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Advanced Psychology Coaching Skills to Explore at Workplaces

Author: Jason Potvin
by Jason Potvin
Posted: Dec 04, 2021

Positive psychology and coaching, how do these two concepts align? How does positive psychology coaching help us with wellbeing in our workplace? Let’s discover...

What is Positive Psychology?

Positive psychology is a newer branch of psychology that revolves around theories, research, and practices about what goes well for us. It pertains to emotional wellbeing, proper cognitive functioning, and positive behavioral traits in people. It is a subdivision of psychology that focuses on character strengths to nourish our growth and development

Positive psychology has been described by many, but my personal favorite definition of the field is as follows:

"Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living" (Peterson, 2008). Thank you, Mr. Peterson, and RIP.

What is Coaching?

Coaching is a way to obtain objectives at work, with the aim of achieving optimal performance in the workplace. It focuses specifically on skills and goals. It can be implemented for a particular period or project, focusing on elements of workplace requirements. Or, it can be integrated as a compliment into an already ongoing management style. Coaching can take place in a group, one on one or self-directed, both on and offline. With proper coaching, we in the workplace can enhance our ability to communicate, be attentive, and nurture others to grow.

Positive Psychology Coaching Skills to explore at the workplace

Leaders are focusing on developing their own coaching leadership style, considering coaching skills as a basic leadership competency. So, what is psychology coaching skills and how exactly can we develop them?

1. Identify strengths

The traditional model of development rests on working on our weaknesses. But, more leaders today understand that this is an outdated model, no longer fit-for-purpose. Progressive leaders believe in building a strength-based approach, focusing on what works, rather than what doesn’t. This way leaders can boost effectiveness and engagement at the same time. Open this in a new tab to see more later on implementation summary video for IBM New Zealand’s use of a strengths-based approach.

One positive psychology study (Linley, 2009) stated that we can see a boost in performance by 38% by identifying and leveraging strengths and working on them.

It can be done by following the steps below:

  • Identify the core strengths of your team

  • Focus on using your strengths to develop and enhance them

  • Align strengths with business goals and apply them to tackle the challenges with engagement and grit.

2. Curiosity

While you are coaching others you should be curious to know about them, the space they work in, and the world they belong to. Curiosity is the key to knowledge, after all. It helps you be open to new ideas and inventions, keeping you always a few steps ahead of your competitors. Some Growth Mindset coaching questions which help develop your curiosity and your team's efficiency are:

  • What did I do well at?

  • What can I learn from this experience?

  • What can I do differently the next time?

Ask relevant questions that empower both you and your teams to reflect and grow professionally. It will also help your team to identify more opportunities and motivation to achieve their goals.

3. Feedback and accountability

Feedback and accountability can prove to be an impactful strategies. Checking with staff on their progress makes such a powerful difference towards achieving success.

Christine Porath and Gretchen Spreitzer conducted research and found that there are four basic factors necessary to sustain a high-performing team; feedback, autonomy, civility, and information sharing. It’s a growth-based mindset for success. Feedback tells your team to know whether they are heading in the right direction Or not. Try and keep the Feedback simple, clear, timely, specific, non-judgmental, and most importantly positive. Once you establish accountability, the staff have a massive chance of achieving their objective.

Meditate upon the systems and strategies that are your strengths and enable the employees to build the same kind of accountability into their tasks. Be mindful of how well you push, motivate and encourage staff to be accountable for the goals that they have committed to achieving. Be prepared to ensure civility and respect at all times.

4. Active Listening

Well, it sounds pretty obvious that listening skills are a must, especially when we are in a workplace where we have to interact and deal with a lot of people. However, this is actually a skill that is often overlooked.

Listening should not only be genuine but also be active and reflective. We need to make sure we focus on listening as much as we work on our speaking skills. Constantly reflect and keep a check on your understanding of what has been said earlier. There is nothing like the attention of a good listener for a good speaker. Keep the listening process with minimum interruptions and try to understand the real message the speaker wants to convey. Not only listen but understand the true sense of the word.

5. Communication

"Better conversations mean better relationships, which lead to better output."

Says Karen Tweedie of Access Leadership.

Below are a few coaching tips that can help the leader to make the communication process more engaging and effective:

  • Visualize yourself as a thought partner, listen for the potential that people might have. Welcome their ideas and promote safety in divergent thinking

  • Always try to impose open-ended questions. It gives the other person a chance to express themselves well by opening the doors to their imagination.

  • Motivate themselves for self-discovery by encouraging their peers in working together to find answers to their challenges.

  • Empower the other person to move forward, grow and succeed by removing obstacles while providing resources, autonomy, and guidance.

  • Keep accountability through transparency, celebrate small wins, and process improvements

Once you master these advanced coaching skills you’ll notice a significant gain in your leadership competencies which will ultimately increase your impact, develop your personality, improve your relationships and push you towards your goals.

Conclusion

The world knows it now. Positive Psychology Coaching Tools help us grow and flourish in the workplace. Not to mention buffer us from stress, anxiety, burnout, and chronic toxic work relationships. So go ahead. Develop your Positive Psychology Skills and nurture that career growth.

About the Author

BrainAdvizor is a new way forward to navigate work stress and anxiety through self regulation coaching. Content inspired by the science of positive psychology. We serve leaders, managers, entrepreneurs & professionals seeking personal growth.

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Author: Jason Potvin

Jason Potvin

Member since: Nov 24, 2021
Published articles: 1

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