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The Coaching/Learning Process
The
purpose of this assignment is to develop a coaching/learning relationship with
one of your classmates. Your engagement in this process will serve to enlighten
you about how you learn, will help you develop a leadership competency, and
will teach you something about the process of coaching. There are many different
approaches to coaching; the process we will use draws from two well-respected
programs in the Bay Area: Coaches Training Institute and New Ventures West.
Both programs take a holistic approach to coaching and recognize the connection
between our personal and professional lives, our bodies and our minds. The Coaches
Training Institute has published Co-Active Coaching
by Whitworth, Kimsey-House, and Sandahl (1998) which you will find helpful if
you want to maximize your learning and develop greater skill in coaching.
Guidelines for the Team
Project:
1. Think about an area where
you want to increase your leadership competency. You might want to focus
on a developmental area highlighted by the LSI assessment. Chose something
tangible, such as listening skills, encouraging others, giving or getting
constructive feedback, goal setting, taking risks, making decisions,
etc. Be sure that you chose something with which you can achieve an
outcome within three weeks, although your skill development may continue
beyond the end of this course.
2. Talk with your partner
about his/her strengths and experience in the area. It is not necessary
for the coach to have great skills in the area, because the focus of
the coach is to ask the right questions rather than give advice. It
is even possible for two people to work together that both want to develop
the same skill.
3. Clarify your purpose for
the learning. Example: Learning to encourage others will help me be
a leader who is able to inspire and develop others to reach their full
potential. Talk with your partner about your purpose and your vision.
Questions for the coach:
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What do you want to learn/improve?
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Why is it important to
you?
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How will that help you
be a better leader?
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What will success look
like?
4. Determine specific thinking
and behavioral goals/outcomes for the project. Refer to the LSI self-development
guide for examples.
For example:
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Believe that others are
generally trying to do their best.
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Improve my ability to
recognize the needs of others.
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Work with two of my staff
members to support their development.
Questions for the coach
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What specifically do
you want to accomplish?
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What do you need to do
to accomplish your goal?
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What barriers do you
expect to encounter?
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What concerns do you
have?
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What mental models do
you need to challenge?
5. With your partner, outline
a plan for achieving your goals. Determine how you will work together,
e.g., in-person sessions, phone, e-mail. A combination of all of these
will probably be most effective.
6. Work together to support
each other’s learning. This will require you to be both a coach
and a learner. Be sure to schedule your time so that both roles are
balanced as equally as possible.
7. For session 5, be prepared
to share with the class, what you have learned about yourself as a learner,
a leader, and a coach and what you have learned about coaching others
as a leadership competency. Talk about how you approached the project
and the action you took to improve your specific leadership competency.
Inquiry:
The Role of the Coach
The term coaching often brings
to mind the image of telling or showing another person how to do something.
This approach may be appropriate for some situations, but for management
coaching, the inquiry approach is generally more effective. Inquiry
enables people to probe beneath the surface to discover deeper meaning,
beliefs and assumptions, and fears and anxieties that support and/or
inhibit the desired change. Inquiry generates the type of transformative
learning that supports leadership development. Generative questions
(those that generate new or different thinking) enable the person being
coached to continue learning and working on change beyond the actual
coaching session.
Inquiry-based coaching involves
questions that are open-ended, generative, provocative, and meaningful.
The process should help the learner to develop new understanding, to
challenge mental models, to clarify his/her values and objectives, and
to take action. The following questions are appropriate for this purpose:
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What does that mean to
you?
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Why is it important?
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How does that look to
you?
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How will that serve you
and others?
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How does this change
fit with your personal values and vision?
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What are the possibilities?
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What choices can you
make?
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How did it feel?
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What were you thinking?
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What worked? What didn’t
work?
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If you could do it over
again, what would you do differently?
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What did you learn from
the experience?
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What do you want to create?
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What resources are available
to you?
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What barriers will you
encounter?
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How will you work around
the barriers?
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What is your responsibility?
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What action will you
take?
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When will you take action?
The Role of the Learner
Remember that most of the
work is your responsibility. You need to know what you want to change,
create a plan for the change, and take action. You also need to contract
with your coach on how s/he can best serve you. To make the most of
this opportunity:
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be prepared for the coaching
sessions.
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record your experiences
and reflections in your journal.
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be truthful about what
you are thinking, feeling, and doing.
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let your coach know where
you need help.
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be open to learning and
changing.
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keep track of your progress
and what you are learning.
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