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Engaged Listening- Coaching Competency

engaged listening

Table of Contents

In this in-depth look at the 9th CHC Core Coaching Competency, we would take you deeper into the constructs and foundation of the art of effectively listening & coaching.

  1. What really is engaged listening, why do we call this competency transformational? 
  2. Why is engaged listening an important coaching competency? 
  3. How does the Cognitive Hypnotic Coaching Program help you effectively hear and not just listen? How exactly we will help you stand out?

What really is engaged listening?

Engaged listening is a very powerful tool to break through into a client’s internal world. It is literally like meditation but with your eyes open and completely focusing on what your client has to say.

It is the ability to accept, encourage & explore untapped territories of your client’s plan. This happens from all of your 5 senses. The unique factor about this competency is we not only use ears to listen but also all the 5 senses to take notice and pick up necessary cues. Mind you, we only observe and witness sensorial signs/actions with absolutely no judgement or analysis. 

To make things clearer, as to how engaged listening is different from mind reading, follow the example given below-

  • Imagine you’re in a session with a client and while speaking about a certain someone your client starts to blush, his/her eyes widen, you notice him/her smiling ear to ear, their pitch and tone changes, you notice a shift in their body language. 
  • An Engaged Listener will make a note of this without analysing anything and probe the client on the background story.

A Mind Reader on the other hand will read between the lines and conclude that the client’s shift in appearance is due to a positive memory which necessarily might not be true. 

If you really want to understand and know the real unambiguous story you need to develop and use the right line of questioning which will fetch you the real meat. we will further talk about our probing techniques in our next article.

Why do we call this competency transformational?

By the definition itself, we understand that by the virtue of this competency we establish a safe space for the client wherein he can comfortably share anything and everything without the fear of being judged or misunderstood.

Active listening enables you(Coach) to recognise & reconcile several deletions, distortions & generalisations that the client tends to make while conversing.

When you listen actively, it will automatically enable you to pay attention to details. When you do that client feels protected, respected & Cared about. People never forget how you made them feel. So it not only enhances their experience of coaching but they will start trusting you more. Conversely, if you merely hear and do not listen, it’ll reflect poorly on your coaching outcome as the client now raises guards against you and limits himself from sharing all the details.

You need to listen actively to understand, your client chalks down important pegs, find out what went wrong, what are the current & potential blockages/ hindrances that are stopping the client from achieving their goal, or probably what is the underlying feeling that is holding them back. All of this could just be addressed & catered to via the right form of Engaged listening.

This will help not only the client correctly define the representing or the underlying issue but it will also enable you to understand it in the right sense. Now, do you notice how an engaged listener can actually pick up necessary cues and turn them into a full-proof solid line of questioning, thus being a transformational coach?

Share your story about how this competency has helped you in your coaching practice- 

In retrospect, I realise, how knowing about Engaged Listening is not equal to actually being able to practise it. it looks like a simple concept but if you don’t have a structure to learn it, mastering it can be very difficult.

Earlier, I would listen to the client and automatically analyse the same. My analysis would drive the process of coaching. Many a time this analysis will come in the way of objective observation. It was almost like I was trying to pay attention to what the client may be hiding instead of first paying attention to what the client is saying. 

But the awe-inspiring shift for me happened after I enrolled myself for CHC-level 1 by ICHARS. Immediately after the workshop, I could notice a paradigm shift in the way I processed things, how I started to pay attention to details, I learned how to develop an instant rapport & help clients experience the safe space. Shoot the right line of questioning, help the client clearly summarise, paraphrase & reflect on their own feelings. 

Now that you know what Engaged Listening is, you must be wondering how exactly to develop this skill. For me, I cannot emphasise much it was ICHARS. It truly was a catalyst in my journey of being a transformational coach.

How does the Cognitive Hypnotic Coaching Program help you effectively hear and not just listen? How exactly we will help you stand out?

engaged listening

Unlike other coaching programs, Cognitive hypnotic coaching does not just focus on working with the client’s conscious mind but also with the client’s unconscious mind. Because YOUR GROWTH is paramount to us 

When a Coach notices the clients from all of his senses, the cues further facilitate him to find out what has really gone wrong in the alignment. After which he effectively recovers & reconciles the same using strong probing techniques. Since the Cognitive Hypnotic Coaching program is a seamless integration of the SOFT SEA® framework, along with major psychological approaches along with Hypnosis, NLP, mindfulness, and metaphors, it enables coaches to help clients enhance & develop a full proof skill-set that’ll help them sail through most of the storms. 

Various techniques covered under the Cognitive Hypnotic Coaching model are-

  • Soft Sea
  • Matching & mirroring; pace & lead to build an instant rapport.
  • Visual, auditory & kinesthetic to understand clients dominant learning system, so as to entice them in their preferred way of learning
  • Eye assessing cues
  • Exploring the unknown using meta-model and many more

ICHARS’ proprietary SOFT SEA® coaching framework, which focuses extensively on generating an outcome, future, and plan of action, understanding reasons for achieving an outcome, and also addressing the reasons & hindrances in the process.

In addition to all this, while you are undergoing your Cognitive Hypnotic Coaching training, you also learn to develop and sustain positive resourceful states for yourself, as a coach. These resourceful states can help you enhance your focus, concentration, thus refining your skills. 

If you are a coach or aspiring to be one who wants to make it big, we would really recommend that you explore and understand the Cognitive Hypnotic Coaching framework

If you are already convinced and want to just know how can you become a Cognitive Hypnotic Coach, check out our Comprehensive Coaching Diploma