Cognitive Coaching
The Definitive Guide

Four Skills to Help your Client Achieve the Above Goals

The following skill sets are key teaching points from the coach to the client. 

Paraphrasing 

When in dialogue with another person, you expect the other person to really listen to you and understand your message. 

Your client also wants to be heard in every aspect they wish to portray, this is key in a coach-client relationship. 

They want you to really hear what they are saying, and you also expect them to really listen to the advice and guidance you give them. 

Paraphrasing can help you achieve this easily, and is one of the best ways to validate that you were really listening when the other person was speaking. 

To effectively paraphrase, you must listen intently and in a focused manner to ensure both parties hear and understand each other. 

Instead of focusing on what you want to say next, to the person in front of you,take the time to take in what they are saying, and then paraphrase what you understood. 

Paraphrasing requires discipline and commitment, leading to a strong coach-client relationship. 

Pausing

Pauses and silences during a conversation often make people very uncomfortable. 

People often feel the need to fill these silences with some sort of comment or question to avoid awkward silences. 

Yet silence, at least for a short time, can be pivotal in a coach-client relationship. 

Pausing before you speak allows you to form a coherent response while staying completely engaged during the time the other person is speaking. 

Instead of throwing too many comments back and forth at each other and losing the point of the conversation, pausing helps both parties become more reflective in nature, resulting in more productive conversations. 

Many would say that pausing is difficult, especially in small groups, and they feel if they pause they will lose their turn to speak. 

However, pausing invites the other person to say more, it gives you time to think and rethink what you are going to say, resulting in a more peaceful and productive way of exchanging ideas.

Body Language 

People often pay more attention to the way your body is speaking, rather than the words that come out of your mouth. 

Therefore, your body language during a conversation can often speak louder than your words. 

This is key in the coach-client relationship, but this skill extends to the entire Cognitive Coaching process. 

Body language becomes extremely important in the interaction phases, whether your client is speaking to a classroom of students or a conference room full of their colleagues. 

The way you hold yourself shows a lot. This ranges from posture, eye contact, and the way your arms are placed. 

Therefore, it is important to think about all the non-verbal commands used when you want to project an idea when speaking with others.

Dialogue 

Clarity, specificity, elaboration, and precision through the use of dialogue, inquiring conversations can occur. 

An inquiring dialogue allows for cooperative argumentative dialogue to occur between individuals. It is often based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying assumptions. 

A strong coach is more than capable of creating such a dialogue between themselves and the client. 

They may ask questions such as: 

• What criteria will you use to assess the accuracy of student knowledge? 
• What else will you consider when reorganizing the project?

Now that we have brushed up on the goals and skills involved with Cognitive Coaching, in the upcoming chapter I will explore the support functions that will help you boost your coaching abilities.