Chapter 3: Introducing the Coaching Model

Overview

Whilst the key to successful coaching is about the relationship between the two people involved, it is possible to identify a process that can be followed to achieve the required outcome.

For a person who coaches on a regular basis, the process of coaching is a very integrated one but, like driving or even walking, there are various steps within the process that can be identified, even though in reality they may not appear to be separate at all. We have broken the coaching process down into these steps with the aim of helping you to think about what you need to do as a coach. As you become more experienced with this form of development you will reach the stage of unconscious competence and developing a coaching programme for your coachee will be as natural as walking or making a cup of tea.

There are three ways in which coaching might be initiated:

• An individual may have approached you directly and asked you to coach him or her, either because you are this person s line manager or because the individual thinks that you have skills/knowledge that would help.

• You have noticed that someone is not performing to his or her full capacity and feel that you could help this person by offering coaching.

• A third party, such as a person s line manager or a training department, may have asked you to coach the individual.

Whoever has initiated the coaching, however, we believe that there are six broad stages that need to be followed in any successful coaching relationship:

1. Clarifying the overall need for, and goals of, the coaching programme.

2. Agreeing specific development needs.

3. Formulating a detailed plan for the coaching programme.

4. Doing a task or activity from the plan.

5. Reviewing activities and planning for improved performance.

6. Ending the coaching relationship.

The process may be followed from stages 1 “6; however, in many instances you will find that in order to achieve your goals, you need to repeat stages 3 “5 a number of times. This relates to the aim of coaching which is to achieve a persistent change in behaviour “ to do this requires practice. Therefore coachees may require a number of experiences (practice sessions or doing it for real) and review discussions so that they can achieve their goals.

This systematic process of coaching links directly to Kolb s cycle of learning, as shown in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1: The coaching process mapped onto Kolb s learning cycle

Our process model offers both a systematic and flexible approach, which can be adapted to suit both the environment and the individuals involved in the coaching relationship. Some steps may be quite short, or even merge into each other. At other times, you will be able to see each step quite separately. However, completely missing out stages in the process will have a profound impact upon the learning experience of coachees, as they will not have experienced the whole learning cycle required to formulate a persistent change of behaviour. Chapters 6 to 11 cover each of these stages in detail.