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Coaching approaches

Transformational coaching

Transformational coaching works with the commitments and assumptions behind a person's goals, rather than only with the goal itself, so that different actions become possible. Robert Hargrove set out the approach in Masterful Coaching (Hargrove, 2008). No outcome study of Hargrove's approach under its own name turned up in the sources checked. The nearest evidence is research on coaching in general, which reports positive effects on some outcomes.

What it is

Transformational coaching is a one-to-one or group approach in which the coach attends less to a single goal and more to the assumptions and commitments that shape how a person acts. The coach asks questions that make those assumptions visible, so the person can choose differently rather than simply try harder. An illustrative question a coach might ask is, "What are you committed to here that you have not said out loud?" This is an example, not a quotation from Hargrove.

It is often used with leaders and people working in organisations. It is not an accredited or regulated method, so the way it is practised can differ a good deal from one practitioner to another. The sources checked do not describe a standard session format from Hargrove, so the steps below are a general outline, not his protocol.

Where it comes from

Robert Hargrove set out the approach in Masterful Coaching, now in its third edition (Hargrove, 2008), published by Pfeiffer, an imprint of Wiley.

The phrase transformational coaching is also used by other writers and practitioners, so a practitioner's description may not match Hargrove's. This page describes the approach in general terms and does not claim to reproduce his method.

The principles underneath

Commitments shape action

What a person has committed to, often without saying so, is treated as shaping what they do next.

Assumptions can be examined

Beliefs about what is possible are treated as open to question, not as facts about the person.

Questions rather than advice

The coach's questions are meant to widen what the person can see, rather than to supply the answer.

Action is the test

Change is judged by what the person does differently, so sessions end with commitments that can be checked.

How a session runs

  1. The person names a goal, or a situation they keep meeting in the same way.
  2. The coach asks what the person is committed to in that situation, including commitments they have not stated.
  3. Together they look at the assumptions that seem to support the current pattern, and at what would become possible without them.
  4. The person chooses one action they are willing to take, and says what would make it difficult.
  5. The next session starts with what was done and what was learned, rather than with a review of intentions.

When it tends to fit

  • You have a clear goal and keep returning to the same pattern that stops you reaching it.
  • A leader is facing a decision where the way the problem is being framed seems to be part of it.
  • You want a conversation that holds you to an action, rather than to a plan.

What the research shows

Evidence: Practitioner tradition — little or no outcome research

No outcome study of the approach under Hargrove's name turned up in the sources checked. The nearest research is on coaching in general. A meta-analysis of 17 studies of workplace coaching found positive effects on organisational outcomes overall (Jones et al., 2016). A review of executive coaching research describes a decade of progress and what the field still needs to do (Passmore and Fillery-Travis, 2011). A meta-analysis examined the effects of coaching on individual-level outcomes in an organisational context (Theeboom et al., 2014).

Where the evidence is thin: These studies cover coaching in general, not transformational coaching as Hargrove describes it. The outcomes they measure, such as learning and performance, are not the same as personal change, and the approach's own claims go beyond anything these studies test.

Sources

  1. Hargrove, R. (2008). Masterful Coaching (3rd ed.). Pfeiffer.
  2. Jones, R. J., Woods, S. A., & Guillaume, Y. R. F. (2016). The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta‐analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(2), 249-277.
  3. Passmore, J., & Fillery-Travis, A. (2011). A critical review of executive coaching research: a decade of progress and what's to come. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 4(2), 70-88.
  4. Theeboom, T., Beersma, B., & van Vianen, A. E. M. (2014). Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(1), 1-18.

Where it stops

This approach is not therapy. Its focus on how a person thinks can feel confronting, and a person whose distress is deep, long-standing or in crisis is better served by a qualified clinician.

How the approach is practised depends a great deal on the individual coach, and no evidence in the sources checked vouches for any particular practitioner. Ask a prospective coach how they work with commitments and assumptions, and what they would do if a session was not helping.

Practices for this approach

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