Our Approach

Think Gray! - our Core Ideology

PURPOSE

The purpose of coaching is to help people help themselves. At Think Gray! we achieve this by connecting clients with their personal resources and help them determine how best to apply those resources in the pursuit of their goals. We en-courage clients to be more resilient, curious and to engage in constructive thinking and behaviour.

MISSION

Our Mission is simple; to improve human functioning through helping people to become more resilient, persistent and consistently successful at work.

PRINCIPLES

In order to achieve our Purpose and Mission, we focus on three key principles as we put the 7 Steps of Coaching into play. They are:

• Invitation

The coaching process can only be successful in reaching its potential if it is undertaken by invitation. Any client must be a volunteer.
If there is any inference of imposition, it becomes a teaching or managerial situation. If sustainable change is to be achieved, our role is to establish that "no-one is coming - we are here to help you to help yourself".

• Intent

For coaching to succeed it must be co-active. This means there must be clear intent on the part of the coach to work with the client, in congruence with their values and goals we will not impose our own values on the relationship.
For the coachee there must be clear intent to face up to difficult realities and choices; to activate change and to tolerate the inevitable discomfort that will be experienced.

• Independence

Coaching in a co-active relationship designed to help the client help themselves means that the goal is to reach a state of independence so that the value of the investment is truly captured as the change is sustained over time.

PLATFORM

For any relationship to succeed, there must be trust between the participants. Without trust, a lot of effort is expended on second guessing, seeking clarity or confirmation and there is an inevitable impact on engagement - we borrow from Stephen M Covey when we call this the "trust tax".

At Think Gray therefore we focus on two main factors to build a Platform of Trust - Affiliation and Achievement. Affiliation in this context meaning that our focus is on the client, on the clients goals, values and needs - we care about what you want and don't want. Achievement in this context means that our focus is on gaining shared clarity of the outcome(s) and the journey that we will take.

PROCESS

Our Coaching process is clearly outlined in the 7 Steps of Coaching. click here for more details.