Transformational Coaching

By: Elena Aguilar

Background

"Transformational Coaching" was created by Elena Aguilar to establish a framework that influenced and promoted change. Aguilar's (2020) use of imagery is illustrated in her book, "Coaching for Equity: Conversations that Change Practice," where she describes the flow of Transformational Coaching as being similar to the way we navigate the different lanes of a highway while we drive.

She highlights each individual lane of the highway to represent a critical element of the coaching process. They include emotional resilience, leadership development, instructional practices, and equity. Acknowledging these elements in your coaching practice while developing trusting relationships with your clients and actively reflecting on your own self-care practices will lead to effective coaching (Aguilar, 2020).

Here is a link to her website: "Transformational Coaching"

Transformational Coaching.pdf

Core Components

Within this PDF document, we have highlighted several key components from Aguilar's Transformational Coaching framework which may serve you as a guide when approaching your conversation:

Listening
Intentional Questioning
Common Challenges
Four Phases of Transformational Coaching
Coaching is...

Here is a synthesis of Aguilar's ideas on "Listening," "Questioning," and the "Four Phases of Transformational Coaching."

Listening:

There are three main listening strategies that will help guide your coaching sessions when using this framework.

"Quiet Listening" is the ability to embrace silence and allow the coachee/client to reflect by themselves, free of interruption (Aguilar, 2020). As a coach, deliberately refrain from asking questions at the moment in order to sustain this reflective moment.

"Intentional Listening" allows the coachee/client to speak their mind and the coach to listen for what is not being said (Aguilar, 2020). So sit back and give them the floor.

"Collecting Stories" is essentially the primary role of the coach. Through this approach, you are gathering all of the pieces of data and observations you collect from your coachee/client and making the connections for your conversation (Aguilar, 2020).

Intentional Questioning:

There are two forms of questioning a coach needs to be aware of. Asking clarifying and probing questions often makes up the basis of your conversations. Aguilar (2020) points to the need for the coach to be aware of the types of questions they are posing to their coachee/client. The questions must always be in the service of the coachee/client and help them realize themselves and their practice.

Four Phases of Transformational Coaching:

Surface is the first step to this process and requires the coach to understand the current realities and affairs of their coachee/client (Aguilar, 2020). Through this step, coaches must uncover and understand how these practices could potentially serve inequitable practices.
Recognizing the impact and the historical roots of these challenges is a critical step towards change and reform.
Exploring the range of emotions and having the ability to acknowledge them through the work of the previous two phases helps your coachee/client reach the conclusions that are needed to implement new practices.
Creating new behaviors and expanding their existing forms of being, can only flourish when connections are successfully made in partnership with the coach and their coachee/client.

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