Co-creating the Relationship Domain, Competency 4. Cultivates Trust and Safety

The next competency in this domain is Cultivates Trust and Safety. Whilst this chapter focuses Competency 4 specifically, its close relationship with Competency 5: Maintains Presence is significant. It is the combination of these two competencies along with the depth and thoroughness of partnering undertaken in Competency 3: Establishes and Maintains Agreements, that truly co-creates the relationship with the client. Whereas the other competencies focus more on how the coach demonstrates their skills for the actual process of coaching, competencies four and five particularly focus on how the coach creates, nurtures, and maintains a good coach-client relationship to underpin and enable the coaching process to happen most effectively. In this regard, the word “cultivates” in the title of this competency, is specifically intended to reflect that trust and safety is something that has to be tended to throughout the relationship and is not a “one-time activity” by the coach.