The psychology of coaching was definitely not the first thing on my mind when I heard about the oil leak in the Gulf. But as BP’s initial apparent lack of concern gradually changed into an active search for solution, my perspective as a coach turned the situation into a dramatic metaphor for coaching.

So what’s the psychology of coaching metaphor?

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The psychology of coaching is largely based on the truth that people are motivated away from pain and towards pleasure. As it happens, pain is the stronger motivator most of time. People, companies, cultures–they all behave in this way. We’ve all heard the version of the psychology of coaching that says someone with a problem has to hit rock bottom before he will take action to change himself. That’s because rock bottom is when the pain motivation is strong enough to cause action. What does this really mean? Well, it means that a person will go on with a destructive habit or behavior until it causes so much pain that the pain of stopping is less than the pain of continuing the behavior. In the case of BP, initially the company wasn’t willing to consider the new and expensive technology that Kevin Costner’s company developed to clean up oil spills. But as time went on the public outcry and emotion against BP got stronger and more pervasive. So what happened? The pain became strong enough that BP changed its mind and decided to make the investment.

How do we create motivation in coaching?

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When a client is feeling a lot of emotional pain, coaching is a lifeline. But what about when a client has a problem to solve or a goal to meet and can’t seem to make progress? The psychology of coaching says pain and pleasure are great motivators, so we have to help a client find enough of both to move toward a solution. The human brain gives us an assist here. The human brain can’t distinguish between something that happens outside itself in an objective reality, and a memory or experience it creates within itself. So make use of visualization to give clients the experience of the pain of not changing and the pleasure of what the desired change would bring. Use all the sensory cues to make changing not just desirable but urgent, and watch the psychology of coaching in action as it motivates your client just the same way it motivated BP.

JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach