An exploration of Coaching

An exploration of Coaching Gestalt organisation practitioners forum: Stockholm 21-22nd November 2003 Rob and Bridget Farrands

Coaching has exploded in the last five years It is a very fragmented market with 00’s of suppliers (in a recent consultant audit Barclays discovered 300 coaches in their system!) It is usually provided for senior people only What it means is widely interpreted with some overlaps into counselling No formal qualifications required to call yourself a coach No governing/national body - highly informal The UK Market

Where Coaching fits • Coaching is part of our organisation consulting practice. Typically coaching will be part of a portfolio of consulting interventions such as working with a team. But not always…… • Our current clients are large organisations in these sectors: Oil and gas, Retail, NHS, Banking

Typically we work with individuals at main Board and divisional Board levels, plus with some high potential senior managers immediately below this level. Additionally, we work systemically in order to embed coaching principles and practice into leadership processes. Who do we work with?

The main focus of our work is on supporting people through significant business or personal change arising from: Implementing new corporate strategies brought about by expansion into new markets or acquisitions, market retrenchment or contraction Promotion into new roles with resulting transition issues Reconciling career ambitions with personal ability Shifting from managing to leading - and knowing when to do which Focus of the Work

Coaching: what is it? • Our approach to coaching is one which enables leaders and managers to combine reflection on their actions with “planned experiments” to generate fresh awareness and choice. • One to one encounters • “Homework”, shadowing, real time feedback • Multiple clients

What do your clients look for from you as a coach? How close is that to what you set out to “sell”? Discussion 1

The dialogic moment…. Mutual awareness along inner and outer arcs Contact Conversational flow - ”nextness” (Erv Polster) Reflection and sense making (D Schon, K Weick) Building experiments (J Zinker) The field perspective… Enabling the field to support development Recognising and using the “relational net” Structured inquiry at the workplace (Action Inquiry) A rhythm of action and reflection What we draw on……

1 Self awareness: despite often well developed organisational feedback systems (360, performance reviews etc) many executives still engage in tactics which inhibit new learning about themselves (e.g. to remain as rational as possible, to suppress negative feelings, to maximise winning and minimise losing). By identifying the subtle ways in which executives block their own learning, we help them build their skills of self awareness and increase their opportunities for change. 2 Insightful reflection: the demand for pace and activity in most organisations has often meant there is less time, and therefore a reduced ability, for individual reflection. Through a process of shared reflection involving frank challenge to ingrained patterns of behaviour and by disturbing familiar ways of thinking, we stimulate new insights and approaches to issues and performance. Our Principles in Performance Coaching 3 Experimental action: most executives occupy roles which have high visibility so that enhancing current skills and increasing competence “on the job” carries a potentially high risk. Through a structured approach of designed experiments which are built into the executive’s daily work, we support him/her to expand the range of choices they have for new thinking and behaviours. 4 Respect for context: whilst it is possible to identify universal themes that operate in all institutions, every business has its own unique history, culture, ambition and purpose which in turn create performance and leadership demands. By taking time to listen, understand and appreciate this context, we are able to support the executive’s coaching agenda within the specific context of his/her organisation.

How would you describe the 3-4 core principles/values which guide your work? Discussion 2

Development strategy COACHING MEETING KICK OFF MEETING ACTION AT WORK Preparing for action Creating climate and contracting Review action 1 1 1 1 Conclusions and insights 2 2 Commitment to learning and change Doing it 2 2 3 3 Recording outcome 3 3 Designing action New goals and commitments Ongoing contribution to business performance Coaching Process

What do you do with a client – describe the process overview and your tactical approach. Discussion 3

Intro How? What? Self-Observation We often act in a routine way unaware of what we do. To change our way of acting requires us to bring into our attention what may be routine so we can mindfully change what we do. Use this tool to interrupt your automatic ways of acting and to bring them into your conscious attention so you can make a choice about whether or not to change what you do. • Based on the result of your coaching decide to pay attention to a particular aspect of yourself at work. e.g. how you behave with particular people or they respond to you. • Be alert in particular for any unexpected outcome of your normal activity – pleasant or unpleasant. • When you are surprised by an unexpected outcome consider both the unexpected event and the normal activity that led up to the surprise. • What is this that has caught me by surprise? • How have I been thinking about this piece of work or this situation? • Notice in particular any reframing that takes place as a result of the surprise, and presents you with a new or different problem. e.g. You give an instruction to X in the same way as always, but this time he reacts angrily and storms off. Was there any thing different or unusual about the circumstances? What is it about your normal way of instructing X that you might want to explore more? • If practical consider an on the spot experiment in trying to do something differently.(see Experiment Tool) • If you are keeping a journal write about your experience using the guidelines in the Journal Tool.

Guide for a Coach: worksheet

Intro How? What? Designing an experiment Increasing your self-awareness leads to a wider range of choices about how you can operate and respond to different situations and people. One important way to expanding your awareness is through the use of experiments. In Performance Coaching an experiment means a designed event which will reveal new possibilities for choice and action. This tool describes how to design an experiment which you can apply in the Action at Work stage following coaching conversations. There are 6 steps to follow. Work through each (overleaf), following the instructions on the process and the self-reflection. Your coach will be important in both helping to create the experiment with you and in reflection. Note: Experiments have unpredictable outcomes - you may not get exactly what you planned for. Whatever you get or whatever happens - is useful learning for you and will always increase your self-awareness. For this reason experiments begin with the statement: What I want to discover more about is… This is different from more usual action planning where actions are often stated as an outcome. An importqnt outcome of an experiment is awareness.

How? Designing an experiment 6 steps to designing an experiment Describe the discovery goal.Complete the sentence: “what I want to discover is…” Evoke some anticipation / risk: to deliberately learn something new about yourself will only be possible if you stretch out of your comfort zone and take a risk. The risk does not need to be huge - but it does need to make you feel some nervousness when you imagine yourself actually doing the task you set yourself. Grading / scaling: your experiment can be in several parts - for instance you might want to start by a low risk action and gradually scale up the risk level using different people or situations to discover more about the aspect of awareness you have selected. Find support: all risk is easier to undertake if we are supported well. Decide what kind of support you need to be able to operate outside your comfort zone. Consider: who could support you and what you need from them? How can you support yourself: with time to think; by resting well; by working on self-limiting beliefs using the Limiting Beliefs: Awareness tool. Record your discovery: new awareness is often fleeting. Make sure you capture what you are learning as you carry out your experiment. Co-design the experiment: use your coach to help you stretch your experiment.

Intro How? What? Journalling It is useful to keep a record of your practice as a manager so that you can supplement your memory of events with notes made at the time of particular events or shortly afterwards. Keeping a journal is one way of supporting the coaching process with valuable information. A discipline of periodic journal keeping will also stimulate your creativity and insight about your work and yourself. A journal is a confidential document kept in the form of a notebook or a file on your computer. The information in the notebook is kept up to date by a discipline of regular writing and is reviewed prior to each coaching session. Allocate a notebook or a computer file as your private journal. It will be helpful to have your journal writings in one place. Consider what you want to record in your journal. There are four broad types of notes that could be included in your journal; using the table below decide which ones (you may decide to use them all) will be most useful for the activities derived from your coaching sessions. Focus your journaling on the activity you are engaged in as a result of the coaching work. Put aside a regular time for completing your journal. More frequently than once a day will probably be too much while less than three times a week will be likely to be too little. Periodically review the content of your journal – say every two weeks – and make a brief note about the entries to date. Review the journal before your coaching session and prepare a brief report or account based on the journal and your memory of what has happened since the last meeting. Keep your journal safe and confidential to yourself.

Journalling Four Categories of Journal Notes

Dialogue: worksheet • The model of conversation • Begin by assessing yourself against this four-point scale for each dimension of conversation: • I use this dimension frequently and in the right way. • I use this dimension less frequently and/or unskilfully • I hardly ever use this dimension and/or find it difficult to use well • I very rarely use this dimension and/or cannot do it competently • The Four Dimensions of Effective Communication

Intro How? What? Designing an experiment Increasing your self-awareness leads to a wider range of choices about how you can operate and respond to different situations and people. One important way to expanding your awareness is through the use of experiments. In Performance Coaching an experiment means a designed event which will reveal new possibilities for choice and action. This tool describes how to design an experiment which you can apply in the Action at Work stage following coaching conversations. There are 6 steps to follow. Work through each (overleaf), following the instructions on the process and the self-reflection. Your coach will be important in both helping to create the experiment with you and in reflection. Note: Experiments have unpredictable outcomes - you may not get exactly what you planned for. Whatever you get or whatever happens - is useful learning for you and will always increase your self-awareness. For this reason experiments begin with the statement: What I want to discover more about is… This is different from more usual action planning where actions are often stated as an outcome. An importqnt outcome of an experiment is awareness.

Practicum sessions Purpose:To practice how we work and provide opportunities for peer feedback Work in groups of 3, rotating the following roles: CoachObserver (also time keeper) Coachee Spend 30 minutes per person which includes coaching and time for feedback Coach - be yourself. Use your “normal” approach or take the opportunity to experiment with an aspect of your style/approach Coachee - be yourself. Use real subject matter that is current Observer - observe against requests from coach. Or see what you see

An exploration of Coaching