CELC Coaching Models and Frameworks 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A client is highly resistant to setting explicit goals at the start of a session. Which coaching framework is MOST accommodating of this preference?
- GROW model
- SMART goal framework
- Gestalt coaching (Correct answer)
- Management by Objectives
Correct answer: Gestalt coaching
Gestalt coaching emphasizes present-moment awareness and emergent insight rather than pre-set goals, making it suitable for clients resistant to prescriptive goal-setting.
Question 2: Which framework uses the metaphor of 'immunity to change' to explain why smart, motivated leaders fail to achieve important goals?
- Appreciative Inquiry
- Kegan and Lahey's Immunity to Change (Correct answer)
- Cognitive Behavioral Coaching
- Transactional Analysis
Correct answer: Kegan and Lahey's Immunity to Change
Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey's Immunity to Change framework reveals competing commitments and big assumptions that unconsciously protect the status quo.
Question 3: When is Appreciative Inquiry (AI) MOST appropriately chosen over a problem-focused coaching framework?
- When the client needs to address an urgent compliance failure
- When surfacing and amplifying existing strengths and peak experiences will drive change (Correct answer)
- When the client lacks any prior leadership experience
- When quantitative performance metrics are the primary outcome
Correct answer: When surfacing and amplifying existing strengths and peak experiences will drive change
Appreciative Inquiry intentionally shifts attention toward what is already working well, harnessing those strengths to envision and build a desired future.
Question 4: An executive coach working systemically would be MOST attentive to which of the following?
- The client's individual cognitive patterns only
- The relational and organizational context surrounding the client's challenges (Correct answer)
- Standardized coaching competencies from an accrediting body
- The number of coaching hours completed
Correct answer: The relational and organizational context surrounding the client's challenges
Systemic coaching holds that a client's challenges cannot be fully understood or resolved in isolation from the broader organizational and relational system.
Question 5: Which coaching model is structured around the phases: Discovery, Dream, Design, and Destiny (or Deploy)?
- GROW
- Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Cycle (Correct answer)
- CLEAR
- Co-Active Coaching
Correct answer: Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Cycle
Appreciative Inquiry's 4-D Cycle guides clients from discovering strengths through dreaming a preferred future, designing strategies, and deploying them.
Question 6: In Transactional Analysis (TA) applied to executive coaching, the 'Adult ego state' is BEST characterized as:
- Internalized critical messages from parental figures
- Rational, present-tense thinking that processes information objectively (Correct answer)
- Spontaneous, emotional, and playful responses
- Goal-driven, achievement-oriented leadership behaviors
Correct answer: Rational, present-tense thinking that processes information objectively
In TA, the Adult ego state reflects here-and-now, data-based thinking free from Parent or Child ego state contamination.
Question 7: A coach using an ontological coaching approach focuses primarily on helping clients change which of the following?
- Behavioral habits through repeated practice drills
- The way of being — language, emotions, and body — that underlies actions (Correct answer)
- Technical competencies mapped to a 360-degree assessment
- Explicit strategy and execution planning
Correct answer: The way of being — language, emotions, and body — that underlies actions
Ontological coaching, rooted in Flores and Echeverría's work, targets the observer's perspective — the interrelated domains of language, moods, and somatic posture — to enable new actions.
CELC Coaching Models and Frameworks 3
A client is highly resistant to setting explicit goals at the start of a session.
Which coaching framework is MOST accommodating of this preference?