How do executive coaches understand and engage with their clients’ expressiveness?

Abstract

People rarely talk about expressiveness in coaching. When they do it is generally in relation to non-verbal communication (NVC) or as an ‘add-on’ to working with emotions, two areas that remain under-researched within coaching literature. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to explore the relationship between expressiveness and coaching. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), six coaches were interviewed in order to understand how they engaged with their clients’ expressiveness. Findings suggest that coach and client are involved in a co-created and systemic expressive interplay. Very importantly, that expressiveness provides a ‘vehicle’ or ‘ability’ by which we’re able to engage with the complexity of the ‘self’.

Keywords

• expressiveness
• emotions
• coaching
• leadership
• identity