Coaching and phobias

Coaching and phobias
When I train managers as coaches I always warn them to
respect the power of coaching questions and to recognize
the possibility that what starts as an innocuous, business
related conversation, may lead to the unveiling of a deeper
issue. Coaching managers would be advised to develop at
least a little insight into the signs of abnormal
psychology. Consider for example, phobias.

We need to consider phobias and the anxiety response they
can produce in their sufferers. 'Phobia' appears to be one
of those psychological terms that have become rooted in
everyday language. People at work complain of Mondayphobia
and listless teenagers claim to be in the clutches of
Gettingupphobia and so on. In truth, however one is only
phobic if one experiences some of the physical symptoms of
anxiety in situations in which most other people are able
to cope.

We might usefully classify phobias as one of three types:

Simple phobias - fear of a certain object or situation
Social phobias - insecurity in public places Agoraphobia -
fear of being in unfamiliar places

There are two main explanations as to why people develop
phobias:

Learning Theory - which suggests that phobias develop from
an intense experience with certain stimuli, e.g. Watson and
Rayner's experiment with young Albert featuring rats and
loud noises.

Psychoanalytic Theory - which suggests that a phobia is a
conscious manifestation of an unconscious fear, e.g.
Freud's analysis of 'little Hans' in the early 1900s.

Each theory proposes a markedly different treatment:

Learning Theory - suggests systematic desensitization. In
other words the sufferer is exposed to the source of their
anxiety a little at a time.

Psychoanalytic Theory - suggests that treatment involves
revealing the subconscious concern; usually with hypnosis.

One thing is for certain, asking the sufferer why they are
afraid of something so silly or suggesting that they pull
themselves together will probably not help. For people with
phobias the fear is very real.

What then of the coaching manager who uncovers these signs
when coaching around workload management or time keeping?
Best advice would seem to be to keep to good coaching
principles. Ask questions designed to raise awareness,
generate responsibility and build trust then listen
carefully and attentively to the responses. This is highly
unlikely to make things worse and may actually do quite a
lot of good.

After that, it's a question of referring the coachee to the
relevant professional. For this reason I recommend that all
coaching managers familiarize themselves with their
organization's welfare procedure.

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Matt Somers is a coaching practitioner of many years'
experience. He works with a host of clients in North East
England where his firm is based and throughout the UK and
Europe. Matt understands that people are working with their
true potential locked away. He shows how coaching provides
a simple yet elegant key to this lock. For a bumper load of
coaching tips and tricks - including FREE resources - visit
http://www.mattsomers.com