Coaching Model: 7 Successful Coaches Shared Their Favourite Coaching Models

Are you exploring the best coaching model for your life coaching business?

It is hard to deliver on the following desired outcomes for your coaching clients without a tried and tested coaching model or a framework:

• Understanding where they are
• Agreeing where they want to be
• Establishing the gap
• Creating an action plan
• Keeping them in check

To make it easy for you, we have requested the successful coaches to share their favourite coaching models to help you improve your coaching results.

Happy reading and feel free to share your favourite coaching model in the comments below.

Pam Aks, M.S., PCC, RMT is a cutting-edge mindset coach, mentor coach, and founder of What’s Within U, an international coaching practice. Named one of the top 20 Business Coaches in Phoenix by Influence Digest, she has helped thousands of people change their “Can’t” mindset to one that can and does. Pam serves on the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas in their Executive Coaching and Professional Coaching Certificate Program and is an LPI® Trained Coach – Wiley’s The Leadership Challenge. In addition, Pam is also the author of the book, “Developing a Confident Mindset; Simple Ways to Change The Negative Narrative that Undermines.”

What is your favourite coaching model and why?

My favorite coaching model by far is The Four Square Coaching Framework developed by Dr. Robert Hicks and featured in his book “The Process of Highly Effective Coaching; An Evidence-Based Framework.” Not only is it an easy to use model, but it supports the coach in having effective coaching conversations that create deeper awareness within the client.

It’s from that deeper awareness that the client can then create long-lasting solutions and results. In addition, it also provides a framework that partners well with the ICF Core Competencies.

Using the framework helps the coach better utilize the competencies in such a way that the coaching is fluid, rather than feeling robotic or as if they’re ticking competency boxes.

Priyanka Dutta is a multipotentialite credentialed professional coach. She supports gifted individuals, misfits & multipotentialites to remember how powerful & amazing they are, enabling them to hold their unique space in the world with clarity, dominion & grace as they fulfill their deepest intentions & desires for the highest good of all. Moreover, she is an ICC and PCC-certified life coach.

What is your favourite coaching model and why?

We learn various models when we start off as new coaches. This is our way of empowering ourselves as a coach.

But as we grow & evolve, we realize that the best coaching model is the coach’s resourcefulness & alignment with the creative force within. Once that is achieved, we intuitively know what would work best in a given circumstance with a given client and then that inner guidance opens the way forward. When I focus on the greatness of my client, I draw out the best from my client irrespective of what model I work on.

So, my favourite model is: working with childlike trust, curiosity, compassion & in partnership with source energy to co-create the desired client outcome. When this is in place, articulation of goal, assessing the current state, obstacles & way forward comes in organically along the journey.

David Gomes is a mindfulness and leadership coach who works at the intersection where inspiration and ideas crash into the reality of daily life.

He combines the wisdom of mindfulness with the effectiveness of contemporary coaching to design and implement change and help his clients craft compelling visions for their future.

What is your favourite coaching model and why?

My favorite model is my own.

I embrace three spaces for creating and inviting something new into your life.

– Feasibility: What is functionally possible to change within the foreseeable future?

– Viability: How likely will it become part of a sustainable lifestyle?

– Desirability: What do you need to become happier and more contented?

My process integrates three principles:

•  Fulfillment

Finding meaning and satisfaction from daily life

• Mindfulness

You spend most of your life inside your head. Make it a nice place to be.

•  Empowerment

Viewing the world from an empowered stance, making better choices, and taking effective action. Seeing all steps as equal and important.

I combine mindfulness/awareness practice with Co-Active Coaching. My methodology blends self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and courageous action, to enjoy more meaning and satisfaction from life, and fully experience the richness of any given moment. 

The “Co” in Co-Active suggests relationship, connection, and collaboration. It is the power of we instead of me.                                      

The “Active” in Co-Active stands for power, direction, action, and manifestation.  So, the “Active” in us is courageous, has clarity and conviction, takes charge, and achieves goals.

The magic happens in the dance between “Co” and “Active”.  Balancing and blending these energies allows us to move out of an “either/or” paradigm of fear into a “yes/and” paradigm of possibility.

Brian Gorman is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC). His main areas of focus are growth, transformation, and leadership. His in-depth knowledge of – and experience in – navigating change helps his clients not only “right the ship,” but also steer it into a better future.

What is your favourite coaching model and why?

I coach using a framework based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. As Campbell found in his research, “while we approach each change as if it’s unique and unpredictable, it’s not. We take the same change journey over and over and over again.”

My clients begin by creating a story from (not about) the future they want. The human mind responds to stories the same as the lived event. By creating a story from the future, you are beginning to build new neural networks, changing the filters that determine which bits of data reach your consciousness, and building new muscle memory. The story can be as specific as you know you want the future to be, or as general. Details will fill in over time, and you can always edit the story as life unfolds.

From here we begin to prepare, not plan. We can only plan for what is in our consciousness, so it is important to become conscious of those things that can hold us back or propel us forward. One of the things we look at are anchors, those things that provide the client a sense of security and control. A subset of anchors is sea anchors, those things that will help the client continue to face into the change during the turbulent times ahead and not capsize. What anchors does the client need to change their relationship with, hold tighter or looser, or let go altogether? What new anchors will they need?

As we surface things, including but not limited to anchors, the client can now begin to plan; preparation and planning are iterative processes that continue into execution. Key to planning are milestones, both doing and being. Who does the client need to become along the journey and how will they know they are becoming that? What do they need to do to live into the story from the future?

Taking the journey is hard. It is important to know that even if you chose this path, you will find yourself questioning your decision, resisting moving forward. That is not a sign that something is wrong, that the decision is a mistake. Resistance is part of the process. Understand the roots of resistance. Learn what triggers the gremlins and reset the triggers to bring out your gurus that replace the gremlins.

Living the new future happens when the story from the future is the story of now. You are different as is the world you are living in. The 134 bits of data that you can process each second (out of the 11 million that you are receiving) are different than they would have been if you had not taken this journey.

Celebrate!

Helen Hanison has a background in Psychology, is a trained Co-Active Leadership Coach and Narrative Therapist as well as a writer and speaker based in the UK. A former director for global PR companies, today Helen helps people who are at a career crossroads make a fresh plan realigning the work they love with what matters most so they can stop the cycle of trying to solve their career problems on their own and finally make aligned, confident transformation happen instead.  Helen also works with select companies that know their most sustainable route to growth comes from optimising the people who populate them

What is your favourite coaching model and why?

The Co-Active Coaching Model is my firm favourite because at its core is a transformative communication process designed to help people see the stories they bring to coaching from a fresh perspective. Then spark an assessment of these narratives they are carrying with them – are they well aligned or in fact, blocking their hoped-for future? Reflecting back to people the impact of their stories, means they can finally become intentional about reshaping their next chapter.

A fresh plan they are actually excited to act on. The Co-Active methodology is psychology-backed and long since proven to unlock the kind of thought partnership between client and coach that becomes transformative in their careers and lives. My client stories certainly feel like proof points!

As a positive psychology practitioner and narrative therapist, I take a blended approach to help people move towards the so-called negative emotions that are their inner barriers and overcome their resistance to change. The blend is a powerful one.

It is important there be no hierarchy between client and coach. It is a partnership of equals, albeit one that strives to be influential and I tread that balance with great care. My strong intention in coaching is to separate the problem story from the person. That I know is as revealing for my clients, as it becomes powerful in shaping their What Next. From a place of self-expertise, old stories that are holding them trapped can finally be reimagined and they can finally stop the cycle of trying to solve the same career problem over and over again on their own. There is energy and creativity in co-authoring as we collaborate to rewrite their next chapter and pursue their preferred story – one that actually serves them.

My coaching process starts with getting crystal clear about those things that matter most, really drive the person and understanding why. That often involves confronting what they are not quite getting currently from their career or life. From there, we are well placed to ideate, co-creating a vision for their different future – which is when our coaching relationship shifts gears and real accountability-partnership kicks in. What are the steps they will take outside of our coaching sessions, to tie those hopes to their reality?

Because that’s where the career-life transformation takes place after all – in their real world! Mine is a different perspective and it’s not for everyone. But I can’t help thinking it should be!

Steve Errey is a confidence coach helping leaders be more confident. He has been coaching people on how they can confidently live their lives since 2002. His coaching skills allow him to bring the best out of people, challenge norms, and ask the right questions at the right time.

What is your favourite coaching model and why?

My coaching is fluid, based on hearing what’s there to be heard and going where the energy is.

Over the years of coaching people on how to be confident I’ve developed a lot of tools that help that happen, which all serve that intention and fit into that direction of travel. So I guess my favourite coaching model would have to be the one I’ve uncovered through working with clients.

My coaching method works in two directions. First of all is “bottom up”, which is about connecting someone with the things that are woven deeply through them, hardwired into your brain, such as your talents, experience, and values. These are the things you can trust and lean into when you need them, and the things that keep you connected with who you are.

Secondly, is “top down”, which is all about shining a light on the layers of thinking that might be holding someone back or short-circuiting their confidence. Things like people-pleasing, perfectionism, and imposter syndrome are all learned patterns of thinking that can be uncovered and managed to gain natural confidence.

Also worth noting that everything is evidence-based. It’s not about conjuring up a fictional state where someone is supremely confident based on vague notions about what that confidence looks like – this is about connecting people with the confidence they already have and shining a light on what their confidence *actually is*.

Gordon is a leadership, executive, and career coach. He is known for building confidence and showing teams their true capability and then helping them to exceed their perceived full potential. He has also been ranked as one of the Top 10 Leadership Experts, Speakers, and Trainers in the world by Global Gurus.

What is your favourite coaching model and why?

My favourite coaching model is the FAST model. This is an approach developed by myself that I have used with thousands of people and it has helped them achieve great results

F is for Focus. What=92s our focus, what is the goal or the objective we are trying to achieve do we know what success looks like.

A is for Accountability. And this is about the who, who is involved, what is our expectation and how will we hold them, or ourselves accountable. It=92s also about getting people to take ownership and the best way to do that is to ensure they have everything they need to succeed.

S is for Simplicity. Do we have a clear and easily understandable approach to achieving the goal. When we keep is simple people are more likely to be=engaged. People are not afraid of hard work, they are afraid of failure, and when we can simply, and clearly show them how they can succeed, not only do them become engaged, but they feel empowered and excited about the possibility.

T is for Transparency, do we know what=92s involved and do we have a way of  tracking out progress. Everyone talks about SMART goals, but we also need SMART Reports that show for measurable goals where we are on our journey. This allows us to give praise and be motivated when things are going well, but also give us early warning when they are not so that we can adjust our course.

FAST is a simple framework, but if we can be FAST it will help us to significantly increase our probability of success.

I use FAST for coaching teams, individuals and also for any initiative that=I am involved in.

Conclusion

We appreciated responses from all the coaches for taking the time and sharing their favourite coaching models. We hope these tried and tested coaching models will help other coaches to improve their coaching and find more success for their clients.

What is your favourite coaching model and why?

Feel free to share it in the comments below.