In my last note, I said that this time we'd look at how a coaching session might help a client.
A coaching relationship is a designed alliance or collaboration between coach and client, aimed at helping the client achieve more of their potential. The coaching conversation could therefore begin in any number of different places depending on the client's situation.
One starting point that often yields valuable insights is to explore the balance in a client's life. We could begin with a "wheel of life," a circle divided into 8 segments which represent various life areas, e.g. career, money, health, relationships, spiritual, personal growth, fun & recreation, and home. The client rates each area of their life on a scale of 0 (couldn't be worse) to 10 (couldn't be better).
The coach begins the conversation by observing the scores, e.g. there might be several 3s and 4s, and one 8; how does that feel? There is no judgement, nor even a sense of where the conversation is headed - that will be determined by the client. The client may then indicate that he'd like all areas to be in the 8 - 9 range, to which the coach might respond by asking which area would have the most impact if it were improved. The client might come up with career, and in the same breath mention self development. On probing the connection, the client clearly sees a causal relationship between the two, decides that personal growth is the priority area, and as the discussion develops, he comes up with a further link between recreation and personal development.
The coach begins the conversation by observing the scores, e.g. there might be several 3s and 4s, and one 8; how does that feel? There is no judgement, nor even a sense of where the conversation is headed - that will be determined by the client. The client may then indicate that he'd like all areas to be in the 8 - 9 range, to which the coach might respond by asking which area would have the most impact if it were improved. The client might come up with career, and in the same breath mention self development. On probing the connection, the client clearly sees a causal relationship between the two, decides that personal growth is the priority area, and as the discussion develops, he comes up with a further link between recreation and personal development.
Asked by the coach to suggest next steps that he could take, the client suggests that he could a) call a colleague or customer and arrange a golf game, and b) go through the things he had learned in this coaching session, and explore further steps that he could take.
Asked to "dip in" and come up with another area that could yield significant change, the client returns to career, and with further questioning, decides on changes he can make to his relationships, which might improve his working environment.
Using this sort of process a client could potentially move from confusion and a sense of life spinning out of control, to clarity, and a clear set of action steps to take based on their own priorities in less than one hour.
In the next post, we'll explore goal setting which could be a logical next step.
No comments:
Post a Comment