Which skill is being utilized when a coach helps a client identify their personal motivations for change?

The skill utilized when a coach helps a client identify their personal motivations for change is motivational interviewing. This method is a person-centered counseling style that focuses on enhancing a person's intrinsic motivation to change by exploring and resolving ambivalence. In motivational interviewing, the coach engages with the client in a way that elicits their personal reasons for wanting to change, recognizing that personal motivation is more powerful than external incentives.

This approach encourages clients to articulate their own motivations and desires, leading to a greater commitment to behavior change. The focus is on collaboration and eliciting the client's own perspectives and feelings rather than imposing external goals or solutions. This ensures that the change process is aligned with the client’s values and beliefs, resulting in more sustainable outcomes.

Understanding the nuances of this skill is essential, as it distinguishes motivational interviewing from other coaching skills like active listening, which involves fully concentrating on what the client is saying, or reflection, which focuses on mirroring back what the client expresses. While these skills support the coaching process and build rapport, they do not specifically target the client's motivations in the same way that motivational interviewing does. Goal setting, on the other hand, is more about defining specific outcomes rather than delving into the motivations behind wanting to achieve those outcomes.