The What Matters Method.
A research-informed, integrative framework for working with meaning, purpose and direction in coaching.
Coaching often begins with a goal. But the goal is rarely the whole story.
A coachee may arrive wanting a new promotion, a career change, greater confidence, improved performance or a better work-life balance. Yet beneath that goal may sit much bigger questions:
Why does this matter to me? Is this still the life I want? What am I working towards? What would make this change feel worthwhile?
Goals are important. meaning gives them context.
Coaching may begin with a clearly defined goal, but the conversation often opens into something wider. Questions of values, direction and what feels meaningful can sit beneath even the most practical coaching issue.
As coaches we draw on different traditions, models and ways of working. We may already be exploring values, strengths, identity or purpose with coachees, even when we do not describe the work explicitly as meaning-focused.
The What Matters Method offers a way of making sense of this process. It helps us understand what a goal represents, how it connects with the coachee’s wider life and how coaching may support a clearer connection with what matters.
A clearer map for integrative practice.
Coaching practice increasingly draws on a range of psychological ideas, coaching models, professional experience and ways of working.
The challenge is often not finding another tool. It is understanding how different elements of coaching connect, what the coachee may be moving through and what might support the process at a particular point.
The What Matters Method provides a flexible process map for this work. Developed from doctoral research into how meaning is explored and developed through coaching, it helps coaches make sense of the wider process unfolding for the coachee.
It is not a new coaching modality or a rigid sequence. It provides an underlying framework through which coaches can draw intentionally on their existing approaches, tools and professional expertise.
Not another tool for the coaching toolbox - a map for knowing how and when to use the tools you already have.
A flexible process for connecting to what matters.
The What Matters Method.
-
Unlock
Create space to pause and reflect, building a deeper understanding of who you are through guided reflection and strengths-based tools.
-
Explore
Take time to think more deeply about your life and work, exploring what feels meaningful and what may be missing.
-
Play
Move beyond reflection to try things out, exploring new ways of thinking and acting in practice.
-
Connect
Bring clarity to what matters, creating direction, intentional choices and meaningful sustainable action.
Use the tools and expertise you already have more intentionally.
As coaches, we may draw on strengths, psychometrics, ACT, Gestalt, solution-focused coaching, positive psychology and many other approaches.
The What Matters Method helps us to consider where those approaches may fit, what they are being used to faciliate and what the wider coaching process needs to support.
A psychometric assessment may contribute to unlock by opening awareness and dialogue.
ACT informed values work may support explore, while committed action and behavioural experiments may sit within play.
The method does not prescribe a particular intervention. It provides a way of integrating different approaches around the evolving needs of the coachee
Designed for coaches and practitioners who want to:
work thoughtfully with meaning, purpose and direction;
integrate different coaching approaches more coherently;
understand the process their coachees may be moving through;
use tools and models more flexibly and intentionally;
move beyond goal attainment towards meaningful and sustainable change.
Learn more about the What Matters Method.
Research-informed webinars, workshops and practitioner development are currently being created for coaches, coaching psychologists and related professionals.
Join the interest list to receive the introductory What Matters Method guide and be the first to hear about upcoming CPD, pilot workshops and founding cohorts.
Developed by Dr Phoebe Simmons.
Dr Phoebe Simmons is a coaching psychologist, educator and researcher and EMCC-accredited Senior Practitioner. Her doctoral research explored how meaning is developed through coaching conversations and provided the theoretical foundation for the What Matters Method.
Phoebe is Doctor of Coaching and Mentoring, a member of the British Psychological Society and has taught and supervised on a BPS-accredited MSc Coaching Psychology programme. She specialises in translating psychological research into practical professional education for coaches and organisations.
You don’t need more tools.
You need to learn how to integrate them most effectively to support coachees in an increasingly busy and complex world.