What you do

You must formulate the plan with your coachee , not present it as a fait accompli . If others are involved in the plan, communicate the relevant parts of the plan to them as well.

The general plan for the coaching will include and take into account:

• A review of each of the objectives. This means looking at each objective and asking:

  • What does this objective mean?

  • What activities need to take place in order to achieve this objective?

  • Will the activities be real or simulated?

  • When do the activities need to happen? This will be particularly important where the objectives relate to specific tasks that the coachee does at certain times in the week, month or year.

• The time available for coaching.

  • “ Time for each meeting.

  • “ Time for the whole process.

• Preliminary tasks that the coachee will need to carry out “ such as refresher reading or gathering data.

• Involvement of others. The topics of the coaching may involve other people, eg the coachee may wish to improve his or her skills in leading meetings.

• Equipment required.

As the coaching process is linked very closely to Kolb s learning cycle, as illustrated in Chapter 2, your plan must include each of the following at least once:

Having an experience

The coachee needs to have an experience, that is, to do the task or use the skill that the coaching is concerned with. This experience may be real or simulated. It may be planned or unplanned . It may be observed by the coach or described by the coachee. Whatever the subject, the coachee must carry out the task or do the activity in as near real-life situation as possible. The type of experiences that you may use during coaching are:

• Doing all or part of the task.

• Seeking and receiving feedback.

• Revisiting activities that have been done in the past.

• Completing self-assessment questionnaires.

• Reading books, articles or other documentation.

• Finding out how others do it.

• Observing others.

Reflecting on the experience

This is where the main activity of the coach begins and, as such, it needs to be shown as an action or activity on the plan. The role of the coach is to provide the coachee with tools to help him or her reflect upon the experience and start to draw out some learning from it. It will involve thinking and discussing the experience, what happened , the outcome(s) from it and how the people involved felt.

Making sense of the experience

In practice, this will happen as the coachee reflects on the experience. This is where the coach helps the coachee to think about why things happened the way they did. What were the underpinning processes? What was going on ˜behind the scenes ?

Doing it differently

In coaching, this is where the coach and coachee discuss and identify what the coachee could do differently the next time and what he or she should repeat. This is the ˜planning for next time phase.

Repeating the experience

The coachee should then have the opportunity to do the task or activity again, incorporating the ideas that were discussed during the coaching session.

Your plan may then be to repeat the reflection “making sense “planning activities “repeating experience until the coaching objectives have been achieved.

Part 3 offers you a series of activities to use as part of the coaching process. These activities are for you to select from, deciding which will be appropriate for the subject of your coaching and your coachee.