By SARAH DALE AND HALEY LANCASTER
Most people understand that money can’t buy you happiness. In fact, beneath most presenting issues in a coaching session is a drive to increase wellbeing. So coaches really need to start bringing it into their mainstream work. Could the Five-a-Day model help?
“If we are to prosper and flourish in this evolving environment, then it is vital that we make the most of all our resources – and this is as true for our mental resources as material resources 1”
Professor John Beddington
Modern life is a paradox. Western societies have found that wealth and comfortable living standards don’t necessarily bring happiness. It may be partly because of this that people seek coaching. A wide variety of issues can trigger a coaching assignment, but there is often a drive to increase wellbeing behind it.
“Wellbeing is concerned with how people experience their lives, rather than the objective facts of their lives such as their external circumstances or specific capabilities. The scientific evidence shows that a high level of wellbeing is associated with positive functioning, which includes creative thinking, productivity, good interpersonal relationships and resilience in the face of adversity, as well as good physical health and life expectancy 2.”
Work by psychologists such as Sonja Lyubomirsky3 supports this view. Circumstances are less important than our attitudes and interpretations.
What is wellbeing?
The 2008 Foresight Report on Mental Capital and Wellbeing2 distinguishes between mental wellbeing and mental capital, where the former is fundamental to making best use of the latter. Often, however, coaching is geared solely towards enhancing mental capital, for example, cognitive skills such as decision-making. The wellbeing element may be taken for granted or even ignored.
Your Five-a-Day
The Foresight Report led to the formulation of the Five-a-Day model for action to maintain mental wellbeing4. These are:
1 Connect…with people around you
2 Be active…exercise makes you feel good
3 Take notice…be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling
4 Keep learning…set a challenge you enjoy achieving
5 Give…see yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community
Easy to remember, the Five-a-Day is an effective model of wellbeing.
Using the model
The Five Ways model offers a clear, non-threatening structure in which to explore wellbeing with your client.
Initial assessment
- Observation As coaches we often encourage clients to look at their week to highlight where time is spent and what activities are prioritised. How well are the Five Ways incorporated? How could this be changed to enhance wellbeing and support coaching issues?
Amy successfully used this approach to reconnect with friends, as well as to start using their lunch break to bring some exercise back into their lives.
- Wheel of life Many coaches use a form of the wheel of life, especially in life coaching and when considering work-life balance. Using the Five Ways as some, or all, of the segments, can help introduce them to the sessions.
Goal setting
- A means, not just an end Coaching goals may be set by an organisation and their achievement is the success criteria. This gives a short-term boost, but it is the value derived from working towards our goals that improves our long-term wellbeing. Sub-goals around wellbeing can introduce a sense of control, even if goals are also imposed for coaching.
Mark used this approach to deal with anxiety about work-related performance, which had led to the coaching assignment being set up. A focus on controllable wellbeing goals linked to the Five Ways slowly led to a better state of mind.
- Purpose Whose goals are they and are they meaningful to the individual? When goals give meaning and purpose to what we do and how we go about doing it, they become more self-concordant5, improving wellbeing and the ability to achieve them.
Throughout coaching
- Underlying issues It is not uncommon for underlying wellbeing issues to emerge during coaching. This shows how mental wellbeing is getting in the way of using mental capital effectively.
Mary used this awareness to focus on the Five Ways before making radical decisions about her career. The big decision still came, but when it did it was considered and calm, whereas the assignment started with some urgency.
- Using the Five Ways in coaching Connecting, Learning and Taking Notice might seem obvious elements of a coaching session, perhaps using mindfulness for the latter. Some coaches use walking coaching, which can bring Be Active into the session. Giving is also possible, perhaps with pro bono work, but it is also in the act of giving someone else your total attention.
As a coach
- Practise what you preach Bringing the Five Ways into supervision is an effective way of ensuring we monitor our own wellbeing, in order to access our mental capital, as demonstrated via our coaching skills.
Bringing wellbeing into mainstream coaching seems an essential ingredient to success, whatever else our clients are aiming to achieve. In this way, coaching can help clients make the most of their mental resources in the evolving environment to which Professor Beddington1 refers.
About the authors
Sarah Dale is an occupational psychologist and coach, and author of Keeping Your Spirits Up (2011).
@creatingfocus
Haley Lancaster is an occupational psychologist and coach.
@protecttalent
They are both members of the Special Group in Coaching Psychology’s East Midlands peer practice group
References
1 Professor John Beddington CMG, FRS, from his foreword to the 2008 Foresight Report on Mental Capital and Wellbeing
2 Final report, Foresight Report on Mental Capital and Wellbeing, www.bis.gov.uk
3 S Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness, London: Sphere, 2007
4 New Economics Foundation, Centre for Wellbeing: www.neweconomics.org/programmes/well-being
5 K M Sheldon and L Houser-Marko, “Self-concordance, goal-attainment, and the pursuit of happiness: Can there be an upward spiral?”, in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, pp152-165, 2001