In the Wind of Change: How Changes Can Be Initiated in Coaching

• Main Author: Sabine Jautz
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: SpringerOpen 2018-03-01
• Series: Coaching | Theorie & Praxis
• Subjects: Change; Coaching conversation; Debriefing; Questions; Keywords
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1365/s40896-018-0022-3

Abstract The aim of this paper is to point out that and how asking questions and employing keywords in coaching conversations may result in changed ways of speaking of a situation/problem, which may lead to changes in evaluation and perspectivization. This, in turn, can ultimately be a basis for changes in recognition and behaviour. Questions and keywords have been rated helpful by clients. What they say about the use of these linguistic means in debriefings is compared to the actual use in the coachings preceding the debriefings. Coaching conversations have been recorded in further education settings and then transcribed to allow for a qualitative gesprächs-analytic examination. The questions employed in one conversation escalate formally as well as regarding their communicative functions. In this conversation, asking questions can be shown to be a social practice specific for coaching which helps the client to develop a new perspective. In the second conversation, the coach uses a keyword to summarise what she considers to be the problem for the client. This keyword helps the client to interpret his situation differently. He takes up the keyword in his line of argumentation and once it is clear to him what the problem actually is, he is able to develop strategies to improve his situation together with the coach. Working with transcripts makes it possible to show how exactly linguistic means are employed and which effects they have in the course of conversations. This may prove beneficial to sensitize novice and expert coaches alike concerning linguistic means and strategies, their potentials as well as their limits.