Published in Kingstown College Coaching Magazine 2019/2020
As a foundational part of this was to ‘discover’ people’s potential and capacity as opposed to naming deficiencies as so often happens in this field…
During our lifetime we have seen and will continue to see a huge shift in how people with a disability are respected by society. In this new context, Pamela Mansell looks at how coaching helps to nurture capability rather than disability.
What happens when we have a thought? Where do we go to in our mind’s eye? How to we connect with this thought? We connect using our own experience, our own frame of reference, our own mental imagery. So when we think of ‘New York’ we think of when we last visited, what our memories were, what was of interest to us. If we have never been to New York we recall images from many receptors, travel shows, magazines, facebook, other people’s stories and we use this information to deduce our own thoughts about New York. When we think about people with disabilities what happens? Where do we go to? Are we shrouded in limiting thoughts and beliefs about what might be possible? Or are we hopeful that someone with a disability is offered the same opportunities in life as the rest of us?
Unfortunately whilst that might be a hope within our society, it is certainly not a reality. We are aware, for some of us maybe only partly aware, for some of us acutely aware, that for many years, and still today, people with intellectual disabilities have been kept ‘separate’ from society, for some institutionalised for many years, segregated with others who are the ‘same’ as they are and distant from the type of life that I know I have become not only accustomed to, but that I expect. The type of life that a person with an intellectual disability can experience, again some to a much greater degree than others, can deny the person true autonomy and control, meaningful relationships, opportunities to love and be loved, to have dignity and respect and to experience life to its fullest. Whilst there has been a move away from describing people in a medicalised clinical way, we have a long way yet to travel to become a society that is inclusive and truly values and accepts people differences, seeing the person first and the impact of their disability second. In 2018, Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Right of People with disabilities, which acknowledges that people with disabilities have not had their human rights upheld. “The purpose of the Convention is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity”. (nda.ie)
The structures of our disabilities services have been designed in such a way that sees the disability first and the person second. Institutional care is still a predominant operating model of care for people with disabilities and this model of care is system centred (managing ‘care’ for people with disabilities, staffing, funding, buildings, programmes, managing how the person spends their time, where and with whom) and serves a target population on the basis of their deficiencies. The sector, given the implications of the UN Convention is now in the process of moving on from this. So why do organisations need to continue to move beyond this? If we truly recognize and believe that people with disabilities have “a moral claim on the responsibilities and benefits of citizenship that far too often go unredeemed” ( O Brien & Mount 2015), then we must also recognize that a structured system which only manages ‘care’ for people is also unjustly limiting, not only for people with disabilities, but for their families, our communities and society as a whole. So how can we ‘unstuck’ the stuck?
Establishing a coaching culture within the Disability Sector.
There are many coaching definitions but ultimately coaching as Sr. John Whitmore describes it is a way of being. It is a way of leading, a way of treating people and a way of thinking. Coaching is a way of unlocking people’s potential to maximise their own performance. My guiding principle is that inherently we all have the capacity to learn and grow and we can maximise our own potential when we are empowered, with a willingness to change, to see our own strengths, values and vision. When I refer to ‘we all’ I truly mean all of us. All human beings have this capacity within them.
There are many ways in which establishing a coaching culture can establish real societal change within the disability sector. I have been using coaching skills for many years, establishing presence, practising enquiry, empowering others and fostering change, however I was not always conscious as to what level and with what focus such skills could have supported a person to make changes in their own life. Empowering people to overcome barriers and external and internal interferences so as to enhance their own performance and therefore becoming unstuck, I began to see what was possible. I began on this journey of discovery and creativity, coaching people with disabilities and their families to uncover their own capacities, discover their true potential, imagine a vision for a more fulfilled life and plan out how they could then make this happen and with what resources.
Working daily with people who have immense resilience to overcome barriers in their lives, barriers that I am sure many of us may have fallen at, continued to ignite my passion for coaching with people in this way. Their lives became unrecognisable from the beginning of their journey and their possibilities and opportunities soared. Having trained as a therapist initially I knew that the cornerstones of building an alliance and a relationship with the person and their family or the team was vital for this process to work. I was beginning to see that creating a partnership based on trust, unconditional positive regard, and commitment to seeing what was possible was paramount and by using refined listening skills and solution focused techniques people were afforded the most opportunities to progress and so I began to wonder how I could develop this way of working further. Having qualified from Kingstown College with a Diploma in Executive and Life Coaching and receiving my EMCC accreditation I combined many theories of practice from Seligman and Biswas-Diener’s positive psychology theories and strategies, social role valorisation theory, change theories such as Sharmer’s Theory U and Kotter’s Change theory and began to enhance my own coaching models and approaches from the coaching expertise of Whitmore and Co-active coaching (Kimsey- House, Sandahl & Whitmore) . The thread amongst all of my work being that we begin to look at what was right with the person, focusing on when the person is at their best whilst recognizing that the person has areas in their life that needed intentional focus so as not to have a negative impact on their lives.
Earlier we spoke about how we deduce our own thoughts and what creates this, that being experiences and mental imagery. If society, organisations and support teams are to move away from the mental imagery of people with disabilities being ‘different’ ‘not the same’ ‘dependent on’ others, then people with disabilities must be afforded the opportunities to experience this in another way, a way which is equal to other citizens in their community, turning up as community members, employees, neighbours, friends, aunts, wives, mothers. Through using positive psychology strategies support teams, the family and the person themselves needed to begin to evidence what could be different for the person. How could society truly begin to ‘see’ the person as a whole, unique individual and how could they do this with their family and friends as opposed to as a client of a large organisation with the options of many and varied ‘programmes’ and ‘initiatives’ as opposed to opportunities to experience true and real life.
“ We believe that coaching is chiefly about discovery, awareness and choice” (Co-Active coaching, Kinsey House, Sandal& Whitmore 2011)
This word ‘Discovery’ struck me when wondering about establishing a coaching culture within teams. As described above ‘Discovery’ (www.genio.ie/meeting-the-challenges/capacity-building/ssdl) as I was trained in, was a process in which I used daily within my individual coaching and mentoring work with individuals and their families. As a foundational part of this was to ‘discover’ people’s potential and capacity as opposed to naming deficiencies as so often happens in this field, it caused me to pause and wonder what a coaching relationship could bring to the person with a disability but also to those who offer direct support when needed.
For the majority of people who work within this sector they have come to this work so as to make a difference, offer a leg up to or to advocate for those who need a voice to be heard. One of the key pillars of coaching is awareness. Once we become aware of something we then have the choice to change it. Coaching offers a space to the team to raise their consciousness around their own unconscious bias and the mindsets that they have created around what might be possible for themselves and therefore also for the person with a disability. During this process immense learning and discovery takes place and new and creative paths are created within their professional practice but also within their own personal life. This discovery of the person aligned strongly with 101 elements of the person coaching tool which I found myself drawn to having seen the benefits of people becoming illuminated to their own capacity and the possibilities and opportunities this afforded them. In all occasions this exercise has lead into the use of other tools such as the PERMA Wheel , the Wheel of life, the values matrix and VIA Character Strengths . The VIA character strengths tool illuminates new perspectives and encourages people to use their strengths to realise their potential and achieve their goals.
Coaching also offers a vital place for the team to reflect on their own values, the values of the organisation and the values of the person. Where and how can these sets of values work together and where is their conflict amongst them. Values are those personal beliefs and ideals that a person believes are important. Individually we use our values as a guide for making decisions and evaluating the behaviour of others. Our values are the product of our family upbringing, our experiences and the culture in which we were raised. Acknowledging within the coaching space that we all have a set of values and gaining greater insight into the values of those around them will aid the team in their decision making and in the direction of their work ultimately enhancing their performance as a team. The values of optimism, eliciting greatness, honesty, commitment and trust are some of the values which seem to elicit the greatest progression for teams who are ultimately supporting people with disabilities to recognise, acknowledge and empower their own potential.
Coaching can be an enabler of a whole system approach that is a product of personal development and a means to establish trust and of recognising that humankind is evolving both socially and spiritually. Victor Frankl writes in his book ‘ A Man’s Search for Meaning’ “ultimately being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself–be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter”.
Here lies the need for transformational change for large disability organisations where systems have historically been created which separate people from ‘others to encounter’ and in the ‘caring for’ have denied the person of ‘a meaning to be fulfilled’, a true sense of meaning and belonging in life will never be achieved separate to community and society. Such large organisations are surrounded by competing commitments such as regulation and compliance and funding issues, however if organisations are to create solutions to such stuck problems as exclusion of people with disabilities they must discover how to prepare to resist the crush of other debilitating forces and begin to make room for generative actions to emerge.
Effecting cultural change can be a difficult process but through coaching and providing a space for reflection, creative energy can be harnessed and ignited so as to bring forth the internal source of our inspiration and deepening our connection with others.
Dr. John Whitmore asks “Could the only thing limiting you be the size of your vision and your own self-limiting beliefs?”
An interdependent, high performance culture of the kind that a coaching culture can produce can provide the best chance of adapting to and flourishing in the face of these unsettling waves of change that organisations are facing at this time. Having begun to implement such coaching strategies in organisations small and large I am confident that true transformation can take place once people are prepared to take on this journey of discovery, creativity and generative action.
By Pamela Mansell
Future Solutions Coaching – Executive & Life Coaching and Mentoring Service
Pamela is an experienced Consultant with a demonstrated history of working within organisations and with individuals in the public and private sector. She is a Professional graduate from CTI London and Kingstown College. Pamela is accredited in Executive Coaching and Personal Leadership, qualified in Integrative Psychotherapy and skilled in Management, Strategic Planning, Leadership, and organisational change. Her inherent belief is that we all have the future solutions that we look to and for, and we have the capacity within us to grow and reach our full potential in whatever area we choose.
