How it works

Before I start on any coaching assignment I’ll arrange a chemistry meeting with you or the team.  Coaching is a personal relationship in which trust and confidence are the essential ingredients.  You and your organisation or you and your team need to feel that you can work effectively with me and I need to feel that I can work effectively with you.  If that chemistry isn’t there then experience tells me that its better to recognise that and draw a line.  If we decide to go ahead then the next step is to contract with you and your sponsoring organisation. 

The contract sets out:

• The need for you to have a desire and intent to learn and change;
• My commitment to work with you in a collaborative, solution focussed and results oriented way to improve your work performance, life experience, self-directed learning and personal growth and to deliver a benefit to your sponsoring organisation;
• The importance of a willingness to accept feedback as part of the process;
• Your willingness to explore your feelings, thoughts and behaviour;
• The importance of openness and honesty and informing me if things are not working;
• The importance of confidentiality
• The commitment and support of the sponsor.

Coaching sets up a triangular relationship and it is important that the sponsor is aligned with the process and has given sufficient thought to his or her goals and expectations and to the investment that he or she is making in the person being coached.

At the beginning of the relationship our focus will be on building trust and rapport and working together to build awareness of what is happening both in your environment and within yourself.  There may be feelings of ambivalence to change and powerful arguments and forces for keeping things as they are.  These need to be understood and not dismissed as resistance. 

I use psychometrics and diagnostic tools such, for example, as 360 degree feedback questionnaires to increase awareness.  I am a Registered Test User with the British Psychological Society and am experienced in the use of a variety of ability tests and personality instruments.

During the middle stages of the relationship we will use our time to review progress, identify next steps, options and experiments to try in the workplace and make decisions about possible courses of action.  Support and encouragement do not, however, mean that in my role as a coach I will not also question and challenge.  We will create and agree self-managed learning activities for you to complete between coaching meetings in order better to embed change and to increase your ability to become self-sufficient and to manage your learning in the future.  With your agreement I will involve your sponsor in celebrating successes and identifying new directions.

At the end of the relationship our focus will shift to checking what has been achieved, what that means for you and the sponsor and planning to maintain the momentum.  Underlining what has been achieved boosts self-confidence and self-belief and contributes to a virtuous circle of learning and change.  I use post coaching questionnaires as one means of confirming the benefits of coaching and reviewing and improving my own practice. 

Sponsors matter...

I encourage the active involvement of the sponsor (usually the line manager of the coachee) in any coaching programme.  I aim to meet with the sponsor typically togther with the coachee:

• Once before the start of the programme to understand his or her expectations and goals and how he or she will provide support and encouragement; 

• Briefly at the end of the first coaching meeting to confirm the goals that need to be achieved and the actions for delivering them;

• Briefly at the midpoint in the process to confirm that the required progress is being made; and.

• At the end of the process to sign off what has been achieved and agree how the momentum will be maintained.

What is discussed between coach and coachee must remain completely confidential, but the sponsor has a right to know what outcomes the process in which the organisation is investing is delivering.