Coaching for Excellence

Day 1

The inner game of coaching

The phrase the ‘inner game’ is a term borrowed from sports psychology. It is a reference to the fact that what is going on inside a person’s head (their state of mind) is crucial to good performance. Here we consider the role perception and beliefs of the expert coach.

• Examining your current beliefs
• Reviewing expert beliefs
• Making changes that you feel are appropriate for you

Exercise: applying the ‘Future Pacing’ technique

Day 1 (cont)

Theory and principles of coaching

The underlying theory of (i) why it is important to coach employees, (ii) when it should be done, (iii) the advantages and disadvantages it can bring and (iv) the barriers that both manager and employee need to be aware of to ensure that a coaching project ends in success.

• Purpose of coaching
• Scope of informal coaching
• Advantages of coaching
• Disadvantages of coaching
• Barriers to coaching for the manager
• Barriers to coaching for the employee

Exercise: identifying personal strengths and weaknesses when coaching

Day 1 (cont)

Coaching skills

Expert coaches have outstanding communication and influencing skills that they use when working with their coachee’s.

• Outcome thinking
• 3-step assertive technique
• Constructive feedback
• Facilitative feedback
• The listening funnel
• Remaining silent
• Observing non-verbal behaviour

Exercise: role-play on using the listening funnel and observing non-verbal behaviour

Day 1 (cont)

Counselling Interviews

Counselling interviews need to take place when the coachee is either unaware, or rejects, the need for coaching. The aim of the counselling interview is to gain agreement that an issue does indeed exist and then identify the reason why a ‘problem’ is occurring. The stage is then set to offer coaching help and support so the individual concerned can address the issue that has been specified.

• Professional counselling Vs the manager using counselling skills
• Six-stage counselling process
• Developing SMART action plans

Exercise: role-playing the counselling interviews

Day 2

S3i coaching system – an overview

Coaching, like any other management activity, is most effective when applied systematically, step by step. The process that Boulden suggests that managers and experts adopt is based on the concept of modelling. The idea is that when a person approaches a given task they tackle it using a set of rules or procedures known as a ‘model’. These ‘models’ are developed over time and often operate at a sub conscious level. They can become such an integral part of the way the individual lives his/her life that it can take a considerable effort of will to bring them ‘out into the open’ and make them explicit. ‘Experts’, in a given area, use highly effective models, less proficient people, in a given area, apply less appropriate procedures or models. The BMC system for capturing models is called the S3i coaching system and it is used as part of a six-stage coaching procedure:

• Identify the need
• S3i coaching system - the ‘expert’ model
• Create the assessment checklist
• Understand your colleague’s model (using the S3i coaching system)
• Reshape your colleague’s model
• Try out the ‘expert’ model in action

Exercise: case study on the S3i coaching system

Day 2 (cont)

Identify the need

The first stage in the coaching process is to identify that a need exists. There are four stages to this phase of the coaching cycle. They are:

• Specify the issue to be addressed
• Get into the ‘right frame of mind’
• Ensure acceptance of the need
• Agree the goal

Exercise: role-play getting into the ‘right frame of mind’

Day 2 (cont)

S3i coaching system - the ‘expert’ model

The second step in the process is to create an ‘expert’ model against which to develop a colleague. The model indicates:

• The steps or stages that it is necessary to go through to do the particular task in question well
• The skills, abilities and beliefs that are required to complete the steps efficiently

Self-concept - the role perception that a person needs to have in order to approach a particular task with conviction and the beliefs that support the role.

Skills - the tools and techniques that are needed to do the activity well.

System - the process and procedures that should be followed to be successful at the task in question.

Implementation – how to gain mastery of the task by first practising in a ‘safe’ environment and then transferring the Self-concept, Skills and System into the workplace.

Exercise: developing an ‘expert’ model

Day 2 (cont)

Create the ‘assessment checklist’

The development of an expert model is followed by the development of an “assessment” checklist, which is used to determine how well the learner is putting the expert process model into practice.

To put it another way the “S3i expert model” is what goes on inside a person’s mind when they do the task in question. The “assessment” checklist is based on what an outside observer can see which allows him/her to infer that the person is following the expert model.

Exercise: developing an ‘assessment checklist’

Day 2 (cont)

Understand your colleague’s model

Having identified a need and developed the “S3i coaching system model” the coach’s role now is to ask questions and, by doing so, to uncover a model that the person they are coaching is currently using.

Exercise: using structured interview techniques to map out a coachee’s current approach

Day 2 (cont)

Reshape your colleague’s model

In this stage the coach leads his/her colleague to rethink his/her model and move to one more like the expert uses. Reshaping techniques include:

• Explain the expert model
• Leading questions
• Metaphor & analogies
• Apply to self
• New behaviour generator
• Position perception

Exercise: role-plays to reshape models

Day 2 (cont)

Try out the expert model in action

Getting a colleague to understand that a different model can achieve better results than their current approach is one thing; helping them to be able to use the information in the ‘real world’ is another. To be of use the new model must be applied ‘in action’. It is important to understand that competence comes only with repeated practice coupled with reflection on the results being achieved.

• Agree how to monitor progress
• Select the task (to try out the model on)
• Agree review points
• Employee does the work
• Hold the reviews

Exercise: role-plays to try out the model in action