Coaching with “Images of Resilience”

In conjunction with RSVP Design, Ei4Change has produced a toolbox to support training, personal development and coaching around resilience.

Images of Resilience contains multiple copies of 16 carefully designed images drawn in an attractive cartoon style.  The images are metaphors, representing a range of experiences and emotions linked with the theme of RESILIENCE.  They facilitate the exploration of different facets of resilience and its connections with stress, change, challenge and learning.

Images of Resilience is an extremely powerful tool for use in one-to-one coaching.  It can also be used in small group discussions (of up to three people).  

Here is a detailed example of how you can use Images of Resilience in coaching.

1. Explain that the images represent a range of aspects of resilience: some of the skills, behaviours and attitudes that are required to develop the personal resilience and deal with challenges, pressures and stress in both personal and professional environments.

2. Explain that this process is intended to help individuals to think about the responsibilities and pressures that they are currently facing and to consider their own strategies and approaches to managing themselves.

3. Begin by giving an example.  Select the image called ‘Drive and Motivation’– the picture of migrating animals and birds.  Describe how this image represents an internal drive that motivates the animals to undertake long, demanding and potentially dangerous journeys.

Ask the questions:

“What is it that motivates you?

“What is the internal drive that makes you want to commit to something that might be difficult and stressful?”

4. Listen to the answers, then show the card called ‘Risk’ – the person entering the radioactive environment.  Describe how a challenging management role has risks attached – for both the manager and the people being managed.

Ask, “What are those risks and what do you think you can do to prevent or over come them?”

5. When you have worked with these two examples, spread the remaining cards (with supporting notes) randomly on a table and ask the coachee to choose two or three further cards.  Each of these cards should represent an aspect of resilience that the coachee feels is important to demonstrate and strengthen.

(Allow enough time for the coachee to consider the cards and hink about what they might mean – a minimum of 5 minutes of reflection time).

When the cards have been selected, ask the coachee what the cards mean to him / her.

Explore two aspects:

• Why the coachee selected this card and why it is an important skill or quality.
• The extent to which the coachee feels that they have, and can rely upon, this quality.

Can they give examples of how and when they use it?

For example, if the coachee selected the image entitled ‘Bouncing Back’ – the wobbly toys, can he / she describe situations in which he / she has taken knocks or criticism and been able to bounce back in a positive way?

6. Finally, ask the coachee to select two cards (these may include a card or cards that have already been discussed).

• The first card should represent what they feel is their own most valuable ability in relation to resilience (ie, what they think they do best and find most useful).  For example, this might be endurance – a willingness to work with uncertainty and ambiguity or an ability to find creative ways of dealing with barriers to progress.
• The second card should represent what they believe they would find most difficult.  For example, keeping focus when there are many distractions and being flexible about a process when under pressure to deliver results or overcoming their fears.

7. Explore the coachee’s choice of cards and then ask them to summarise their thoughts and discussions through effective questioning.

This process will explore various dimensions of personal resilience within the working environment leading to a depth that may have taken many hours within an ordinary coaching session.

Images of Resilience can be used in education to help students explore specific skills  valued by employers and to manage work as a part of life to find their own personal coping strategies when under pressure.

For more details click here

A video giving more details about resilience and Images of Resilience is available on YouTube.

For more information, and to order Images of Resilience, visit www.rsvpdesign.co.uk

Facial expression is the most common tool by which we gather information about other people.  We not only use the face to identify others, we use it to determine their initial emotional state and any changes that might occur during the communication process.  This makes facial expression more emotionally revealing and more accurate than the spoken word.

In selling, facial expression is the primary feedback tool that guides the selling process.  It provides valuable feedback about how the sale is progressing.  Level of interest, desire, and indication of honesty or deception can be identified by changes in facial expression.   Sales professionals not only react to facial responses to reinforce points that are important to the prospect but also identify and deal with objections before they get in the way of making the sale.  This is the main reason why sales professionals drive millions of miles to have face-to-face meetings with prospective clients.  When facing the prospect or client, the subtle indications of heightened awareness suggestive of positive feedback can be witnessed as well as signs of tacit disapproval.  Both are critical for initial sales success and for maintaining long-term professional relationships.

There are as many as 38,000 different combinations of facial expressions that involve over 20 muscles.  Yet, despite this wide range of possibilities and the impact of cultural influences, facial expressions are not only readily identifiable; they are surprisingly reliable indicators of emotional responses.  These expressions are typically identified with very high levels of accuracy.  Researchers Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen have identified seven universal facial expressions displayed throughout the world: surprise, happiness, fear, anger, disgust, sadness and contempt.

(Facial expressions courtesy of www.feelingfacescards.com)

Facial expressions are notoriously short in duration.  Although we tend to display a general emotional state to those around us, a genuine facial response is short-lived, usually less than half a second.  The expression of surprise has the longest duration, lasting over three seconds.

(Facial expressions courtesy of www.feelingfacescards.com)

To achieve an accurate assessment of facial expression in a sales situation, one must focus on the face as information is shared.  Otherwise the actual response is easy to miss, or it may be consciously manipulated either to conceal or mislead the sales professional to maintain some degree of negotiating power.

Micro-expressions, describe the facial expressions typically lasting a microsecond and are extremely accurate and revealing.  Micro-expressions are highly accurate emotional responses, which often indicate a socially unacceptable response or may reveal a highly charged emotional state that is best concealed, thus their short duration.  For example, in sales, a particularly high price might reveal a prospect’s naïveté, which she may immediately attempt to conceal behind a veneer of indifference.

With training, using videos to show the evolution and decay of micro-expressions, greater precision is possible in assessing facial expression.  Given the tendency to minimise facial expressions (much more common to males than females) in sales meetings or negotiation sessions, subtle cues indicating positive or negative responses become even more valuable.

Together with the Centre for Body Language, Ei4Change is undertaking research on the use of body language in selling.

To gather quality scientific evidence, we are searching for companies with sales teams of at least 10 people, who would like to participate in our online research at no cost.  In exchange, we will provide you with the test results and an analysis report of your company's sales team capabilities.

You can try a free, simplified version of the online test that we use with your sales team: http://www.microexpressionstest.com/micro-expressions-test/  The full test will take just 2 minutes to complete.  Also, further details can be found on the Ei4Change Body Language page