Ch 15: Coaching and Communication Flashcards
Factors that go into qualifying a program as successful
Effective design, implementation, and goal attainment.
Success in nutrition programming
- Based on the design of the program itself
- The fact that it has been successful in the past
- Whether client’s goals were met
- Client adherence
Process of sending and receiving messages through verbal and nonverbal means.
Communication
- Dynamic and complex construct that involves effectively expressing thoughts, feelings, and needs while understanding the thoughts, feelings, and needs of others
Personal attributes related to how well one works with others.
Soft Skills
Knowledge of one’s own habits, feelings, and motivations.
Self-Awareness
Subskills of Communication
Listening, persuasion, body language, and other nonverbal cues such as word choice and writing style
First step in building more effective skills
Understanding one’s strengths and Weaknesses
Exchange of information through wordless cues.
Nonverbal Communication; Body Language is 55% eye contact and movement and tone of voice (38%)
- Spoken words are only 7%
Creating First Impressions: Traits
Trustworthiness and competence within 1/10 sec
mismatch in message leads to a lack of trust
Goal of developing positive Nonverbal cues in communication
Demonstrate confidence, care, and readiness to help
Body Language and Posture: Negative
Slouching or leaning
Arms crossed
Sitting or standing very straight
Fidgeting
Body Language and Posture: Positive
Mirror posture to other person, but work to maintain generally straight posture
Maintain open position with relaxed arms
Be still with hands on lap or table
Facial Expression and Eye Contact: Negative
Looking down or away
Looking around
Staring
Smile or scowl
Facial Expression and Eye Contact: Positive
Mirror eye behavior of other person, but maintain steady gaze
Consider cultural differences related to eye contact
Maintain relaxed face and smile when appropriate – It will come across in the way your words sound.
Tone of Voice: Negative
Raising pitch at end of sentence
Speaking softly when making a request or asking difficult question
Tone of Voice: Positive
Maintain level tone across statements
Use direct language when asking questions
Rate and Volume of Speech: Negative
Very slow or very fast rate of speech
Speaking very softly or very loudly
Rate and Volume of Speech: Positive
Mirror speech rate of other person unless it is extreme
Establish steady rate with clearly enunciated words
Considering Client apprehension and emotions
The coach needs to focus less on communicating program details and more on building trust and making the client feel comfortable
Strategy: mirror his or her verbal and nonverbal behaviors with those of the client. These behaviors can include body posture, voice volume, eye contact, and speech rate.
Simple nonverbal practices to demonstrate confidence and engagement.
Nodding when answering yes to a question
Most effectively exchanges information and ideas
Verbal Communication; Choose words to maximize understanding and clarity
Word Choice should depend on:
Age, past experience and knowledge of the topic, and current emotional state
Literal meaning of a word.
Denotation
Emotional or perceived meaning of a word.
Connotation
Goal: Decrease mindless snacking
- Eat filling and nutritious snacks throughout the day.
- Plan ahead for the day and prepare healthy snack options in proper serving sizes that are ready to grab when needed.
Goal: Decrease carbohydrate consumption
- Consume the proper nutrient ratio for health and energy systems.
- Educate on nutrients and map out sample meals with goal ratios.
Goal: Decrease sugar consumption
- Eat healthy and nutritious snacks and treats.
- Identify snacks and drinks that should be consumed and provide ideas for healthy options to fulfill the sweet tooth.
Goal: Do not skip meals
- Eat at least three balanced meals a day.
- Help create a plan based on the client’s daily schedule that provides feasible meal options for each meal.
Communication approach used to develop and strengthen the coach–client relationship. It focuses on successful engagement in the program
Supportive Language
Supportive Language includes:
Avoiding inappropriate humor, maintaining positivity and enthusiasm, sticking with the conversation until everyone is on the same page, and continual affirmation of success
Goal of Supportive Language
Avoid focusing the conversation on all the reasons why the client may not succeed or has not succeeded in the past but, instead, focus on a plan for present success. In order to achieve this, Nutrition Coaches should not be judgmental or come across as being self-righteous.
Act of mindfully hearing and attempting to comprehend the meaning of words spoken in a conversation.
Active Listening
- Being fully involved in the information being shared and demonstrating this involvement by asking questions and expressing compassion
- Demonstrates attentiveness and provides feedback for confirmation that the client is being heard
Active Listening Derailed
- Taking too many notes or being distracted by a phone, noise, or messy meeting area.
- This shows that the nonverbal communication skills serve as identifiers for how much one is listening.
- Any external factor that even briefly removes the coach’s focus from the conversation will be observed and perceived as lack of interest or care.
First step in building active-listening skills
Awareness of nonverbal cues during listening
Five Stages of Listening
- Receiving
- Understanding
- Remembering
- Evaluating
- Feedback
Listening Stage that refers to having intentional focus on hearing what the client is sharing
Receiving
- Filter through information and identify what is important
- Limit Distractions
Listening Stage that Identifies meaning of what is being said
Understanding
- Nutrition Coach must be careful not to attach bias or assumptions to the words being used and, if the coach is unsure if they understand the intended message, questions should be asked to clarify so that the communication can advance
Goal of the Understanding Stage of Listening
Nutrition Coach to perceive the message in the manner in which it was intended.
Listening Stage that Relates to how much is remembered about what the client has shared.
Remembering Stage
- If the Nutrition Coach is distracted or has not been fully attentive, then details will be forgotten and the message will be missed
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Listening Stage Identifies individual differences and barriers key to program development and success.
Evaluation Stage
- Coaches may start to mentally identify items that will be key to program development, potential barriers that need to be addressed, and individual differences and preferences that should be considered.
- Free from Bias
- Positive Attitude
Listening Stage Providing feedback shared by the client.
Paraphrasing words and emotions during active listening.
Reflection
- It does not involve asking questions but, rather, is focused on briefly restating what the client said to show listening and understanding and to allow the client to provide more clarity or information, if needed
Types of Reflection
- Acknowledgement Responses
- Reflecting Content
- Reflecting Feelings
- Summarizing
Most important tool to develop in becoming a better listener and overall communicator
Developing the ability to ask quality questions
Ultimate goal of questioning
Gain information and, depending on the type of information needed, different types of questions should be asked
Questions used when more detail or information is needed.
Probing questions
- Gain needed information and develop a deeper understanding of the client
- Keep the focus of the conversation on the client and their needs, experiences, and preferences
- Clarify the topic
- Serve the purpose of refocusing a conversation that has gotten off track
- Prompt the client to talk about a certain topic or to dig deeper on something that was mentioned with the goal of having the client share more about their attitudes and experiences on a topic
Broad questions that have no right or wrong answer.
Divergent Question
- Helpful in brainstorming and identifying preferences
- Great way to get the client more involved in the program through open sharing of ideas and information
- May decrease apprehension (because it is fun) and also provide valuable insight for the coach
A relationship based on mutual understanding and trust.
Rapport
The initial goal of all coach–client communication
Build trust and develop understanding
What will build adherence and success?
Client-centered communication and establishment of rapport
Coaching approach in which clients are understood and program development is based on client needs and preferences.
Client-Centered
Most important way to build efficacy
Creating initial success
Important determinant of adherence
Rapport
Results in clients quitting the program all together because it does not work in their lives.
Failing to understand challenges and make modifications
Understanding of what another person is feeling and experiencing
Empathy
- Learned skill that demonstrates care, concern, and genuine interest. Unlike sympathy or compassion, which refer to feeling sad or concern for someone, empathy is having the ability to take the perspective of the client and feel what they are feeling.
Nutrition Coach is willing to create modifications or adaptations to meet the specific client’s needs based on the perspective gained
Best way to discuss a problematic behavior with clients
Provide a new behavior to replace it
Tone
Maintaining level tone across statements
