What do I want? That is the ultimate question in life. And it is followed by: How can I get it? Through Contextual Coaching you can achieve the absolute clarity about your goals and the means to reach them that you need to answer these questions.
Contextual Coaching makes your life easy! You discover new ways of thinking that you can translate into practical action in order to reach your desired goal. Limiting generalities get dissolved, so the path to your success is cleared.
Contextual Coaching is the most efficient coaching method available to us today. The sessions are brief, precise, goal-oriented and practical, and they take place in a friendly and empathic atmosphere.
And suddenly everything is very easy…
When we look at the way we view the world – which is our context – we rely almost exclusively on our unconscious, unexamined assumptions and the ideas we have acquired about how things work. This is for most of our life quite useful. However, if we do not make useful assumptions about a thing, or event, or a goal, then we will definitely run into difficulties as we pursue them.
Contextual Thought understands that difficulties and stumbling blocks are neither outside, independent factors nor are they intrinsically related to the thing or the goal itself. They are solely related to us – embedded in the personal context that we apply to our work at hand. Contextual Coaching enables people to achieve their intended result by producing an artful shift in the context they apply.
When the client’s thinking shifts to a fitting context, problems turn into mere formalities that can easily be solved or simply lose their significance. The new thought construct makes it possible to elegantly surpass what was formerly a limit.
Contextual Coaching is more than a technique. It embodies movement towards the goal, as unexamined thoughts and assumptions that prevent goal achievement come to light and are replaced by useful assumptions. It is a moving process as clients let go of the unconscious fog that clouds their view of the goal and bring their path forward into clear focus.
Scientific thought of the 20th and 21st century – mainly in the areas of systems theory, cybernetics, linguistics, epistemology, and philosophy of science – made it possible to create a coaching model that allows significantly more powerful results than earlier methods. Contextuality encompasses these new realizations and enables the coach to deal with the client’s difficulties in such a way that no resistance emerges, and the path leads directly to the desired goal.
People naturally live according to certain rules, teachings, and laws they have acquired through education, acculturation, and training. They are usually not aware of this and hence make many assumptions that limit their thoughts and actions. The tremendous influence that unconscious assumptions have is rarely recognized – even by many coaches.
The Contextual Coach, however, sheds light on these assumptions and frees the client from their grip. As a result, clients are able to act well beyond the possibilities they imagined up to now.
In this unencumbered state, extraordinary results can be achieved with light-footedness and speed that is not possible with traditional coaching methods. Contextual Coaching is based on certain assumptions that make lasting change in thinking and acting possible:
Contrary to their own perception at the moment, clients – who are stuck in a problem – do have the necessary resources to reach their goal. The Certified Contextual Coach enables them to accept the unsuccessful past and to let go of it in order to bring about a necessary change in context. The creation of possibility for new thoughts – and therefore new action – is the name of the game. While the Certified Contextual Coach creates the framework for bringing about fresh thoughts to replace old and tired ones, the final power and the final responsibility to actually make the stunning change rests with the client.
Contextual Coaching is clearly distinct from consulting. The consultant is expected to know more about a certain specific area than his clients do. The Certified Contextual Coach, on the other hand, works with the client’s own expertise in such a way that the context in which that expertise is confined is dissolved and shifted into a new context in which the client’s expertise can prosper and thrive. While a consultant transfers knowledge, the Certified Contextual Coach transforms the context to make achieving the desired success possible.
Contextual Coaching is fast and efficient. It enables clients to quickly recognize the notions and ideas that have kept them from achieving their goals and to replace them with useful thoughts and strategies for success.
The hallmark of the Contextual Coach is his unshakeable commitment to the clients’ ability to reach their goal. He accepts full responsibility for the creation of a context in which clients can successfully utilize their own abilities and faculties. He is committed to achieving results and not to methods or theories. By not assigning particular meaning to specific theories or techniques in themselves, but rather using them as useful tools as the case may warrant, he works artfully towards the creation of extraordinary results.
The coach’s creed: Ask instead of talk; create instead of using recipes!
Contrary to consulting, where information and expertise is transferred, the Contextual Coach elicits from the client all that is within him. Contextual Coaching looks forward towards solutions and avoids dwelling on problems. It focusses mainly on the assumptions a person makes about life – assumptions that keep him from achieving his goals.
In addition to professional qualifications, Contextual Coaching builds on patience, curiosity, openness, creativity, and trust. The masterful Contextual Coach listens, asks questions, and provides stimuli in order for the client to be able to find his own answers and solutions. He consciously decides to ask questions instead of talking, because – contrary to their own assumption at the moment – clients have the necessary resources within themselves to achieve their goals.
When the Contextual Coach approaches people in this way, he is free of the pressure to have to be an expert in a particular field (except Contextual Coaching!) Contextual Coaches recognize the context in which the person operates at the moment, and they don’t insist on using a particular process or method. They take the person just the way he or she is at this moment, and using targeted questions, they lead this person to make those discoveries that lead them to where they want to go.
If the solution could be found in a specific technique or a specific process, Contextual Coaching would not be necessary. However, the demand for Contextual Coaching is steadily increasing. At the same time, so is the supply of advisers, self-help books, and life-help courses. Yet, with these, limits cannot be surpassed as efficiently and elegantly, and goals cannot be achieved as light-footedly as they can with Contextual Coaching. What is the secret?
It lies in the ability of the Contextual Coach to let go of the tried and true in the field. It lies in his freedom – by means of asking useful questions – to create that context in which the client discovers something new, something exciting, and something forwarding. The secret lies in creating a reality in which problems can no longer exist and goals are achieved. This requires courage, dedication, and commitment.
Contextual Coaching has been practiced in the USA since the 1980’s and is being continuously refined. Its acceptance and relevance as the Coaching modality that quickly produces elegant solutions of problems is on the rise in Europe. The Certified Contextual Coach exemplifies expert knowledge and experience, professionality, and respect for the three guiding principles of Freedom, Responsibility, and Ethics.