Coaching presence starts outside the session with mindfulnes

Ask different professional coaching bodies what constitutes effective coaching and you will get different answers. But look across their frameworks and you’ll see they all agree on the importance of coaching presence.

Whether you work within the ICF Core Competencies, the EMCC Competence Framework, the Association for Coaching’s Coaching Competency Framework or the IAC Coaching Masteries®, the notion of coaching presence consistently shows up.

The ICF asks coaches to be fully conscious and present with the client: focused, observant, empathetic, responsive and comfortable with not knowing. The AC explicitly calls for “managing self and maintaining coaching presence”. The EMCC emphasises attentiveness and responsiveness to the client in the moment, while the IAC calls it “Processing in the Present”.

Different frameworks. Different language. But a shared recognition that how we are with the client matters just as much as what we do.

The challenge is that presence is not something we can simply switch on when a coaching session begins. It is a capacity we need to develop and practise. And presence begins with mindfulness.

That is why ReciproCoach has once again partnered with Brett Hill, The Mindful Coach , to offer our Mindfulness Peer Coaching Round.

The round combines Brett’s Coach-Centered Mindfulness & Presence FastTrack with six sessions of ReciproCoach peer coaching, supporting you to develop mindfulness practices in everyday life that strengthen your presence in coaching sessions.

Across six short video modules, Brett introduces a different mindfulness practice, giving you practical ways to deepen your presence, become more aware of your habits and responses, and integrate mindfulness into both your everyday life and your coaching.

But the real value comes from putting those practices into practice. With your assigned peer coach and peer client, you have the opportunity to explore what works for you, what gets in the way, and how greater mindfulness changes your experience on both sides of the coaching relationship.

You can read more about the Mindfulness Peer Coaching Round, what it includes and what past participants have said here,or if you already know you want to develop your mindfulness practice and strengthen your coaching presence, register here. Past participants can also return to refresh and deepen their mindfulness practice for half the usual price here.

Now in its third year, participants in the Mindfulness Peer Coaching Round describe how it helps them move beyond an intellectual understanding of mindfulness to actually experiencing its impact, including shifting from doing coaching towards being more fully present as a coach.

And that is really the point. Mindfulness is more than a technique we might use with a client. It is something we practise ourselves so that we can be more fully present in each and every coaching session.

About the author Kerryn Griffiths, PhD, PCC Kerryn Griffiths, PhD, PCC, is the founder and Global Coordinator of ReciproCoach. Kerryn has been coaching since 2002 and her PhD explored the learning processes underpinning coaching. Since 2005, she has been dedicated to making ongoing professional and personal development through coaching, mentoring and supervision more accessible to coaches around the world. Drawing on both educational and coaching expertise, Kerryn creates collaborative, practice-based learning opportunities that support reflective practice, meaningful development and high-quality coaching.