into coaching

an eBook for accelerating your learning experiences

1

Luciano Garagna

Coaching is for everybody

Coaching is one of the oldest forms of learning, used originally by our hunter-gatherer ancestors to develop the survival abilities of their youngsters. In fact, everybody receives and provides coaching in many key moments of life: however, this is not always done in a very effective way. This eBook would like to offer as many people as possible the opportunity to become a better learner. Better learners are going to make the world a better place to live in, which is why this eBook is free to download and to distribute to as many people as it can reach. In the next pages you will find a few basic tools that can enable you to start learning through a coaching relationship in a business context. The approach is practical, explained through examples, anecdotes and exercises that you can easily complete by yourself: dont be afraid to try the coaching techniques! This is the approach that we have successfully deployed within the organizations which we have helped to establish a coaching culture. Sometimes we have done this by training coaches who were experienced managers but had no previous coaching experience. We use the same method in our own company, often in unconventional ways. The focus is on the techniques that we have personally adopted for many years and that, at the same time, are easy to implement.

Coaching is for everybody who wants to become a better performer.

What can you get from coaching?

Traditional coaching focuses on specific objectives, to be agreed at the beginning of the coaching relationship. The approach we propose is based on adapting to the needs of the person being coached, as they evolve during the coaching process. For example, one meeting could be dedicated to the preparation of an impending steering committee, while the next session could focus on selecting the right team member between a group of candidates. In this way, the coach accompanies the less experienced partner when the latter is feeling the most acute need. Learning happens when its needed the most and when immediate results can give the confidence required to support the achievement of long-term goals. And, by the way, dont overlook the fact that coaching is also a great learning opportunity for the coach, who experiences how to lead in a non-directive way that supports the personal and professional growth of the partner.

Effective coaching exploits the motivation that comes from the need to cope with the challenges of the moment!

How do you structure a coaching session?

So you want to be a coach? Great coaches can follow the flow of the coachee and reach their objectives even in a nonstructured way. However, before reaching that level of mastery, a coach should structure the session in a way that addresses all the main issues the coachee could have. In order to do so, the GROW approach (developed by John Whitmore) is useful: Goal Reality Options Will Goal: the coach starts the session by clarifying, with questions (see the asking questions technique further on), the purpose and the objectives of the session itself. A good question could be: what are your objectives? Reality: after the objectives are clear, the coach moves on to help the coachee understand the current reality - what is happening in the present. A good question could be: what is currently happening? Options: when the future and the present are clear, the coach addresses the options available to go from where we are to where we want to get. A good question could be: what can you do? Will: the coachee commits to some actions, chosen from the identified options. A good question could be: what will you do?

Structuring a coaching session is a great way to help the coachee GROW by providing an effective way to tackle all the main concerns that may arise.
The next pages present some helpful techniques to take control of your coaching session.
4

Example
The following example clarifies the method Goal: what are your objectives? I would like to define a strategy to double our market share. Reality: what is currently happening? Now we have 5% of the market share with only one product and using only retailers. Options: what can you do to double your market share? I could use other types of advertising. I could introduce another product in the market. I could lower the retail price. I could use new, different sales channels, such as e-commerce. Will: what will you do? I will lower the price and will implement the e-commerce channel.

Food for thought To effectively manage a coaching session, it is of foremost importance to learn how to quickly shift
from content to process and to context.

Asking questions
Have a look at the following questions, what is the usefulness of each of them? Is the budget of the project on track? Should we confirm the budget as it is, adjust it, or ask for a sponsors review? How can we cover the budget gap on the shipping? What is the objective of this budget analysis? Depending on the context, each of these questions is useful, but they differ in openness and in level of detail. The first question is asking for a statement (yes/no) useful to put a stick on the ground. You might find it helpful to create a common ground. The second question is asking for a choice, focusing on alternatives. It can be valuable to keep the pace of the conversation going when you find it slows down and threatens the scheduled agenda. The third one is an open question with a specific focus. It can be helpful to find solutions in the brainstorming phase of the discussion or when you want to bring down to earth a discussion that is becoming too speculative. The last question is open and broad. It is extremely useful to move the focus at a higher level when the conversation is going into too much detail. Putting a question mark is not enough; to make a good question there are many factors to be taken into consideration; in the examples above we looked at the two fundamental ones for coaching: the openness and the level of detail. Notice that asking questions implies active thinking and that way the question is asked drives the answer! Whatever the content of the discussion, the coachs goal is to influence the quality of the elaboration.

Coaching questions are those that allow the content to be filled freely, so that the ownership of the answer can be empowered.
Like the size of a box must match its content, so the coaching questions need to be shaped in a way which is useful for the answer. Only with experience we can balance all the factors to shape the question.

Experience it yourself
In which situation are these questions useful and where are they useless?

Question What is the added value of todays meeting? Is this tool useful to you? Will you apply coaching at 100%, just a bit, or not at all?

Useful situation

Useless situation

One of most delicate factors in coaching is balancing the level of the challenge, especially with questions. As studied by Lev Vygotsky, in a learning process the challenge must take place in the so called zone of proximal development (ZPD). This is an area outside of what we master, but where we can still deeply understand the matter and learn with guidance: that is the coaching zone. If we push the matter out of the ZPD, we end up in a zone where there can be understanding but not learning. For instance, a joke in a foreign language may not be so for you, even if its explained, because its not part of what you master. Once your awareness of the language increases, you start laughing and can even make those irresistible jokes yourself. To facilitate learning, coaching questions need to be asked within the ZPD. Similarly, the level of challenge of the question needs to be balanced to create a manageable discomfort in the experience, whilst avoiding stepping into an anxiety zone where no learning would take place.

How good are you at giving a coaching feedback?

Guess which of the following are coaching feedback: You were great today! I liked your presentation! Your presentation was very professional. The limited number of slides and the fact that you were talking slowly with a strong voice made me feel comfortable and confident that I could understand. These are all examples of feedback, but they provide the receiver with a different quality of information. The first example tells you that today you did something (perhaps the presentation or maybe the meeting as a whole) I really liked, but you cant tell why. The second example adds the information that it was the presentation that looked good to me. The third example adds a definition of how I liked your presentation. The final example is more specific and describes the feeling I had while sitting in your presentation today. Now, imagine you are going to present to your top management, which feedback would be most useful to you? The first three may help your self-esteem, but only the fourth contains the precious information you need to consciously change your behavior or deliverable. You may receive a lot of feedback, but how much of it is really helpful and allowing you to improve?

Coaching feedback is the feedback that helps you to improve, by starting from the observation of facts and linking these to the related feeling.
Using coaching feedback increases accountability within our team because it provides a broader perspective.

Experience it yourself
Give us feedback, obviously of a coaching type, about this eBook:

Observed FACT: ............................................................................................................................................................................................

Associated FEELING:...............................................................................................................................................................................

BE CAREFUL: make sure that the fact you pointed out is really something objective, with no personal interpretation (good, bad, positive, negative... are all personal interpretations). Also, check if the feeling you described is really something that you feel, and not think (I feel you are well dressed.... is NOT a feeling).

Food for thought When you have mastered giving feedback, you still have to deal with the much bigger challenge of
receiving feedback from well-intentioned friends and colleagues.
9

Thoughts, assumptions, and speech

What makes you say what you think? I am sure it has happened to you as well to think something during a conversation, and then to say something completely different. Lets see why this might happen, with an example of a conversation between two project team members: Lucien: Luke, we agreed you were going to deliver tomorrow, didnt we? Luke: Yes Lucien, but our design department has had a delay due to a technical problem. Lucien: Ok, I will talk to our production department and negotiate a delay in the delivery... These are Luciens actual thoughts behind his statements above: I think Luke, a designer himself, is not aware of the production departments priorities. He needs to learn quickly but I also need to ensure the project is on track. As I thought, we are late because he didnt consider the projects priorities; hes making excuses about the delay to cover up his former co-workers. As usual, Ill have to solve the problem myself. From the example we can see that Luciens thoughts and concerns did not emerge in the conversation. He talked about delivery and replanning, while his concerns were related to Lukes professional growth in his new role along with ensuring the successful execution of the project. It is common to filter our own thoughts and feelings and say to the other person something different from what we actually think. This is because we fear the consequences (which we often misjudge), we are afraid of hurting the relationship, but in fact they cause us to lose sight of the objectives.

Helping the coachee to understand assumptions and their impacts is critical to take the communication effectiveness to a higher level.
The right column vs. left column exercise (based upon the method developed by Chris Argyris and Donald Schn) is a tool to help you understand when you can improve managing a conversation by explaining more clearly what you think and feel. Focusing on the inner and outer flow in the conversation helps us understand and better manage the feelings and assumptions we have while interacting with others. Lets see how it works.
10

Experience it yourself
Think about a recent interaction where you got upset Divide a piece of paper into two columns In the right column write the dialogue that actually occurred Now, in the left column write what you thought and felt during the dialogue What are the reasons you chose to say what you said instead of what you thought? Which consequences were you afraid of that made you decide to say what you said instead of what you thought? How well did the interaction reach the objectives you had? Which assumptions did you make about the other person or the situation? What would have happened if youd said the left column instead? Which costs and payoffs would you have got? How can you use the left column to improve your communication?

What you thought and felt

What you said

11

How many points of view are there in projects?

The Client The Deliverer
PE P
C LI ENT

Lets try to put ourselves in the following perspectives:

The Sponsor

RO

Managing a project means to aim, perhaps succeed, in satisfying the expectations of the Sponsor that pays for the project, of the Client who will use the deliverables of the project and of the Deliverer who will make the effort required to reach the targets. How often have you seen managers loosing track of one of these sides? It can be really useful to have someone that helps us by challenging our perspective. Pretend youre involved in the project in a different position (changing roles among Sponsor, Client and Deliverer), from that perspective, a lot of things may look different, so a solution that seems impossible to find may just arise. As a coach, driving this exercise and challenging the different roles is very easy when your point of view is external and provides you with the added value that will look remarkable to your coachee.

Perspective is a key to managing a project. Expectations look so complicated when you analyze them only from your own side, but they may turn quite easy to understand and match together when you move away from your point of view.
Giving help or receiving it with this kind of coaching technique can be very simple, nevertheless the real achievement is to uncover something we didnt think about and that can switch the light on.

12

S CO

DE LI VE R E R

C JE T
NS SPO
OR

Experience it yourself
Try to think of the coaching experience you might start within your organization: Youll have a manager that is Sponsor of the initiative, a Client (or more) that receives the coaching and a Deliverer (or more) that drives and facilitates the learning experience as a coach. What are their expectations? Step into the key points of view:

Deliverer Whats the expected benefit? Whats the risk? How can I influence it?

Sponsor

Client

Food for thought Considering their influence, understanding the sponsors point of view can be a definite advantage.

13

Who knows the way?

The difference between a coaching session and a useful chat that ends with a piece of advice is that the coach doesnt know the answer and she is not thinking about one. Milton Erickson used a powerful anecdote to clarify this concept. He described a runaway horse his father found one day on his way home, he didnt know to whom it belonged and how to bring it back home. He then realized that as soon as he moved the horse away from grazing the grass and back onto the highway, the horse knew its way home and after quite a few miles it naturally reached its owner. It was enough just to push it back on to the main track and focus its attention on the goal of going back home. We need to manage the focus of the journey otherwise the delivery will be slowed down.

The added value of coaching is to ensure the focus of the discussion with the aim of enhancing the level of quality and efficiency.
The challenge in keeping the focus is to recognize when exploring a field is becoming a detour. When we help keep focus, we support someone in building their own solution, plus there is an improvement of their awareness of their role.

14

Experience the role

The focus of the discussion is not self-led, someone has to take the lead of it. Next time somebody asks you for advice, take the opportunity to play the role of the focus-keeper in leading the conversation. Be careful not to provide any answer, not even giving any hint, just concentrate on the objective of the discussion and bring it back on track when you feel the conversation is getting stuck. How can you do that? One way of doing this is to start the discussion by writing write down on a whiteboard or on a piece of paper what the goal of it is, not the subject, but the desired outcome. In the course of the discussion, now and then, challenge the conversation and its usefulness against the agreed goal. It can help if everyone involved in the discussion is able to see the written objective at all times during the discussion. If you decide to change the objective/goal, itll be fine, maybe even better, as long as you make sure that you write down the new goal.

Food for thought Being able to direct focus is also very useful in selling situations.

15

The coaching contract

Accountability is critical to ensure a learning experience. When you start a coach-coachee relationship in a formal way in your professional context, a coaching contract is a useful tool to commit the two of you to agreed objectives. The main points that should be clarified and agreed in a coaching contract are: Coachees objectives - what long-term objectives does the coachee want to address during the coaching sessions, and why? Coachs objectives - these are important to identify the added value of the sessions for the coach. Expected outcome - what performance do we want to achieve by the end of the sessions? Measurement of performance - how will you measure if you have reached the performance targets? Effort - how often and for how long will you meet in formal coaching sessions?

A commitment to attend the coaching sessions helps to prioritize the coaching opportunity and fosters accountability, which is itself a foundation for improved performance.

16

Example
Here is an example of a coaching contract.

Objectives

The coachee wants to improve the condition of experiencing frustration in managing priorities as a result of changes in the organizational structure. The coach wants to improve their coaching skills in order to be more helpful to colleagues.

Performance

The coachee will focus on marketing and strategic planning, so the number of new client proposals and customer satisfaction will be monitored. The coach wants to be able to clarify needs, goals of a conversation, and manage stakeholders effectively. The coachee will provide a measurement of the coachs performance by giving feedback at each session.

Effort

Coach and coachee will meet once a month for 3 hours each session, during a period of 6 months.

Signatures Coach Coachee

You can find a copy of a template of a coaching contract here. Feel free to make it yours!
17

Are there other tools?

There are many other tools available that also come from the fields of psychology and pedagogy. In this blog you can find some help related to those that come directly out of experience on the field. Let us suggest, once you have achieved good results with the techniques described in this eBook, that you explore these as well: Build on trust Active listening Ladder of inference SWOT analysis Picturing Johari window Mindfulness Observing

Learning is a doing experience. Peter Senge

18

What are your next steps?

The previous pages supplied you with a set of simple tools that everybody can become familiar with. Now its time to put theory in practice and below are some actions that you can take immediately. 1) Find a partner and ask him/her to be your coach. Note that the reverse option (offer yourself as a coach) is less effective because being coached is an initiative that requires awareness and confidence and usually cant be imposed from outside. 2) Give your chosen coach this eBook to read. 3) Start practicing and remember that the difficulties that you will inevitably experience should be considered as the challenges needed for you to make progress (easy tasks quickly become boring). 4) Encourage other colleagues or friends to start coaching, so that you can organize informal meetings to share experiences, challenges, tips and tricks.

The best way to gather the benefits of coaching is to practice it. Dont look for perfection but aim for results!

19

INFO
ABOUT THE AUTHORS into consulting, founded in 2001, is a management consulting firm based in Verona, Italy, that supports the development of organizations by helping them identify and implement the best solution to their challenges. Luciano Garagna is the managing partner of into consulting. Luciano had the idea of this eBook and his great team made it a reality. DOWNLOAD THE UPDATED VERSION This document was created on 1 October 2012 and is based on the best information available at that time. Download here the latest update of the eBook. SUBSCRIBE Keep yourself up to date with our latest insights as soon as they are available. Sign up for free to our managing partners blog and be notified by email. WHAT YOU CAN DO You are given the unlimited right to print this eBook and to distribute it electronically (via email, your website, or any other means). You can print out pages and put them in your favorite coffee shops windows or your doctors waiting room. You can transcribe the authors words onto the side-walk, or you can hand out copies to everyone you meet. You may not alter this eBook in any way, though, and you may not charge for it. Whatever you decide to do with it, remember you should always cite the source. COPYRIGHT INFO This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0 or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

20