Foundation of Coaching Skills for Effective Mentoring | Learn, Apply, and Practice Today

1. Coaching Skills John Oughton

2. Today’s Learning Outcomes • Analyze when faculty need mentoring/coaching • Describe foundations of coaching skills • Recognize what coaching is, and is, not • List some principles • Observe and analyze coaching demo • Practice and observe mini coaching sessions

3. Coaching is Not the Same as: • Teaching • Advising • Facilitating • Counselling • Mentoring

4. Mentoring • Important to many at developmental stages • Assumes mentor has superior knowledge/experience • Not a peer activity Do or not do. There is no try.

5. “Coaching is ...not telling people what to do; it’s giving them a chance to examine what they are doing in the light of their intentions.” – James Flaherty

6. Coaching • Uses listening, questions, reflection of coachee’s statements/feelings, and intuition to help coachee find own answers • Assumes coachee already has the knowledge and skills necessary to solve own problems, make decisions and answer questions

7. Special types include • Sports • Career • Life coaching • Personal/professional development This is a general approach useful for many situations/relationships -- between peers, manager/staff, teacher-student relationships May be done effectively over phone or F2F

8. Coaching • Bloom’s domains: coaching is affective: feelings, values, attitudes • Multiple Intelligences: coaching applies both interpersonal and intrapersonal smarts

9. Benefits of Coaching • Increases self-awareness ● Makes people more self-directed • Promotes accountability and commitment • Overcomes “dump and run” syndrome • Increases organization morale, quality of communication

10. Coaching Traps • Believing coaching is remedial • Feeling need to be expert • Being too directive • Staying in problem-solving mode • Pursuing your own agenda • Lacking awareness of own beliefs/biases • Not setting agenda and boundaries

11. COACHING FOUNDATIONS 1. Empathy: being able to communicate authentically what you hear and feel of another’s experience. Putting empathy into action: Reflect what you’ve heard, then ask question, empowering speaker to clarify

12. Coaching Foundations 2 • Coachee has the answers • Can find them even when convinced he/she can’t • Coach asks questions to illuminate answers that may be hidden • People are more satisfied/ compelled/ resourceful when using own answers

13. Foundation 3 Listening: attending to what other is saying without passing judgment Listening Levels 1. Attention is on me (own goals are primary) 2. Attention is on coachee: no internal chatter, aware of other’s every word and nuance 3. Global listening: Attention is on space/energy around and between people, underlying moods and tones as well as words, gestures, body language, etc.

14. Foundation 4 Intuition: learn to recognize when own intuition is working (what does it feel like?) • When you have a hunch about other’s feeling, perception, etc., blurt it out and then ask if that echoes anything for the coachee • Even if not accurate, this may trigger a honest response about where coachee is

15. Foundation 5: Curiosity A way of discovering, focusing attention on a specific direction Helps others discover who they are, what’s important to them Use open or general questions, rather than specific, for self-exploration Specific question: What courses will you take? General question: What would you like to learn more about?

16. Foundation 6: Powerful Questions Put curiosity into action. Usually no more than 7-8 words: “What’s stopping you?” Special types: Intruding: head off an-overly detailed answer or excursion: What’s the payoff for you in that? What’s another way of looking at this? What value are you (not) honouring here? Inquiry: get the coachee thinking for a while (e.g. until next session): Could you look up some options and choose three to discuss next time?

17. Foundation 7: Acknowledgement & Championing Acknowledgement: recognizing (not judging) someone for who they are or who they are becoming, not only their actions -shows sincere interest in/respect for other; validates their experience Championing: expressing belief that people can overcome self-doubts or fears and accomplish something; articulates their full potential

18. Foundation 8: Accountability and Commitment Accountability: Asking coachee to account for achieving plans/intentions. Uses three questions: • What are you going to do? • By when will you do this? • How will I know? Commitment: asking coachee’s agreement to follow through on action/reflection

19. The Saboteur Inner critic that stops us when we are thinking big and wanting to move forward Protects us and the status quo Some favourite sayings: “You can’t… You shouldn’t, mustn’t… This is the way it’s always been”

20. Career and Life Wheels • Activity 1

21. Coaching Demos Activity 2: 5-10 min. coaching demo Observers use feedback sheet Coach and coachee debrief

22. Coaching Practice Activity 3: in groups of three, take five-minute turns playing these roles: ● Coach ● Coachee ● Observer After each mini-coaching session, observer describes what he/she saw, then all switch roles

23. In the Immortal Words of Coach.. • Yogi Berra (New York Yankees): “You can observe a lot by just watching”

24. Coaching Certification Available through many organizations, including: • YWCA: Life Skills Coaching 1 and 2 • OISE Adult Education and Counselling Psychology /Adler Institute: Professional Skills Coaching • York University/Schulich Executive Education Centre: Certificate in Coaching Skills for Managers and Directors.