Advanced Coaching Techniques #3

The last class for this course was held on Wednesday, June 13, 2007. We had a fill-in facilitator for this final class so we began by recapping the last two classes and what we talked about. One thing that continues to ring true in all the classes is that we all have our own style and techniques and that if we have confidence we can bring our own flavor and approach to the session, we can draw on the things that we have learned (techniques and tools) and still have a successful coaching relationship.

Sheri brought up the “should” factor and how many times a client will come in and have a goal that they feel like they should do something and as the coach we can help them figure out if it is really what they really want.

The metaphor was brought up again about “putting your own mask on when on an airplane”, taking care of ourselves first so that we are able to help others. It is a great tool to be able to give the client a visual or word picture to help them understand a concept. I think this is an area that I could use more refining on. I don’t always think about creating a picture for the client in this way…I’m going to try this more and see if it can become a new tool for me to use in coaching sessions.

About half way through the class we experienced a coaching session. I appreciated that Sheri stressed the fact that this should be a positive and safe environment for people to experience coaching. I was not feeling very bold in offering to be the coach because I had two sessions yesterday that I felt went poorly; I was lacking confidence in today’s class.

The coaching session was about how the client could make her coaching business more visual. The session was a “laser” session, in essence short and sweet. The coach wrapped up the session by asking the client if she felt complete in the session. It was brought up that in supervised coaching and the ICF both look for this at the end of a session. I think this is another area that I need to be more conscious of. I often recap what the client is moving toward over the next week but maybe asking more specifically “What are you taking away from our session today” may be a good tactic to try implementing.