Introduction

A compilation from various sources by Mais Irqsusi to build advanced coaches’ skills. Access resource as a document – Coaching as a Leadership Practice.

Coaching requires learning to identify a person’s or team’s strengths and weaknesses to help them draw upon their strengths to overcome their weaknesses. People often know what they “should” do. But fresh eyes can help diagnose specific challenges they face while identifying ways to deal with them.

Why is coaching an important organizing practice?

Leadership in organizing is about enabling others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty. Coaching enables others. Organizing campaigns are rich with challenges and learning opportunities, but sometimes we are fish in our own water and we cannot see the challenges we are swimming in. Coaching in organizing helps to alleviate this problem.

Coaching helps individuals to overcome motivational, strategic, and informational challenges that might otherwise hinder the progress of the individual, and/or the team, and thus the campaign or training.

What is coaching in organizing?

Coaching is a direct intervention in an individual or team’s work process to help them improve their effectiveness. Coaching is a leadership practice that is useful in a variety of contexts in organizing campaigns and trainings. Some examples of when coaching skills are necessary:

• Helping an organizer overcome motivational challenges with their volunteers
• Assisting a leadership team in creating strategy for their organizing campaign

Coaching is useful whenever we are working to enable others to build their own capacity to act, and though the contexts vary, the process is very similar throughout.

Elements of coaching

Coaching requires learning to identify a person’s or team’s strengths and weaknesses to help them draw upon their strengths to overcome their weaknesses. People often know what they “should” do. But fresh eyes can help diagnose specific challenges they face while identifying ways to deal with them.

• Motivational coaching (heart) is intended to enhance effort.
• Educational coaching (hands) is intended to help acquire information or skills
• Strategic coaching (head) is intended to help evaluate how to use resources to achieve outcomes.

Coaching approaches

Corrective
Some coaching is aimed at helping improve poor performance (i.e., the coachee is overall not doing the leadership practice well and needs help getting up to a basic level).
Developmental
Some coaching is aimed at helping the individual achieve mastery (i.e., the coachee does the leadership practice well and is ready to become an expert). Basic elements of coaching are the same (i.e., motivational, strategic, and informational), but coaching strategies may differ (e.g., consult by asking reflective questions to develop mastery vs. consult by providing expert feedback to illustrate errors in how they are thinking about the task).

How coaching works – the 5 step process

Coaching requires learning how to use four methods to implement 5 steps. The four methods are: asking questions, listening (head and heart), supporting, and challenging.
These are the 5 steps.

Observe

What do I see and hear? Listen very carefully, observe body language, and ask very focused probing questions to satisfy yourself that you “get” the problem. It may take time to get the facts straight. But if you don’t get the problem, you can’t help solve it. Don’t be shy about asking specific “stubborn” questions. This process can help the coachee articulate just what the problem is in a way they may not have before. So, it’s not only “getting information.”

Diagnose

Why is the problem a problem? Getting the diagnosis right really matters. For example, if an organizer is struggling with strategy and you focus on getting them to try harder the result will only be frustration.
Is the challenge motivational (effort/heart)?

• Is the individual struggling because s/he is not putting forth enough effort?
• Is she not trying hard enough because she’s embarrassed? Is he quitting too soon because of frustration or fear?
• Is s/he getting interference from other habits (e.g., someone well-versed in marketing speak may not know how to tell an authentic story)?

Is the challenge educational (information/skills/hands)?

• Is the individual struggling because he lacks the skill to execute effectively? Does he not know how to do it?
• Is she getting interference from older habits or behaviors (like someone who is so used to selling things confusing this with telling a story of self)?
• Is it something you could model or role-play with them?

Is the challenge strategic (strategy/head)?

• Is the individual struggling because s/he doesn’t know how to use the information or skills that she does have.
• Does he understand the concepts or underlying principles clearly?
• Has he not thought it through carefully?
• Are the goals not achievable?
• Does the strategy make sense?

Intervene – What do I do?

Once you think you’ve figured out what the problem is don’t just tell the coachee what you think he should do! Find out what she thinks she should do? Ask questions that enable the coachee to see the problem, and for you to see how the coachee sees the problem, and discern a way to solve it. Get the coachee’s views out on the table. The appropriate intervention depends on the diagnosis.
If the challenge is motivational, you can:

• Encourage and exhort—you can do it!
• Offer a kick in the pants (with love)
• Help the person confront his or her fear, embarrassment, or other emotion that may get in the way of their ability to risk acting, persevering, trying new things. Communicate with empathy, hope, and affirmation of the coachee’s self-worth. Reward and praise courage
• Model courage and emotional maturity in your own behavior confess fear and explain how you move toward it rather than away from it.

If the challenge is strategic, you can:

• Work through a specific example with the person, asking questions to guide the strategic process. Then reflect on the process itself, asking them to describe how it worked?
• Ask questions about how the individual is thinking about the practice (“Why did you choose that tactic?”)
• Offer your observations, asking how the person might think about it differently (“At that point, were there other options? What might they have been? Why did you choose the one you did?)
• Offer feedback on what you are hearing, asking if that describes the situation, at the same time, offering possible reframing of it.
• Use silent reflection and self-diagnosis (“Why don’t you take a moment to think through what you believe is working and not working and let’s talk about that?).

If the challenge is educational, you can:

• Model the behavior and invite the coachee to imitate you to get the “feel” of the activity
• Break it down into small parts and invite the individual to try one at a time
• Offer three or four different practice exercises and observe which ones “take” for that person.
• Suggest others with whom the person can practice.
• Suggest ways to figure out where to find the missing information.

Debrief: What did the “coachee” learn?

Ask your coachee to summarize his or her “take away” from the session, commit to next steps, and decide when you will check back in.

• What went well?
• What are you challenged by?
• What are some possible solutions?
• What are your goals/next steps?

Monitor: How can I continue to support the coachee?

Schedule periodic check-ins to support your coachee in integrating this new or revised solution into their regular practice.

• Find out from the coachee how the situation has changed.
• Assess whether the diagnosis and intervention was successful. Celebrate success!

Effective coaching is

• Showing up and being present to another person’s experience and listening, with both your head and heart
• Helping the coachee explore and make sense of their challenges and successes, and what they learned from it all
• Helping the coachee to find solutions to challenges
• Asking questions that both support and challenge the person you are coaching

Effective coaching is not

• False praise of the coachee or only focusing on their strengths because you do not want to hurt their feelings
• Being so prepared that you work out all the answers for the coachee before you even hear or observe their challenges
• Solely criticizing the coachee
• Telling the coachee what to do

Team Breakout Session

Launch your teams & coaching practice
Goals

• Practice the coaching process by role-playing common challenges that occur in campaigns.
• Reflect on the process and framework for coaching in organizing and leadership.

Total Time

65 min.

Agenda

1. Gather your team and launch learning teams and review the items below (15 mins)

• Review the agenda below.
• Facilitator and team members do a round of brief introductions.
• Establish learning team purpose, norms, and norm correction.
• Establish roles: timekeeper, scribe, etc./li>

2. Practice coaching (45 mins)

• Get into groups of 3 with people and practice coaching (15 min per round)
• Decide who will be the coach, coachee, and observer for the first round.
• The coachee describes the leadership challenge he/she is facing and receives coaching from the coach. The coach asks questions and paraphrases only. The observer uses the worksheet on the next page as a guide to give feedback (10 min.)
• Still in your groups of 3, debrief the first-round (5 min):
  Coach and coachee: How was this coaching process different from giving advice or providing someone all the answers?
  Coachee: What did the coach do well; what could be improved?
• Switch roles and repeat twice more until each person has had the chance to play the role of coach (15 min per round)

3. Rejoin the larger group (2 mins).

Coaching Worksheet 1: Roleplay Coaching

See table on pg. 8

Coaching Worksheet 2: Debriefing Coaching and Facilitation

Use these questions to help you reflect on your own skills and to help provide feedback to others on their coaching skills.
When you are the coach:

• How did you manage the conversation? What worked?
• What could you do differently to elicit more details?
• How did you facilitate the organizer’s learning?
• What are your key takeaways?

When you are the coachee:

• What did you find most useful for your own learning? Why?
• What helped you get more specific or clear on your project?
• What would have been useful? Why?
• What are your key takeaways?

Coaching technique: Active Listening

• What is it?
• Pro-actively look and listen for what someone else is trying to communicate, while trying not to project our own thoughts and expectations onto them.
• Normally our understanding of a conversation is coloured by our own interpretations, experience and point of view. Our subjective view of what we’ve just heard might differ significantly from what the speaker wanted us to hear.
• We can come to understand how the speaker feels about a subject or situation.
• We hear through their words and tune into their underlying emotions, concerns and tensions.
• We can help the speaker formulate their thoughts and reassure them they are being listened to.
• Shows the speaker that we respect and value them and what they have to say.
• Allows us to focus on the core issues of a person’s message and to understand them better as a result.
• Create a safe atmosphere for the speaker
  Find a suitable space and deal with any distractions (turn off mobile phones, televisions, computers etc). Make any limits to your listening clear from the start if you’ve only got a certain amount of time, say so.
• Show that you’re listening
  Signs of listening are:
  leaning toward the speaker
  an interested facial expression
  maintaining good eye contact
  Facial gestures and small movements such as nodding our heads can show interest and support.Avoid signs of impatience such as looking at your watch.
• Make the mental space
  Don’t think about what you want to say but focus on your speaker.
• Use verbal cues
  (questioning techniques) to draw out your speaker’s thoughts
• Summarise and restate what’s been said.
• Needs constant practice

Coaching technique: Mirroring- Reflecting back

Mirroring is the technique of reflecting back the EXACT WORDS that the coachee has just said and then leaving a room for silence.

Hearing someone’s words in another person’s voice is a good way to hear yourself and build your thoughts further. It’s a very powerful coaching technique that can let the other person reach a clearer place without having to do much effort as a coach.

Coaching technique: debriefing: Summarising & Restating

After listening to someone we can offer them a short summary of what we’ve heard.

• This is a way to show that we’ve listened
• is a good way to check whether we’ve understood them.

How to

Wait until the speaker has finished

• Offer the summary tentatively
  If we restate in bold terms such as: so you feel that… and we’re wrong, not only do we show we haven’t been listening, but we risk offending the speaker by misrepresenting them.
• Better examples are:
  You seem to feel that…
  What I hear you saying is… is that right?
  Would it be fair to say that you feel…

Summarise Succinctly

• Boil things down into one or two short sentences.
• This is essential if your summary is intended to clarify the situation and move a discussion on.

The Art of Questions

Open Questions

• Longer reasoning or answers.
• TED: Tell, Explain, Describe.
• Good for:
  Open conversation
  Detail
  Opinions, issues or experience

Closed Questions
Reduces options so as to receive a single word or very short, factual answer.

• Best avoided when a conversation is in full flow.
• Good for:
  Check understanding.
  Concluding i.e. a discussion.

Setting a frame i.e. Introducing an Issue

Question technique: Probing

Two step process:
1. Limiting scope
2. Asking an open question within that scope.
Question technique: Funnelling
Refers to a sequence of specific questions that narrows down to a specific answer:

• What, where, with whom, why, when (often with use if some closed questions).
• Refers to more of a sequence of questions

Question Techniques : Appreciative Inquiry
Ask questions based on people’s own experience like:

• What have you experienced before that worked?
• What successes have you experienced ?
• Have you experienced a similar situation before? How was it?
• If you are to give yourself an advice, what would it be?
• From where do you get the courage and patience to continue?

Question technique: Reality check
Coaching questions that helps better evaluate the situation accurately and helps see the positive side. Since often times few bad incidents can make us feel bad, and its good to have REAL sense of the problem. Also based on other historical experiences people can feel too effected or less affected about certain things.
Questions that can put numbers on challenges and measure quantitatively and not just qualitatively.

• So we are talking about the challenge of X, how many incidents/ people are we talking about from how many total?

Questions that can shed light on the half full of the cup to see the positive side not just the challenge to enable possibilities of solutions there:

• You are sharing the challenges when it come to X what do you consider a the success or strengths of X?

Question technique: What if questions
What if questions open a light of possibility in the coachee’s mind, for them to be able to see beyond the challenge.
Examples:

• What if everything was possible what would you do
• What if you could make any decision, what would be your choice
• What if that xxx challenge was not there, how would things be different.

The GROW model of coaching – by Sir John Whitmore

GOAL- Setting a goal for the session is important to create focus on defining the challenge and an achievable goal in the duration of the session.
REALITY: checking to explore the current situation, and context to be abe diagnose the challenge better.
OPTIONS : and alternative strategies or courses of action. In good coaching sessions the coachee arrives to their options naturally in the good time for them. Not lead by coach.
WILL: or what is to be done, when, by whom and the will to do it.

Be aware this is not coaching

Giving advice
Since good coaching should take a coachee beyond the limitations of the, coach, leader or mentor’s knowledge it makes sense that your advice shouldn’t be the golden tip. The golden tip is the one that the coachee will realize on their on that is even better than any solution that you could come up with. It is essential to avoid giving advice as a coach.
Leading questions
Leading questions is basically hiding your advice in a question format. If good coaching is all about asking the right question, that doesn’t mean that ending with a question mark can make you get a way with an embedded advice in the question.
Examples:

• Have you tried to do xxxxxx?
• Will xxxx work in your situation?

Sources

• LCN organizing guide developed by Marshall Ganz and his associates- updated by Benedict Huggoson.
• Coaching for performance – Sir John Whitmore