Part IV: Using the Results

Coaching Fundamentals

Coaching: Different Approaches

While these are some general guiding principles, there are many different approaches taken by coaches when working with clients on developing their emotional intelligence using the EQ-i 2.0. The following are three examples of how the EQ-i 2.0 can be used with different coaching approaches.

Client-Centered Approach

This approach puts the client in the driver’s seat. The coach acts more as a facilitator helping the client come to their own conclusions rather than guiding or steering the client in a certain direction. While many coaching models incorporate certain aspects of client-centered coaching within their approach, this model is entirely client-centered.

When coaching a client on their EQ-i 2.0 results, a client-centered approach means that the client will determine where they want to focus their development. The coach asks a lot of questions to help the client establish their development plan, but the questions are self-discovery questions rather than leading questions. Examples, of good client-centered opening questions during an EQ-i 2.0 feedback session are:

• Where would you like to start?
• What strikes you when you look at your results?
• What jumps out at you?

These questions allow the client to determine the direction of the conversation rather than the coach. The coach follows the client’s lead.

Benefits of a Client-Centered Approach

This approach is the best way to ensure client buy-in and gain commitment to following through on EI development. Your questions will help your client decide on the most important development areas as well as strengths to leverage. For example:

You say that Empathy is a clear strength for you. How do you know? What examples do you have to support this? What feedback have you been given? How does that play out with your direct reports? How has that helped you be successful in your role?
Or
You said that your low levels of empathy have held you back from advancing in your career. Tell me more about that. What feedback have you been given to support that? (and eventually) What do you think you can do to develop your empathy further? Who can you ask to observe your development and provide you with feedback on how you’re doing?

Both of these situations place the client at the center. The client is responsible for determining the areas of development and, with the guidance of the consultant, the process by which development will take place. Your role is to facilitate development by asking good questions in order to help the client decide on the best course of action.

Drawbacks of a Client Centered Approach

There are a number of benefits to the application of the Client Centered Approach as outlined above. Equally important however, are the potential limitations of such an approach. Table 10.1 highlights the drawbacks to the Client Centered Approach.

Table 10.1. Drawbacks of a Client Centered Approach

Drawback	Consequence	Result	Suggested Solution
Your client is not self-aware.	Your client is surprised at the results. Your client has no way of supporting the results, cannot provide examples of subscales they are skilled or unskilled at. Your client cannot come up with a development strategy.	You are doing all the work. Your client may not buy in to the results of the EQ-i 2.0.	Try a different approach. Conduct the feedback over multiple sessions: first provide results and explain what they mean; next have the client reflect on the results and come back prepared to give you examples; and then have them reflect on strategies that worked for them in the past and might be applicable to the areas they want to develop.
It takes longer than other approaches.	Your client gets frustrated at the slow pace.	Your client loses momentum and motivation to work on different development strategies.	Explain the process and rationale at the beginning to get buy-in. Check in at regular intervals to ensure motivation is still there. Have client determine what they will do if they lose momentum. Take it in smaller steps (e.g., work on one subscale at a time, letting your client decide which one, and what strategies to use to develop that one before going on to another).
It is more work for you.	You need to be prepared to go wherever your client goes, which involves doing your homework and thinking on your feet.	You may not feel the session is going the way you want it to because you are not in control of the conversation.	Let go of your ego; this is a client-centered approach and the best way to help your client is to be in the moment with them – you do have control, you just need to use it differently than with other coaching approaches.

Strengths-Based Approach

According to Peter Drucker, “one cannot build on weakness. To achieve results, one has to use all the available strengths…these strengths are the true opportunities.”  (Drucker, 1967, p.60)

The premise of this approach is that it is easier to build on a strength than to try to develop a weakness. Because something is a strength, we are familiar with it, we are comfortable leveraging it, and we get success from using it. Working on a weakness is difficult and may not give us the same payoff in the long run. An individual can work on her Social Responsibility for years, but if it is not critical to her role, she may not see any value in spending so much time developing it. Conversely, if she has good Reality Testing and gets rewarded and praised for her ability to see things objectively and realistically, she will want to keep doing that and leverage that skill often. As they say, that which is rewarded is repeated.

Appreciative Inquiry (Kinni, 2003) is an approach that works very well with a strengths-based coaching model. AI looks at what is working well and then examines how to capitalize on it, or make it better. With a client’s EQ-i 2.0 results, this would translate as focusing on the strengths (as identified in the report and validated through the feedback process), and looking at how to leverage those strengths further.

AI is comprised of four stages: Discover, Dream, Design, and Destiny (Kinni, 2003). From an EQ-i 2.0 perspective, this is how each stage might look:

• Discover: What is working well with your client, and what are their EQ-i 2.0 strengths?
  Dream: What do they imagine as a positive outcome from your EQ-i 2.0 coaching?
  Design: What are the concrete actions that will give them that positive outcome?
  Destiny: Implementation of the actions in order to realize the dream.

Here is an example of what the four stages might look like in an EQ-i 2.0 feedback session:

You are working with Gerry, a Call Center Manager, providing him with feedback on his EQ-i 2.0 results. His results show clear strengths in the areas of Empathy, Stress Tolerance, and Impulse Control. Gerry has provided you with good examples of how these particular skills are strengths for him. You’d like to go through an appreciative inquiry process to help Gerry further develop these strengths.

• Discover: Gerry’s strengths are Empathy, Stress Tolerance, and Impulse Control.
• Dream: Gerry would like to be more proactive in his role. He finds himself spending the majority of his time fighting fires, and dealing with crises that he feels could have been avoided with a more proactive approach.
• Design: You and Gerry create an action plan based on his strengths in order to decrease the amount of time he spends in a reactive mode. You focus on leveraging his three strengths so that he can work with his employees to become more proactive.
• Destiny: You work with Gerry to ensure he leverages his strengths in order to put that action plan in motion.

Below are some questions you can ask through the AI lens:

• Discovery: What do you see as your primary EQ-i 2.0 strengths? How do those strengths contribute to your success? What positive feedback have you received with regard to those skills?
• Dream: If you leveraged these subscales, where do you see yourself in six months? In one year? How do you see leveraging these strengths will contribute to a successful outcome?
• Design: What do you need to do in order to meet that outcome? What are some strategies you can employ in order to get your there? What are some tangible actions you can take to meet your goals? (see Action Plan in the EQ-i 2.0 Workplace Report)
• Destiny: How will you ensure that you’ll follow your action plan? Who can you involve in order to ensure you work on what you’ve committed to? (See Development Commitment in the EQ-i 2.0 Workplace Report)

Benefits of a Strengths-Based Approach

The EQ-i 2.0 lends itself nicely to a strengths-based coaching approach since you can start with confirming that the areas your client has self-reported as strengths are indeed your client’s strengths. Once you have agreement and examples to support this, you can easily look at ways to further build on these strengths.

This approach is also a very positive experience for your client. Focusing on things he does well already is much less overwhelming than looking at a deficit and trying to determine what, if anything, can be done to develop it. Research in the field of positive psychology supports this notion that individuals who are involved in development activities where they are encouraged to leverage their strengths in new and interesting ways report higher levels of happiness and lower levels of depression for a sustained period of time (Seligman et al., 2005).

The EQ-i 2.0 subscales do not work in isolation of each other. They work together to produce the results that your client sees in their day-to-day use of the skills. Often, you can leverage a strength to help compensate for a weakness.

Case Studies Using a Strengths-Based Approach

CASE 1: John leverages Interpersonal Relationships to better manage stress

John’s results show (and he confirms) that he is highly skilled at Interpersonal Relationships – he builds and cultivates relationships at work and outside of work, keeps in touch with former colleagues and is up-to-date with friends. People tell John that he is good at building and keeping relationships. However, in the debrief process John tells you that he is struggling in dealing with stress (and the EQ-i 2.0 Stress Tolerance results confirm this). He also mentions that his health and well-being are beginning to suffer with high blood pressure, weight gain, etc. A potential way to build up his stress tolerance would be to leverage his network of support. Some examples of doing this would be suggesting that he join a gym with a friend, go for a walk with a coworker at lunch, etc. Additionally, because John’s relationships are likely built on trust, he could confide in a friend (who manages stress well) about the stress he is experiencing and perhaps seek some new coping strategies. By leveraging his interpersonal strengths, he will be in a better position and have more resources to manage the stress he experiences.

CASE 2: Susanna leverages Emotional Self-Awareness to be more assertive

As you are providing feedback on Susanna’s EQ-i 2.0 results, she focuses  on her lower Assertiveness score. She tells you that she has taken Assertiveness training courses but with very limited results and she believes this deficit has held her back from moving to the next level of management at work. As you are discussing the results further, Susanna shares several examples of her ability to recognize and name her emotions. She is very aware of what she is feeling in the moment, and most of the time can identify the cause. In this case, you can work with Susanna to help her identify the emotions she feels in the moments when she would like to be more Assertive. What is holding her back? Once she is able to name those emotions, she can start working on strategies to overcome them, which will lead to increased assertiveness.

Limitations of a Strengths-Based Approach

There are a number of benefits to the application of the strengths-based approach as outlined above. Equally important however, are the potential limitations of such an approach. Table 10.2 highlights the drawbacks of the strengths-based approach.

Table 10.2. Drawbacks of a Strengths-Based Approach

Drawback	Consequence	Result	Suggested Solution
Your client immediately focuses on the areas that are showing as weaknesses for him.	Your client cannot get past his areas for development and doesn’t buy into what you are trying to focus his attention on.	Your session doesn’t go anywhere, you and your client get frustrated, and the session ends unsatisfactorily.	Go with your client’s energy. Allow him to get clarity on the area he is focusing on before you try to gain buy-in into building on the strengths. After getting clarity on his weaknesses, you can redirect your client to his strengths by asking questions such as, “What strength can you leverage to help compensate for this area of development?” This shifts the focus nicely to a strength, and allows the client to work on the weakness indirectly.
Your client sees that she has some subscales in the high range and wants to build on those skills but she may actually be using these skills at inappropriate times	Even areas of strength can be misapplied.	Your client becomes confused by not knowing when it is a good idea to use a strength, and when it is not.	Consult the Balancing Your EI section to help identify which subscales to leverage for development. By focusing on patterns with your client, she will be able to identify behaviors associated with her high scores that have led to her success, and others that have held her back.

As a practitioner, you have to guide your client down the fine line between leveraging a strength and possibly misusing that particular strength. Although as a general rule higher scores are better on the EQ-i 2.0, you can imagine contexts where doing a particular behavior (e.g., voicing opinions) “always” could be ineffective to teamwork. Howard Book (2009) has some recommendations for coaches when determining whether over relied upon strengths have become weaknesses:

• Look for balancing skills for any enhanced strengths. Balancing skills help complement the enhanced skill and should be sufficiently present (e.g., high assertiveness needs high empathy for balance).
• Explore with the client whether or not the strength has any associated costs. You might ask for some examples of where your client’s empathy might have derailed him from making a tough decision.
• If balancing skills are low, development efforts can be aimed here to help ensure the enhanced strength doesn’t become a liability in some situations for your client.

Model Approach

This approach demonstrates that there is a logical progression to your coaching session based on a particular model you are using. The EQ-i 2.0 model fits well with this approach. The model starts with the emotional intelligence subscales that make up Self-Perception – how does your client see himself? Once he understands that, the model moves on to the subscales that make up Self-Expression. It goes from how he sees himself to how he expresses himself. That moves into how he interacts with others. Based on his interactions, how he sees and expresses himself, he makes certain decisions. And that directly impacts his ability to manage stress. Each of the composite areas builds on the one before it. The different components of the model work together to establish overall emotional intelligence and well-being, and your client needs to understand how they work together in order to understand his results.

Benefits of the Model Approach

This approach helps your clients understand how their results on the individual subscales fit into and impact their overall emotional well-being. It is a highly structured approach which clients will appreciate and understand easily.

Because of the structured nature of this approach, you can determine how much time you’d like to spend on each composite scale and the subscales within it. In this respect, you can ensure that you cover everything you want to cover in your session.

Drawbacks of the Model Approach

The simplicity of the Model Approach is a clear strength of this feedback process, especially for novice consultants. However, there are potential limitations to the Model Approach which are highlighted in Table 10.3.

Table 10.3. Drawbacks of the Model Approach

Drawback	Consequence	Result	Suggested Solution
The coach needs to spend more time up front explaining the model.	Your initial session is very long and you do a lot of the talking.	You do not accomplish all that you want to in the initial session.	Have an initial session with your client prior to the feedback session where you only go through the model. Send the model out ahead of time so the client can become familiar with it and you won’t have to spend as much time describing it in your meeting.
The coach tries to explain the model and provide the results in the same session.	The client sees their results while the coach explains the model and focuses on that.	The client has tuned out the coach because he is focused on his results.	If you are providing feedback in person, do not turn to the results page until you are sure the client understands the model. If you are providing feedback over the phone, email the client a copy of the model first, then when you are ready, email him the report.
The client prefers an unstructured approach.	Your client gets frustrated and becomes impatient.	Your client may see you as inflexible and the assessment as stiff and linear.	Once you’ve described the model initially, allow the client to choose which subscale to focus on; you can make the connections to the model as you go along, gaining buy-in and understanding from your client while still being flexible in your approach.