totem-coachExecutive Coaching: One-to-One Development

There are many definitions of coaching and many styles that are used across businesses. We tend to find that the best approach is the one most appropriate for the client and the specific business need we have been asked to meet.

As a starting point, it is always helpful to explore what a coach means by coaching. If you imagine a sliding scale between pure coaching – “what do you think?” and pure mentoring – “what you need to do is….” it is helpful to know what service the coach is offering. The best outcomes we see from coaching sessions are when we combine coaching, expertise and observation.

To bring that to life in an example, we will ask someone how they think they could have greater impact (coaching). We will share with them the best practice tools and tips that can help (expertise). And we will share feedback on what we notice about how the person is coming across to us as the coach and things they have said (observation). It is this marrying up of approaches that delivers the best outcome in changes to behaviour and thinking.

We also work from a strengths-based approach, building on what is good to great in order to help people to flourish, to gain confidence and sustain high performance more easily.

Like any good coach we start with understanding the context. Who has requested the coaching? Why? Was it the individual? Or their manager? That sets up a different tone to the coaching, so it’s helpful for us to understand. Then we organise the chemistry-check – usually a 20-minute conversation with the coachee for both parties to ensure they are happy with the process and think the partnership can work.

From there, it’s time to get as specific as possible on the objectives of the coaching. Involving the line manager here tends to be useful, as coach, coachee and manager all get on the same page about what the coachee is doing well, what could be improved and how therefore we might all know if the coaching is working. What would be the measures of success? And if we wanted to measure return on investment, what might be the indicators?

Once we have clarified objectives for the coaching, we can plan a programme, usually consisting of three to six, 60-90-minute sessions. There is the option for us to add in an assessment at the start, for example a personality profile or strengths report, as relevant to the objectives.

In each session, there tends to be an exploration along the lines of:

What has helped you to be successful to date? How did you get here? What thinking patterns have been useful?

What do you now need to do differently? Why? How will this change benefit you, your team and the business? How would you know if you had been successful in making this change?

What will get in the way of you making this change? This is where exploring unhelpful beliefs, insecurities and the tendency to rely on old habits is so helpful. Insights from assessments at the start of the process tend to add a lot of value here, as we explore thinking and behaviour patterns.

Now that you have ideas on what you need to do, and how to overcome the challenges to get there, what action will you take? How will you review progress and ensure you keep improving?

We tend to run more online/virtual coaching sessions for convenience and value for money, but where some clients prefer a face-to-face meeting, that is also an option.

It’s also worth mentioning here that if you are wanting to build an in-house coaching culture and/or pool of internal coaches, we can help with that too. Get in touch and we can talk through your thinking and how we can support you.