FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Learning to become internal coaches

Learning to become internal coaches

"Help me shift some of my appointments and meetings at the end of the month and replace them with eight sessions of coach training that I have to attend for the next eight months," Alan says to his secretary.

All committee members of the Coaching Culture are doing the same, which is to put priority on their "back in the classroom" activities to undertake learning over the next eight months. They are doing this because they intend to be transformed as new-age leaders with formal credentials as certified coaches, so that they can confidently lead the Coaching Culture initiative for their organisation.

In this, Part 6 of the Coaching Culture series, we shall get into the classroom to see what leaders do to get into the learning process of becoming coaches or new-age leaders for their organisation.

There is no quick-fix way of becoming a coach. No amount of managerial experience or level of academic qualification can get you there.

You really have to learn to become one – and these leaders from the Coaching Culture Executive Committee are doing just that.

These few months will mean a lot of hard work for them as they unlearn old ways and relearn new ones. They will be making conscious efforts to get into the new realms of thinking and behaving.

Among them, they will learn to unlearn in the sense of talking less and listening more. They will unlearn their talking and telling people too much what they should do, and then learn how to listen deeply to know what people are saying with their words and their body language, as well.

Linked to this, they will learn how to arouse their own curiosity about people, which will make them want to ask questions so that they can elicit answers from them.

Learning these new behaviours will teach them to become real partners with their people, instead of behaving like experts who feel they have all the answers to their people’s issues.

When they can learn to make this part of their natural behaviour, they will no longer push their views and make judgements, thus allowing their people the space to express themselves without fear or favour.

They can do this because they will have learned to be compassionate and understanding even when they are confronted with views and stories that are in direct conflict with their own beliefs and values.

They will have fewer mental blocks in the form thick filters, biases and prejudices. People therefore will be at ease and comfortable with them. This promotes healthy exchanges and engagement, which augurs well for cross-learning from each other.

One other area for them to learn is to become innovative thinkers so they can overcome the ‘mental laziness’ in themselves – and in others, as well. This will increase their self-awareness, because they will dare to challenge the status quo with questions like: What else can you do? What is still possible? What is the opportunity here?

Doing this well will get them out of their comfort zones, enable them to take risks, and arouse their appetite for better results.

Connected to this is the ability to become powerful facilitators. When they achieve this, they get great results because they have the power to stretch people’s minds for the best ideas to either solve problems or reach their goals faster and better.

Ultimately, through all these new learnings, they will become powerful people-connectors who can engage with their people not at the ‘head’, but at the ‘heart’ level of the relationship.

They will have the personal powers to influence, persuade and inspire their people. They will truly become leaders of the highest distinction.

Not only will people revere them, they will also become people-developers who can build individuals to be the next line of leaders of the sort that every organisation would want to have.

So, these eight months are indeed very important to the leaders, and to their organisation, as well.

In Part 7, we shall cover in greater detail how the coach-facilitator supports the leaders in the learning areas mentioned here. Through this, you will also understand how the learning of coaching differs from the conventional training methods that are used in developing leaders.

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