Basics of Coaching

This week I attended three sessions on Leadership Essentials about coaching in particular. Coaching is a very broad topic and requires a lot of training for the new leader, and we focused only on the basic theory of what it is and practiced with each other on doing coaching based on random scenarios by the attendees.

What is Coaching?

Coaching in its simplest form is unlocking a person's potential to achieve their goals through questions. I highlighted "questions" in the definitions because it is the core of it's definition -- the coach merely asks questions to the coachee, guiding them to think of what they wanted to do in a certain situation.

Coaching vs Mentoring

As leaders, it is very easy to assume that you are better than a person seeking coaching. When a person comes to you with a problem, the initial reaction is to put yourself in the same situation, think of a solution in your perspective, and give that advice. That is mentoring. To be a coach, you have to try your best not to give advice, but rather "ask questions" (I feel like I would be repeating myself). As a coach, you trust that the coachee is in a better position to think of ways on how to handle a situation they are in, and you help them do that by, again..."asking questions"

There are different ways of mentoring, and coaching is the sweet spot between asking questions and creating solutions.

ADAPT Framework

Diving in to the framework to follow when coaching: there is the ADAPT framework. ADAPT is a step-by-step process that the coach can follow before and during their conversation with the coachee.

GROW Framework

Being more specific on the conversation, the starting coach can follow the question map of the Grow method. Grow stands for the following:
G - oals
R - esults
O - bstacles
W - ay forward

Goals describes what you are going to talk about. Ask "what" questions to get the information. "What are the things that we want to focus on?", "What did we agree on last time?". Results are the realities, what is going to happen, or the whole picture of the situation. "What are some data points that we can look at?", "What did you really do well?", "What are things you could have done better?" Note that the questions are more of "what" than "why" and eliminates the blame or negative feeling to the coachee to foster opening up to the coach. Obstacles or Options are way forwards. "What were some of the things that got in the way?" or "What have we not tried before that might be worth trying now?". "Who might be able to help?". And lastly, Way Forward are conclusion questions. "What steps are you going to take moving forward?", "When are you planning to do this?", "What support do you need from me?", "When would be a good time to get together again about this."

I didn't write about the actual scenarios that we practiced on, but ultimately, to describe how the practice would go...as a coach, put more trust in the coachee to come up with their own solution no matter how hard it is to give your opinion. Once they are able to provide those options/solutions, conclude the discussion with "When", "What else do you need from me", or just simply "OK". Coaching is really hard! Hahah!