Attend (not solely) to the present in all coaching interactions (thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, happenings – both on your part and on the part of your client). Be curious about everything that arises, turning towards the ‘difficult’ as well as the ‘easy.’
8. Don’t be overly-attached to outcome, for yourself or your clients. It can be incredibly powerful, particularly for leaders, to sit with not-knowing, to be open to whatever emerges in a non-judgmental, curious, compassionate way.
9. Be compassionate to yourself and to your clients. Practicing mindfulness helps us develop compassion, which I believe is a central component of coaching. It can be incredibly hard to be self-compassionate, but well worth the effort.
10. Have fun! In the West, we often take things far too seriously and can learn a great deal from Eastern teachings. Yes, mindfulness helps us manage stress, be more creative, improves our cognitive functioning and thus our “performance” but ultimately, for me (Liz Hall), mindfulness is about bringing joy back into our lives and those of our clients.

Well, Liz, I couldn’t agree with you more. Let’s bring the joy back into our lives!