Getting the skill of the coach

 What is one statement you can make to praise them for the good work done?” There are so many of these kinds of hands-on exercises that keep the Exco team on their feet while they are learning the skills of a coach.

In part seven, we get inside the classroom to get a glimpse of how coaching lessons are being carried out, which are clearly different from how conventional training subjects are normally being taught to the participants. 

Throughout their time in the classroom, the members of the executive committee are being put through an experiential coach-learning journey that is intensively filled with various methods aimed at accelerating their learning so they become good internal coaches. Based more on acquiring coaching skills and less on gaining coaching knowledge, the curriculum is structured to provide many opportunities for them to try their hands-on coaching so that they can start using them even when they are learning how to do it. 

It is therefore very important that coach facilitators for coaching programmes are practitioners of coaching and not trainers who only know the theories of coaching but have little commercial coaching experience. Without this coaching experience, the learning can become very theoretical, where what they learn is more of the “what” than the “how to” of coaching. This “how to” of coaching is very crucial if leaders are required to lead the coaching initiative successfully. Good coaches are like good pilots – they require a lot of coaching hours to be adept at what they have to do. It is therefore imperative that the coach students get every chance to “dirty their hands” in coaching whenever possible. 

 

Let’s explore some of the experiential methods used in good coaching workshops. 

 

Coaching Demonstration

After some theories and the model of coaching have been taught, the coach facilitator immediately translates these through a coaching demonstration where he demonstrates how coaching is done in front of the class. This will give the audience a good feel of what coaching really is before the class gets into action to try it out themselves. A good coaching demonstration provides a good baseline which acts as a good reference point for the class to try out coaching in a guided way. 

 

Mock Coaching

Secondly, a number of mock coaching sessions are carried out where the members of the audience take turns to be a “coach” to the coach facilitator, who pretends to be coached. The facilitator will intermittently interject during the session to comment on their performance while at the same time provide learning moments for them. This allows them to gradually gain the confidence and skills needed in coaching. 

 

Peer Coaching

Peer coaching is carried out after the aforementioned coaching methods have been conducted. This entails the coach students to take turns to be coaches to and to be coached by one another. The purpose of this is to create a safe environment where they can coach and give feedback to one another on their performance based on a set of guidelines. They will continue using this method even outside the classroom to log in at least 15 hours of coaching hours so that they become more and more comfortable with coaching. 

 

Supervised Coaching

Following peer coaching, supervised coaching sessions are held in front of the class and involves the coach facilitator acting as a supervisor to observe coaching sessions done by the coach students. Such sessions will be carried out as much as possible to provide powerful learning in coaching. This is done because not only do the “coach” and those being coached learn but the entire class does as well, for they get a chance to watch various styles of coaching while learning to observe and give feedback on coaching done by their colleagues. 

 

Mentor Coaching

Finally, the coach students are given a personal mentor coach to work with them outside the classroom. Here is where they get personal attention that will surely sharpen their coaching skills further. In mentor coaching, the coach student gets to “spar” with their mentor coaches, who are already certified coaches. Real-time feedback is given to them that immediately closes gaps in areas that need improvement.

 

Mini Coaching 

Notwithstanding this, the coach facilitators will frequently conduct mini coaching sessions in between teaching sessions throughout the workshop, with mini role playing created to exemplify certain key learning points. 

This is where the coach pretends to be the person being coached and gets the participants to ask questions like a coach. In this way they are constantly made to act as coaches throughout. Indeed, this is another powerful way to pick up coaching skills. 

Adult participants prefer such learning methods as they get to learn the “how to” of coaching instead of sitting there passively to learn the “what of coaching”, which does not add much value to their learning. 

 

In part eight we shall explore what these participants do in coaching at their workplace to plant the seeds for a coaching culture to grow there. 

 

Corporate Coach Academy is a coaching school in Asia to certify leaders of all backgrounds to become manager-coaches or professional certified coaches in this region. Log in www.corporate-coachacademy.com or email [email protected] for details.