A deeper look at active listening

What are you not saying? A deeper look at active listening

Over the past few weeks in our Coaching Café we have been bringing the ICF Core Competencies to life. Particularly by unpacking coaching demonstrations. And we are delighted with the interaction and increasing numbers of people joining us from all around the world. Especially to explore how they can grow their coaching awareness and competency.

With this in mind, we finish our series with a competency that that we possibly take for granted as coaches: #6 Listens Actively. There’s a lot more to this competency than simply listening and then paraphrasing. In particular picking up on what the coachee is not saying.

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Defining listens actively

The definition of listens actively as stated in the ICF Core Competencies is:

Focuses on what the client is and is not saying to fully understand what is being communicated in the context of the client systems and to support client self-expression.

The Competency is made up of several elements as follows:

1. Considers the client’s context, identity, environment, experiences, values and beliefs to enhance understanding of what the client is communicating
2. Reflects or summarizes what the client communicated to ensure clarity and understanding
3. Recognizes and inquires when there is more to what the client is communicating
4. Notices, acknowledges and explores the client’s emotions, energy shifts, non-verbal cues or other behaviors
5. Integrates the client’s words, tone of voice and body language to determine the full meaning of what is being communicated
6. Notices trends in the client’s behaviors and emotions across sessions to discern themes and patterns

You can listen to the recording to hear our key insights on each of the elements. In particular, how we can grow our coaching competency beyond our coach training.

Expanding our professional development across all ICF levels

We have taken a deeper dive into the more subtle ICF competencies, for example: #4 Cultivates Trust and Safety, #5 Maintains Presence and #7 Evokes Awareness. And now #6 Listens Actively. And it makes us feel very warm and fuzzy that we are surrounded by an Alumni who want to continue to pursue their professional development, across the levels of coaching experience and training.

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If you are a regular, you know the vibe and the great contribution that you make to our discussions; so we look forward to welcoming you and offering you a value-packed 30 minutes each Friday.

If you’ve not joined us for a Coaching Café, now is your opportunity to schedule this time for your professional and personal development. In addition, you have the opportunity to collect ICF CCEU’s for FREE. In no time at all, you’ll be looking forward to Friday lunchtimes, just like we all do!