Type I and Type II Coaching: The Coaching Instrument

 
 
 

TYPE I AND TYPE II COACHING: THE COACHING INSTRUMENT

Article by Herb Rubenstein
President and Founder, Herb Rubenstein Consulting

Introduction

This article builds on my previous article titled, Coaching for Professional and Personal Mastery, where I discuss the fundamental principles of coaching and distinguish coaching from consulting. In this article, I make a new distinction between two radically different types of coaching assignments. In addition, I provide an "instrument" that may be of value when working with Type II clients.

Definitions

A Type I coaching client is one who asks the coach to assist him or her in doing something better. This may be doing a job better, improving certain skills including communication, leadership, project management, athletic or other skills that the person may use in his or her profession or as a hobby. Type I coaching clients have already answered for themselves the big questions including:

  • What do I want to do?
  • How can I make the biggest difference?
  • What will bring the most meaning to my life?
  • What vocation will maximize the use of my talents?
  • What structure (or lack of structure) do I want for my work and my life as a whole?
  • How can I find/create happiness for myself and others?
  • Where do I fit In this world?
  • How do I best contribute to the world?
  • How will I make my mark during my lifetime?
  • And many other "big" questions

A coach, executive or otherwise, who has a Type I client still has a huge job even though the coach and the client are not grappling daily, if not hourly on these big questions. Improvement in any form and in every context requires discovery, perseverance, dedication, creativity and risk taking. One of the great secrets of world class golfers is that they attempt to change their swing when they are playing really well. The reasoning is simple. If they change their swing while they are playing really well, one of two things will happen. Either they create a new golf swing that improves their game or they create a new swing that hurts their game. If the new swing hurts their game, they can go back to the old swing that was working very well. So the risk is minimal and the reward is huge since it entails the improvement from a really good state to begin with.

While Type I coaching assignments are confined to some form of improving what the client is already doing, Type II coaching is radically different. A Type II client seeks a coach to assist him or her in embarking on a new endeavor. This is not a "let me be better" activity at all. This is a "Assist in directing me to a new future where I will "shine." This new endeavor could be a career change, a change in major relationship status, a change in lifestyle, a change from being an employee to being self-employed, a change in willingness to take risks or could be part of a search for a new tract that the person has a glimpse of, but can not see him or herself grasping successfully without using a coach.

Type II Coaching

While Type II coaching is certainly about the big questions listed above, it is not only about those big questions. One could dwell for eternity on any one of those questions, and easily spend ten lifetimes on those ten questions. Since these questions form the context for the life altering change the Type II client wants to achieve, they should be treated as "contextual" questions and not content questions. That is, they should not be treated as questions that have only one right answer for each person or once an answer is written by a Type II client, the answer should not be changed. These are directional questions and in answering these questions the harder one strives for precision, the greater the likelihood of irreversible brain damage.

Having said that, Type II clients must begin to answer or at least address these ten questions. This is homework for them and general answers and "I don't knows" are certainly acceptable. After the Type II client starts to address these "big" questions, now the real work of the coach begins. Each question should be probed, but not reduced to mathematical answer. The math for the Type II client comes later. The goal of the Big Ten Questions is to set a context and to give a Type II client a "floor" or "platform" upon which to stand and move around as he or she starts the investigation and transition that will lead to the new activities and changes.

Once the Range is Narrowed

No true coach can ever tell a Type II client, "You should do ____ with the rest of your life." The coach may have a good clue, but only through directed questions can the client discover for him or herself the next calling or activity that is right for the client. Therefore, during this "guided discovery" process Type II clients should be asked regarding certain activities they are considering, how they envision doing this or that, how they expect this activity will serve their needs, make them happy, use their talents, promote the lifestyle they seek, etc. This process can not be rushed, but it also can not linger for years. Remember, what an economist calls "equilibrium" a psychologist calls "frustration." The goal of this part of the Type II coaching process to assist the client in narrowing the future possibilities down to a manageable number, say three or four, so that a new, rigorous analysis can take place that will shed light on the best alternative for the client in deciding on a new direction in their life.

Once the Possibilities Get Narrowed

For purposes of creating an instrument to use in working with a Type II client who has narrowed the possibilities regarding a major change in their life, I will use the example of a person who is currently employed by organization X and is contemplating becoming self employed or starting a new organization. This business type transition is only one of the many types of transitions where a Type II client can seek a coach's assistance. For other types of transitions, the instrument below will need to be modified. However, the framework may prove useful to coaches working with all types of Type II transitions.

Basic Instrument

Baseline Analysis of Current Situation

  • Income, Taxes and Expenses and Net Take Home
  • Personal Costs of Current Situation
  • Professional Shortcomings of Current Situation
  • Potential Not Realized in Current Situation
  • Other Challenges Currently Faced

Analysis of Future Alternatives

  • Solutions Sought with New Alternatives
  • Financial Risk of New Alternatives (Spreadsheet with all costs included)
  • Probability of Success in New Alternatives
  • Realistic Time Frame for Success
  • Challenges with Proposed New Alternatives
  • Other Support Needed for New Alternatives

Decision Rules and Guidance

  • How Much Personal and Financial Risk Do I Incur with Each Alternative
  • How Much Risk Can I Tolerate
  • What Viable Exit Strategies Exist With Each New Alternative
  • What is the Best Upside With Each New Alternativeÿ What Support or Interference Will I Get from Friends, Family and Important Others with Each Alternative
  • Which Alternatives Can I Implement With the Least Disruption and Turmoil
  • What are the Best Long Range Implications of Each Alternative

Conclusion

Type I and Type II clients need completely different coaching strategies. Ultimately a Type II client's decision to embark on a new life activity will be a blend of rational thinking and emotional commitment to the alternative that is chosen. The coach should not try to fit the more emotional client into a rational straightjacket. However, for every Type II client, the coach has an obligation to assist the client in seeing every seeable risk of the new alternatives and every major upside as well.

This process educates the Type II client and not only helps him or her make an informed decision about this important new alternative, but also will help the Type II client evaluate the choice after having implemented it. It will promote the sensible thinking about mid course corrections if some unforeseeable problem or challenge arises with a new alternative once implemented that totally changes the risk/reward calculus. In addition, if things are going far better than planned after implementation of a new alternative, it will help instill confidence in expanding the goals and activities under this new alternative far beyond the best hopes when the new alternative was first analyzed.

Type II clients seeking to change professions or any one seeking radical changes in their lives deserve careful attention and guidance. The basis for the instrument provide in this article is that the coaching process is iterative, it builds on itself. But it must also build on a solid basis of information created and analyzed through the coaching process. Type II clients, using this process, will have a workbook and voluminous notes to help them engage in this process during the analysis stage, the decision stage and the implementation stage. When this occurs, both the coaches and the Type II clients benefit.

Biographical Information

Herb Rubenstein is an attorney and the CEO of Herb Rubenstein Consulting, a leadership and management consulting firm. He is co-author of Breakthrough, Inc. – High Growth Strategies for Entrepreneurial Organizations (Prentice Hall/Financial Times, 1999). His email address is herb@herbrubenstein.com and he can be reached at (301) 718-4200 in Bethesda, Maryland or (202) 236-7626 in Washington, D.C.

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© 2007 Herb Rubenstein Consulting