Senses

A – Z Coaching and Mentoring – This week’s extract explores ‘Senses’ and how paying attention to how your client makes ‘sense’ of their world can be powerful information to help build rapport.

Don’t forget if you have a special request for a definition of a coaching term or principle, just let us know! Perfect for anyone studying for an ILM Coaching & Mentoring qualification, or as a refresher for experienced coaches.

Ss

Senses – People take in information through the five senses or modalities (sight, sound, touch, smell and taste). This is sometimes described as VAK (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) or VAKOG, where olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) factors have been included.

Paying attention to how your client makes ‘sense’ of their world can be powerful information as you can use it to build rapport. VAKOG are sometimes called the five representational systems.

The first step is to pay attention to the words the client is using, as they will give clues about their preferred sense at that moment. Some brief examples of sensory language (predicates) are shown in the table below.

When the coach has identified the dominant sense, they can adapt their language and match the client with similar words from the same sensory group(s). Their communication is then likely to make more sense at the unconscious level.

Table – Examples of Predicates

Taken from the A-Z Coaching Handbook by Clare Smale where you will find a comprehensive A-Z, plus a full list of references.