How to choose the best coach for your organisation

Experts from the British School of Coaching give their advice for getting the most out of training and development

Coaching is a recognised technique in the development of individuals’ performance as skills and knowledge are deepened and goals are set. Choosing the right coach to help achieve those goals is crucial, says Judith Barton and Martin Hill from the British School of Coaching. They told People Management about their five C’s of coaching.

1 Clarity
Before you embark upon the process of selecting a coach, you need to ensure you are clear about what outcome you wish to achieve. This is frequently the main cause of disappointment, or at worst, failure. If you are not clear what the ultimate aim of the coaching is, it will be almost impossible to set any meaningful matrices to measure the success of the intervention. What is it that you are seeking to achieve? What needs to change? What aspect do you need the support of the coach for? Does the coach need to have wider skills or knowledge to draw upon to support that aim?

2 Credibility
At present, coaching is an unregulated industry and anyone can describe themselves as a coach. Recent surveys of HR professionals and other coaching buyers have highlighted that consumers are becoming even more diligent in their enquiries of prospective coaches.

There are a number of questions you could ask when hiring a coach: What is their coaching qualification? How many coaching hours have they undertaken? What are their supervision arrangements for their practice? Are they a member of a recognised professional coaching body? If a coach specialises in a particular area, how have they developed their knowledge and skills? Do they have an understanding of your industry, sector, and profession?

3 Contract
Coaching should be a relationship based on equality. The coach is not there to act as an expert or to advise – they are there to act in an objective, non-judgmental manner and to provide a challenge to the client’s thoughts and ideas and help them achieve their desired outcome.

Good coaches will include the client in the design of the contract that will regulate their contractual relationship; setting the boundaries; specifying the roles of both parties; describing the methodology to be used.

Confidentiality is a crucial aspect and all parties should be clear, prior to commencement of any coaching assignment, about what information is to be shared, with whom and for what purpose?

4 Concise
While we would argue it is impossible to predict at the outset the number of sessions necessary to make progress, there are so many variables to a successful session. From our experience, significant progress can be made in three coaching sessions. To make this progress, coaches must have the skills and experience, there must be a ‘fit’ with the client and the definition of a successful session must be identified. Refining a client’s initial desired outcome is more often than not the focus of the first session.

5 Conditions
Other variables we believe make a positive contribution to the session are environment: where will the session take place? If it’s within an organisation, is it separate to the client’s area of work? One organisation we work with in the UAE decided to convert a small building in the grounds that is separate to the main building to be their coaching suite. Clients said “the five minute walk created space to think” and “the separate facility signalled coaching, that it’s time for me.”

Originally published by CIPD, 21 September 2016

Ramadan/Summer Reading Series: 1

Ramadan and summer time provides an excellent opportunity for reflection and self-development. Following the tradition established last year, I will hopefully provide some suggestions to tempt your learning.

When we are in the midst of studying for a coaching or mentoring qualification, we spend a lot of time reading numerous source materials – but what happens after the qualification is gained?  I bet that they are left to gather dust on a shelf or left in some dark, unwelcoming corner as a mini-table or portable storage area as I prefer to describe it.

When was the last time that you revisited the materials? It can be really interesting to revisit an old favourite and reflect on whether the contents still “sing out” to you now. Reflect on whether your viewpoint as to the contents has changed – is that due to your experience that you have subsequently gained? What causes the “grating” or discomfort?

The books may also serve to refresh your skills and knowledge and correct some of the “bad habits” that you may have unconsciously developed.

Why not set yourself a challenge of revisiting one book and reflecting on what this means for you and your coaching practice.

These recommendations relate to the “hot topics” of mindfulness and wellbeing. They appear in no order of preference:
Well I hope that this has provoked some thinking and provided some insights for purchases. Remember that as a member of ISQC we have secured discounts from some of the publishers – email ISQC@britishschoolofcoaching.com for more details.

Next time I will recommend some general coaching books. Let me know if there are any topics or areas that you would like me to focus on and feel free to make your own suggestions and recommendations.

Happy Reading!!*

Martin Hill LL.B (Hons), FInstLM, FISQC, MAC, EMCC Member, Coach & Coach Supervisor
Faculty Member
Programme Director for ILM 7 Coaching & Mentoring Courses

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Focus and Energy in Coaching

“The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.” Anthony Robbins
I am sure that you will all have experienced sessions that went fabulously, when everything just seemed to flow and it was almost effortless. Similarly, there will have been sessions which leave you with a sense of frustration, where things just did not seem to click, despite all your tried and tested approaches. What makes the difference? In my experience it will be attributable to the focus and energy in the session on the part of the coach or coachee or both.

One of my favourite techniques to assist my reflective learning when reviewing my coaching sessions or supervision sessions is to review the energy levels within the session – for the coach and the coachee. A great tool is Peter Hill’s FOE tool (“Concepts of Coaching- A Guide for Managers”- Peter Hill (2004) ILM). This requires you to assess the following:
•    FOCUS – The attention the coach brings to the moment.
•    OPENNESESS – The receptivity of heart and mind the coach brings to the moment.
•    ENERGY -The physical and emotional vigour the coach brings to the moment.

Although Hill focuses on the coach, I have found it useful to adapt the tool to analyse the FOE levels for the coachee as well. One of the great lessons that was imparted to me – if you really are committed to continuous improvement and striving for excellence, then you should always find at least one thing you can improve upon. Bear in mind however, that this comes with a health warning – only assess the coachee after assessing yourself as the coach.

Although reflective practice is great for honing your skills, what can you do as a coach to ensure that you optimise your energy and focus for coaching sessions? Here are some things to consider:
•    Contracting for self as “coach”– It is amazing how much time and energy we give to drafting contracts for the coachees and sponsors, but one way of ensuring that you are not overstretched or overcommitted is by treating yourself as “coach” as an additional stakeholder or party to the agreement. Choose which are the key aspects that you need to cater for (for example time between multiple sessions; start and end times etc.) and then ensure that these are specifically addressed when working out the contract.
•    Preparation & “Refresh” Time – this is particularly important when you are dealing with multiple sessions in a day. To ensure that you bring the same focus and energy to the final session as you did for the first session. Allowing time to “wind up” and “wind down” enables you to manage your energy and focus.
•    Hydration – make sure you have water to hand, keeping hydrated ensures that you maintain focus and attention.
•    Sustenance – if it’s going to be a long day, make sure that you have healthy snacks or foods available – a banana or yoghurt can be a life saver to maintain energy levels.
•    Stretch – a great way to re-energise is by getting up and stretching your legs for a short while. Why not combine the two and do a “walking” coaching session with the coachee – it can be amazing what a change of venue brings!

Those are my starters for ten- what are your hints and tips?

Martin Hill LL.B (Hons), FCMI, FInstLM, FISQC, MAC, EMCC Member, Coach & Coach Supervisor
Director for ILM 7 Coaching & Mentoring Courses

The Courage to be Vulnerable - for Client and Coach

Judith Barton, Director of Coaching

If you are in the United States and switch on breakfast TV the majority of the stations have a bright breezy air with short popular segments. One programme that bucks this trend is “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. Morning Joe is co-hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Joe was a former lawyer and Republican member of the US House of Representatives from Florida’s First District from 1995 to 2001, Mika is a journalist who often shares the fact she is a Democrat – so a lively debate ensues.

What makes me keep watching is the depth of discussion a cross between BBC Breakfast and Newsnight, with humour, sarcasm and discussion on British sport. Sometimes Katty Kay BBC America journalist is a guest which makes me feel more connected when I hear her voice and smile at the quality of her arguments. Anyway, on such a morning, Joe introduced a guest he described, (Brené Brown, author of ‘Rising Strong’, published by Vermilion in 2015), a research professor who was making a difference to how individuals run their organisation and manage their people in the US. Brené’s work focuses on courage to take the step, the bravery needed to be vulnerable, to say it is OK to fall down, and the strength to get up and move forward.

In her earlier publication ‘Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead’ she quotes Theadore Roosevelt powerful quote from his 1910 ‘Man in the Arena’ speech: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how strong the man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;… who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

One of the things that makes Brené’s work interesting to me is her background research and what has led her to her writing. She describes how she has fought against the qualitative research, the introduction to ‘Rising Strong’ describes her time as a doctoral student, trained by research professors to choose evidence over experience and data over story. Whilst non-research professors were reminding her she should be a live to false dichotomies she quotes “either you’re this or you’re that”. She goes on to say how she learned when faced with either or dilemmas to ask “who benefits by forcing people to choose?” This rang a loud bell in my head, in situations like this I ponder “who’s asking the question?” and this often leads to the next question “for what purpose?” Brené gives an example of benefits; traditional quantitative researchers benefited if the social work profession decided their quantitative work was the only path to truth.

There was very little training in qualitative research methods and the only dissertation option for Brené was quantitative. As a career professor and researcher she describes how the way to get on was through “if you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist”. Brené Brown cites her light bulb moment in the 1990s when Paul Raffoul a professor gave her a copy of the editorial by Ann Hartman ‘Many Ways of Knowing’. “In the editorial Hartman wrote: This editor takes the position that there are many truths and there are many ways of knowing. Each discovery contributes to our knowledge, and each way of knowing deepens our understanding and adds another dimension to our view of the world… Both the scientific and the artistic methods provide us with ways of knowing.”

As coaches it seems to me we work with stories all the time. Our clients often open a session with a story, which requires deep listening and probing to begin untangling the story. Imagine a very tangled necklace, it may need more that one pair of hands. Just in the same way a client may find using a coach key to untangling their story and their thinking. For a client to achieve their goals they are often taking risks dealing with their self esteem and pride. Ultimately to achieve their goal they must be in the arena. Returning to the Roosevelt quote “the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena”, in British parlance “you’ve got to be in it to win it”.

The arena could be any environment where we might show up and risk being seen, the classroom, the office, the interview, the teambuilding exercise, chairing the meeting. This is your arena, your moment of courage to be vulnerable, this is the difference from those who sit on the sidelines.
What is clear to me as a coach, every client will have a unique story. I never cease to be amazed by the capability of clients. What I personally advocate is we all need ‘stretch’ in our lives to do more or things different than we thought we could. For me this is healthy, it keeps us mentally fresh and sharp.

For this we need to be in our arena. Being in our arena means we will be vulnerable. Vulnerability is courage – “vulnerability is not winning or losing, it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome”. Think of that job interview – you put yourself forward with little or no control over the outcome. The personal risk, the vulnerability, the courage to apply. Other people, the sideline people, those who observe from the cheap seats are often quick to comment and dare I say criticise but not brave enough to put themselves in the arena. I am sure many of us have experienced the comments from the cheap seats, I have – and it is an important life rule to choose not to listen and don’t become a cheap seat commentator.

Brené Brown argues there are some basic principles, she calls them “basic terms of emotional physics – the rules of engagement for rising strong:
1. If we are brave enough often enough, we will fall at some point – getting up and learning from this is the key.

2. Once we fall in the service of being brave, we can never go back – when we are courageous and we try something new in our arena we are learning and therefore have built knowledge. For a coach this is the continuous development we should seek through reflection, supervision and application to practice.

3. This journey belongs to no one but you, however, no one successfully goes it alone – this is your clients journey and your journey as a coach a successful coaching/mentoring relationships knows when you are better together and when it is best to separate. Both client and coach should access their own CPD, peer support and networks – it is your journey.

4. We’re wired for story – neuroeconomist Paul Zak says hearing a story with a beginning, middle and end causes our brains to release cortisol and oxytocin chemicals trigger the ability to connect, empathise and draw out meaning.

5. Creativity embeds knowledge so that it can become practice. We move what we’re learning from our heads to our hearts through our hands – think of using rehearsal in coaching or working with a client who uses creativity to develop their ideas in a session.

6. Rising strong is the same process whether you’re navigating personal or professional struggles – our worlds overlap, there is no separation between business and personal. Clients often ask am I ok to talk about this? We are whole people, one part of our life affects the other.

7. Comparative suffering is a function of fear and scarcity – remember to respond with empathy and compassion.

8. You can’t engineer an emotional, vulnerable, and courageous process into an easy, one-size-fits-all formula – everyone of us is unique and a positive outcome will require effort and an element of risk. As coaches we must continually refine our skills to support clients and have access to supervision to support ourselves.

9. Courage is contagious – others will benefit from your courage.

10. Rising strong is a spiritual practice – Remember “grace will take you places hustling can’t” from Liz Gilbert’s Instagram.

Coaching with Silence

Martin Hill, Senior Tutor BSC

“As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.” Benjamin Franklin

In a couple of recent supervision sessions two coaches discussed sessions where they had asked few, if any, questions and yet at the end of the sessions it was evident that progress had been made and the client had thanked them for their assistance.


Both coaches were a little despondent and frustrated, saying that they had “done nothing” and were questioning what added value they had contributed. In fact, both had made a positive contribution, conscious (or even unconscious!) use of silence. That also fails to acknowledge the other significant contribution made by the coaches – laying strong and resilient foundations for the coaching relationship through careful, bespoke contracting, which built rapport and trust with each client which was evidenced by the client feeling confident enough, and comfortable with the use of silence by the coach, to disclose information and innermost thoughts.

This led me to reflect on the use of silence in relation to coaching sessions and the following points occurred to me:

• The Silence of the Client – even more frightening for a coach than the Silence of the Lambs!! Here I am assuming that the client is in a “healthy” state, as Julie Starr in The Coaching Manual, describes i.e. they are able to actively and fully participate in a session. The critical factors here for me are the timing of the silence and also the context of the silence.

– Timing – when the silence occurs is interesting to reflect upon. If the silence occurs near to the start of the session (or the relationship), this could be an indication of the client “testing the water” to see if it is safe to engage. My own coaching practice is that in advance of the initial session I forward copies of my coaching agreement, my profile, code of ethics and also a “What is coaching” document. In the session I then check for understanding, and specifically always explain what confidentiality means. I also ask the client if they wish to add anything into the coaching agreement. I have found that this approach assists in quickly developing trust and rapport with the clients, as opposed to simply addressing this verbally in the first session.
If the silence persists, or if it appears later in the coaching relationship, as a coach I begin to evaluate whether the client is ready to be coached (or still engaged with the coaching intervention) and, also, whether I am the right coach for that client.
Mick Cope in The Secrets of Success in Coaching, [2010] Pearson Education Limited, states “As a coach you are there to help the client deliver value through sustainable change- not to do it for them. But this leads to the question: do they want to change, or like so many people who try to change, do they just want to want to? In essence, you need to identify those who can and want to change, as opposed to those who won’t or can’t.”
Cope then outlines what I refer to as The 5 P tool, which describes five category of client, in a descending scale: Players, Participants, Passengers, Prisoners and Protestors. If dealing with a Prisoner or Protestor do not forget to consider your own interests as the coach- do you really want to coach the person? What is the risk that this could pose to your reputation or your practice? What countermeasures can you take to minimise the risk?
– Context – reflect on when the silence occurs – what preceded it? Is the silence evidence of the client reflecting? There may be clues from the position of the client’s eyes or from other body language. Alternatively, is the silence evidence of disengagement or avoidance. Watch out for mounting that white charger and going into rescuer mode! Some clients can use silence to avoid addressing the issue. One of the skills that you will quickly develop as your coaching experience grows is knowing when to break that silence.
Reflect on what your practice is when faced with a silent client? Is this an area for improvement – is it part of your coach continuous development plan? Is it one of the elements you focus upon in as part of your reflective practice.

• Boundary Management – once again the focus here is the silent client. Silence could be an early indicator for you as the coach that the client may need a different type of intervention other than coaching – for example counselling or therapy. Is there still a genuine, mutually engaged and active, coaching relationship? Once again the timing and context are critical factors, as will be the client’s behaviour, actions and emotional state. Consider your own coaching practice – have you planned for this arising? How will you deal with this? Have you identified referral points of contact?

• Contracting – How do you prepare your clients for the use of silence? One of the things I have realised on reflecting on my own coaching practice is that I ensure that each coaching agreement is bespoke to each client by specifically asking them about any particular preferences – for example, learning styles, and highlight that silence will be one of the tools that I will be using and seeking their permission/consent to this. This means that they do not start to be distracted by the silence, wondering what is going on etc. My experience has been that this has led to faster engagement and has reinforced trust and rapport.

• Self-Management – as a coach, your ability to use and manage silence is a good indicator as to your ability to manage your “self” as a coach. Resist the urge to jump in or interrupt – that could distract your client’s thought process, or, it could reduce the impact of a powerful question that you asked – the one that would have provoked a “aha” or lightbulb moment! By breaking the silence, you let the client off the hook of having to answer that question. Reflect on your own coaching practice – are you more aligned to a Trappist monk approach (honouring the silence) or a Ski- Jumper (leaping in)?

• Questioning – to quote Ronan Keating (I NEVER envisaged the day when I would use that phrase!!) “You say it best, when you say nothing at all”. OK, stop singing now, I apologize for creating that Earworm! Silence can be a powerful form of questioning – but beware that you make sure that it does not enter the realm of confrontation or oppression. Silence is a good response when the client responds to your question by asking “What do you think?” If the client is silent – that is often a prompt for questions to explore what was going on and what they were thinking of.

• Challenge – similar to questioning, the use of silence can be a form of challenge to the client – prompting the client to reflect or evaluate what they have said or thought. Again, be careful as to how silence is used and avoid it becoming oppressive or confrontational.

• Duration – the reason why silence is so powerful is that we have a natural human instinct to interact with others and it can feel very uncomfortable breaking those societal norms by using silence. There is no golden rule as to how long an “appropriate” silence should last – each client and each situation is different. One of the key skills that I have always seen develop as coaches gain more experience, is that they become more comfortable in handling silence and the duration of those silences increases as their experience increases. Reflect on your practice – do you allow the silence to be used to maximum effect? Is this something that could be improved upon? Have you tried timing a minute’s silence – how did it feel? Longer or shorter than you imagined? Comfortable or uncomfortable?

• Evidence of ethical and professional coaching – my approach when asked if I am coaching a particular individual (or team) or when asked to disclose additional information beyond that contracted with the client (and sponsor) can be best depicted by the following image.

Silence is not simply desirable in these situations, it is critical. The wartime slogan was “Loose Lips Cost Lives”, as a coach our slogan should perhaps be: “Loose Lips Costs Clients and Your Reputation”.

• Critical Review/Reflection – Finally, as a coach, critical review/reflection is an essential skill that you will need to develop to ensure your own continuous professional development. The use of a short period of silence after a coaching session is a useful practice to develop as this enables you to capture key highlights from the session and also serves to “ground” yourself as preparation for the next client.

Finally, how could I deal with the topic of silence without quoting from Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence”. Silence in coaching is “People talking without speaking”.

What is meant by critical analysis?

At the British School of Coaching (BSC) we are proud of the quality of all our programmes, including ILM Level 7 programmes such as Level 7 Certificate and Diploma in Executive Coaching and Mentoring, Level 7 Certificate and Diploma in Coaching Supervision. Level 7 qualifications are designed to be consistent with Master’s level qualifications of higher education (MA, MSc, MPhil). 

BSC learners benefit from studying in small groups with 1 to 1 personal tutor support, one area of discussion is; “what is meant by critical analysis”?

The requirement to be ‘critical’ is a key component of level 7 qualifications, for example to critically analyse or review. Ofqual (which regulates general and vocational qualifications in the England) provides Level 7 descriptors, as follows:

For knowledge and understanding, the descriptor includes requirement that the learner: “Critically analyses, interprets and evaluates complex information, concepts and theories to produce modified conceptions.” (Ofqual, 2015, Qualification and Component Levels Requirements and Guidance for All Awarding Organisations and All Qualification, p 8)

In relation to skills, the descriptor includes the requirement that the learner is able to: “Critically evaluate actions, methods and results and their short- and long-term implications.” (Ofqual, 2015, Qualification and Component Levels Requirements and Guidance for All Awarding Organisations and All Qualification, p 8)

Over the years we have learnt that sometimes learners struggle with the requirements of Level 7 assignments and assessment.  For example, we may find the following written exchange on the mark sheet for a Level 7 assignment:

Assessment Criterion – ‘Critically assess the contribution of coaching to improve both individual and organisational performance.’

Feedback – ‘You have provided a detailed description of the contribution of coaching to improve both individual and organisational performance, but there is limited critical assessment.’

In a recent debate hosted by the organisation Intelligence Squared in Sydney Australia, and aired on the BBC, a member of the panel, Professor John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy, University of St. Andrews, opens the debate by suggesting “the capacity for critical engagement and reflection is diminishing. He went on to say “we used to say I disagree and this is why…. We now say I feel and I am offended”. Professor Haldane went on to share his observations, which he described as a trend that if you disagree with the prevailing view there is less likely to be a space to present your thinking, your critical review and arguments. This made me think of examples when the popular view becomes the ‘right’ one. I wonder is this because individuals follow the feelings rather than listening analysing the evidence and reflecting?

I also wonder whether the space to listen and reflect has reduced through the need for an answer.  If we are not seen to have an instant view on something we are thought less off.  I have experience of clients who shared examples of feeling under pressure to provide an immediate answer without being allowed an opportunity to consider the reasons for and against.  One client described this as “it isn’t fashionable to think”. I wonder whether immediate decision making is considered efficient and therefore productive? That if the majority have a certain opinion it must be the “right”, almost out sourcing our critical thinking to a third party. This reminds me of times, when I have said, “this idea must have been thought through” – I can’t be the only person who’s said this?  Whilst I recognise the good stuff of information sharing on social media I also think the instant nature of it creates emotional followers rather than informed followers or informed thinkers.

So thinking critically requires deeper thinking, we need time to think. But first what does ‘critical’ mean, in this academic context?  And how does it differ from description?

First, to dispel some common misconceptions – being critical is not being negative, condemnatory or simply pointing out what is wrong with something such as an idea, a theory, or evidence.

Thinking positively, here are some definitions of what being critical is:

•    “Being thoughtful, asking questions, not taking things you read or hear at face value. It means finding information and understanding different approaches and using them in your writing” (www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/postgraduate/taught/learning-resources/critical).
•    “Critical thinking is the process of applying reasoned and disciplined thinking to a subject….. You will need to develop reasoned arguments based on a logical interpretation of reliable sources of information” (http://www2.open.ac.uk/students/skillsforstudy/critically-processing-what-you-read.php).
•    “… a form of intelligent criticism which helps people to reach independent and justifiable conclusions ..” (Moran AP (1997 Managing Your Own Learning at University, University College, Dublin, quoted in University of Bradford Academic Skills Advice Critical Analysis – So what does that REALLY mean”)

These definitions (from the University of Edinburgh, the Open University and Bradford University) are complementary and to me the key points are:
•    understanding information
•    reasoned and disciplined thinking
•    questioning and challenging
•    evaluating information
•    developing your argument
•    drawing conclusions

Let’s look at these in turn.

•    Understanding.  Before you can be critical of anything you have to be really sure you understand it – whether it is a theory, a model, an idea, an aspect of coaching practice, research evidence.  Usually, when writing critically you will need to describe (say what it is in some detail) the ideas, models, theories, evidence that you are going to be critical of.

•    Reasoned and disciplined thinking. This is a development from understanding – now you really understand the ideas think about them logically and carefully.

•    Questioning and challenging.  Don’t take what you read or hear at face value – question if the information is valid and reliable, is there bias in the information, are conclusions supported by the evidence provided, was the methodology used to collect the evidence appropriate, could there have been a conflict of interest between the author and funding body? Show why the information you have used is relevant and appropriate – is it up-to-date? If not, will this undermine its value? Is the information from a reliable source – e.g. a peer-reviewed journal or an established academic authority?

•    Evaluating. Come to a judgement on the strengths and weaknesses of the information (whether your or other’s research findings, theories and models from the literature, your own ideas) you have described; this can also involve weighing up one piece of information against another.

•    Developing your argument.  This builds on the reasoning, questioning and challenging – develop your argument using logical interpretation of information.

•    Drawing conclusions.  What are the implications of your analysis and interpretation of the information? To go back to the initial example, can you conclude that coaching makes a positive contribution to personal and organisational performance? Is coaching generally effective but with limitations? Or has your analysis of the information led you to conclude that coaching is no more effective than standard performance management?

Conclusion
 
The key differences between a ‘descriptive’ piece of work and ‘critical’ writing is that the former simply demonstrates what you know. The latter demonstrates that you have thought about what you know sufficiently to be able to make a judgement about the information and draw conclusions from it.

Further reading:
Series of guides and tips from University of Bradford Academic Skills Advice
Series of guides from University of Edinburgh Institute for Academic Development
Guide on critical writing and a guide on critical reading from University of Leicester
Intelligence Squared

The content of a coaching session: the art of elephant spotting

Martin Hill, Senior Tutor BSC

My previous blogs explored the topics of “Beginning A Coaching Relationship” and “Endings In A Coaching Relationship”. In this blog I will be exploring the content of the coaching session and, in particular, how the coach needs to ensure that the true topic/issue has been issued – the art of spotting the elephant in the room.

Sounds easy doesn’t it? A lot of the coaching models that you will be familiar with also give that impression – for example GROW – the first item on the agenda is to identify and agree the goal. Unfortunately, the first declared goal may not be the real goal – in other words the elephant has not yet been spotted. This may be for a variety of reasons – the coachee may feel nervous; feel a sense of shame or a fear of failure – it may even be the case that the coachee is unsure or uncertain.

Here are some of my tools and tips that I have gleaned from my own coaching and supervisory practice and which help ensure that the elephant is spotted and appropriately dealt with:
•    Preparations – the pre-session contact and information that you forward to the coachee can play a critical role in scene setting, managing expectations and providing the foundations for building trust and rapport. How do you “contract”? Including the coachee in the process and exploring their preferences/ expectations pays dividends in this regard – for example establishing their learning style preference (which enables the coach to plan for that) or establishing their understanding of, and tolerance for, challenge.

•    Confidentiality – you know that you have established trust and rapport when the coachee feels confident to disclose personal, often their innermost, thoughts and feelings. The greater the attention you pay to explaining confidentiality, and agreeing the boundaries thereof together, the more likely it is that the elephant will come out into the open. Remember though that elephants do not like shocks or surprises – beware of promising “total confidentiality” as there are things that may arise that require disclosure and if you have not fully explained this or checked for mutual understanding – the elephant may well stampede and retreat into the distance.

•    Patience – relax and be prepared to play the long game. Each coachee is unique and will have their own bespoke coaching experience. Bear in mind as well the nature of the coaching engagement as this may be a contributory factor in making the coachee feel safe and relaxed – for example internal coaches may notice that it takes longer to establish total trust and rapport with internal coachees, compared to external coachees.

•    Check-In To Check-Out – even if the goal/topic has been identified and the session is focused on this, take the opportunity from time to time throughout the session to “check in” with the coachee and “check out” that this remains the most pressing or relevant goal or topic that the coachee needs to discuss.

•    Questioning – Use of clear and focused questioning can help unearth the true issues. In “Enabling Genius” (2016), LID Publishing Ltd Myles Downey outlines that one of “the means of managing one’s thinking …is called the ‘floodlight and spotlight’. Floodlight comes first. Floodlighting shines light on the whole territory and into every nook and cranny. It includes what one notices, what one thinks about, what one intuits, imagines, feels and desires. Floodlight is followed by spotlight and the best question to focus the spotlight is: what stands out? Or what is most interesting? Cliff Kimber…asks this question frequently: ‘What do you need to think clearly about?’” Think of this in relation to your coaching practice – does your questioning generate floodlight and spotlight thinking?

•    Use the AWE question – “The Coaching Habit” – Michael Bungay Stanier (2016) Box of Crayons Press uses this tool – the AWE question is (drum roll please)… “And What Else?” This can even be used at the goal/topic discussion stage – do not just accept the first declared goal, follow it up with AWE!

•    Intuition – as your confidence as a coach grows, you will notice that you are becoming more adept at sensing or feeling (a “gut reaction”) the non-declared topics/issues. This intuition is something to pay attention to, but always needs to be carefully managed. Always seek permission to check out if the intuitive sense is accurate, and/or is something that the coachee is content to explore.

•    Observation – the elephant in the room may be spotted by your observations – not just visual but also active listening. For example you may notice discordance in body language or expressed emotions by the coachee when they are talking. Another concept to be aware of comes from Hawkins & Shohet’s Seven Eyed Supervision model – “parallel process”. This could include the situation where the coaching session with the coachee mirrors how the coachee acts/behaves normally –sometimes contradicting what they are telling you in the session. It may be useful to explore this with the client by asking them to describe how they approach a task etc. The coach would then highlight what they have observed and the discordance. For example one coachee was describing her frustration with her second in command and spent some time explaining what the coachee was doing to address that and expressing confusion and frustration at the fact that it was not working. The session was interrupted by a knock on the door and I had a ring side seat and was able to hear the interaction between the two. When the session resumed, I played back what the coachee had initially described about her own behaviours and actions and contrasted that with the interaction I had just overheard which evidenced the complete opposite! A powerful tool which worked wonders.

•    Use of knowledge – as the coach you may come into possession of knowledge or information that is unknown to the coachee. This is where Johari’s Window can be a really powerful tool to use and help the coachee explore their own “blind spot” and the “unknown” arena as well.

•    Materials- Have you got everything that you need – pen, paper? Sometimes using a different learning style or using creativity in the session can expose the elephant. For example a coachee struggled to talk about an emotional issue; until I suggested that we tried a visual representation of the subject – hey presto!  Make sure you keep your “coaching kitbag” stocked and also make sure that you keep it current and topical to suit your practice.

•    Challenge – be ready to challenge the elephant in the room – especially if it has not been “noticed”, or acknowledged by the coachee.

•    How do you eat an elephant?

Make sure you deal with the elephant by setting small “baby” steps for action – make sure that they are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) and get the coachee to visualise and describe what the successful completion of the action will look and feel like , what will others notice; what will people be saying etc.

•    Suspend Judgement – maintain neutrality no matter what is disclosed. Simply acknowledge, accept and explore.

I hope that this has provided a catalyst for your own thoughts and reflections and I would be interested to hear from you with your own comments or observations (email Martin@britishschoolofcoaching.com).

Endings in a Coaching Relationship

Martin Hill, Senior Tutor BSC

“Endings are not always a bad thing; it just means that something new can begin” PictureQuotes.com

In this blog I thought it may be useful to draw on the lessons I have learned from my own coaching and supervisory practice relating to endings in a coaching relationship.

Ironically, before I explore the topic of endings, I need to look at beginnings. Stephen Covey (“Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”) highlighted that Habit Two is “Begin with the End in Mind”. What does that mean? www.businessballs.com (accessed 25/03/16) states “Covey calls this the habit of personal leadership – leading oneself that is, towards what you consider your aims. By developing the habit of concentrating on relevant activities you will build a platform to avoid distractions and become more productive and successful.” Ok – so what does that mean for you as a coach? For me, it means ensuring that your coaching preparations lay the foundations for the whole of the relationship, including planning the ending phase-but more on that later.

Enough of the beginnings, already – let’s get to endings. The title of the blog is not a typographical error – as a coach you may encounter a variety of endings in the course of a coaching relationship. In the course of a recent group supervision discussion I facilitated at a British School of Coaching UK Coaching Network, asking the group of coaches what they understood “endings” to mean, generated the following insights:
•    The end of a topic/goal discussion within a session, so that the discussion moved to the next topic/goal

•    When, and how, to draw a session to an end (linking in to time management of the session)

•    The ending of the coaching relationship itself – this prompts me to pose the following questions for you, dear reader, to reflect on for your own coaching practice:
– Was the ending planned or unplanned?
– What was the catalyst for the ending?
– Who ended the relationship –coach or coachee?
– How was it ended?

•    How does one know when a goal/objective has been achieved and thus can be ended? How are outcomes reviewed? Who is involved in that review-coach alone? Coachee alone? Coach and coachee? Coach, coachee and organisational sponsor?

The other nervousness highlighted when discussing endings with my coach supervisees, is how to actually deal with the topic of ending with the coachee. One approach is what I describe as the “It’s not you, it’s me” style conversation. Even writing that phrase, I could feel the aftershock-like tremors of memories being jogged by the earthquake shock of painful reminiscences of long ago relationships!! Remember having those conversations, or being on the receiving end of one? How did that feel? How long before you stopped dissecting the ins and outs?

One of the risks of the “It’s not you, it’s me” style in a coaching relationship is that it masks the real reasons for the ending. If you are operating a professional and ethical coaching practice, I am sure that the values of honesty, openness and transparency are of fundamental importance to you. The ending will be easier for you and the coachee to deal with if it is discussed in an open, objective and evidenced fashion. For example – “Our discussions about topic x, are outside my field of experience and I think that a different coach with that knowledge may be more useful for you. I may be able to help you with finding that coach if you would like.”

What about another approach? Remember my promise to return to the planning phase? When I am agreeing my coaching contract/agreement with the coachee and organisation I ensure that my planning includes anticipating potential endings. This means that we agree who, how and when can terminate the coaching relationship. Notice anything missing from that list? My contract does not specify grounds/examples for the coaching relationship to be terminated. This is because I identified that this could be a barrier to the issue being raised, especially for the coachee potentially, and this in turn would mean that the effectiveness of the coaching relationship would be diminished.  However, it’s YOUR contract and YOUR choice what goes in to it.

The other feature in my coaching contract/agreement with the coachee and organisation, and which I draft together with them, are what I describe as my “expectations” section. I outline what the coachee/organisation can expect from myself as the coach (and sometimes specify what it does not include, e.g. I am not here to provide advice to you) and also what I expect from them as coachee/organisation – e.g. punctuality; to turn up with pen and paper; to take ownership for the agreed actions.

The beauty of the coaching contract/agreement approach is that this provides a depersonalised mechanism to review the effectiveness of the relationship and discuss and decide if ending is appropriate. The contract/agreement can focus on behaviours that were agreed, but which have not been honoured etc. As a coach, I find that this gives me a mechanism to challenge the coachee and this usually serves as a prompt to bring them back on track.

Here are some of the factors that I have noticed that help build an effective and successful framework for dealing with endings within the coaching relationship:
•    Contracting – Take time to identify all the players involved as there may be a multiplicity of parties- for example, coach, coachee, sponsor (HR), line manager, department head, organisation etc. etc. This also influences what documentation may be needed – for example the “formal” legal contract (dealing with fees, deliverables, termination, confidentiality etc.) needs to be agreed with the “sponsor”, but I also ensure that the coachee in these situations completes a coaching agreement which outlines what they can expect from myself as the coach, what is expected of them, confidentiality and termination and cancellation). Think what may be needed for your own practice. Review your coaching agreement/contract. Does it cover what they can expect from you as the coach and what is expected from them as the coachee? Does it cover termination? If not – what are you going to do?

•    Values/beliefs – Let me paraphrase a quotation “To coach others, you must first know yourself”. Not only do you need to ensure that you know your own values and beliefs, you must make sure that your practice and behaviours are consistent with them- this can often avoid unexpected endings from arising in the first place.

•    Know when to say “No”-  If there is no beginning, there can be no end – so be clear who  you decide to coach and/or be clear about what actions you are prepared to undertake as coach (e.g. notes; chase ups; out of session contact etc. etc.).Reflect on those choices and challenge and review them regularly.

•    “Permissions”- If in doubt, ask – seek permission from the coachee to check things out. Really useful, for example, when dealing with the outcomes review. I would recommend that as a minimum this should be done by the coach and coachee together; but why not also consider inviting the line manager/organisational representative to part of the review session, with the coachee’s permission. (See my blog on permissions here)

•    Regular Reviews – earlier in the blog I mentioned planned and unplanned endings. A planned ending could arise where you have agreed to undertake, for example, five sessions. A good practice to develop is to introduce regular reviews, mine, for instance is after every 3rd session. This is simply a quick “coaching MOT” check – are you content with the relationship; does anything need changing; are actions being generated? Is value being added? If the answers to any of these are negative then this is a prompt to recontract and agree, or, to agree to end the relationship. Unplanned endings can, as the name implies, arise at any time. The same approach of discussing and recontracting or agreeing to end the relationship.

•    Boundary Management – make sure that you know the boundaries for your own competence- and do not overstretch. Also make sure you do not stray into counselling or advising mode. I would also suggest reflecting on the hypothetical situations when you would decide that you would have to end the coaching relationship. Review those situations – are they covered in your coaching contract/agreement? If not – time to review and revise.

•    “I’m OK, You’re OK”- endings can be emotional – make sure that you check that the coachee is ok and can get back ok. Similarly, give yourself time to review, recollect yourself, reflect and reboot.

•    Location – This links in to the topic above- if you anticipate that the relationship may be coming to an end in the next session, especially if you anticipate emotional or difficult responses, plan where and when to hold that session – the primacy concern being that of safety for yourself and the coachee.

•    Supervision/Support – Endings can generate emotional responses- both conscious and sub-consciously. Reflect on the support networks you have to draw upon (supervision, peers etc.) – is anything else needed or are these sufficient? What did you do to recalibrate?  Could that be used again? Could that be improved?

•    Adopt a 3R Evaluation Approach – Review, Reflect & Revise – following each coaching session that you conduct, seek feedback from the coachee, but also take time to review the session, reflect on what you did and what the effect was; also consider what worked well, what could have been improved on or what could have been done differently. Finally, if the reflection leads you to conclude that something needs to change, and then revise your approach before the next session. Does the ending generate the need to review and revise your coaching contract/agreement or coaching approach?

I hope that this has provided a catalyst for your own thoughts and reflections and I would be interested to hear from you with your own comments or observations.

In my next blog, I will look at the content of coaching relationships and the art of elephant spotting!!

For more blogs like this visit www.britishschoolofcoaching.com/blog/

Beginning a Coaching Relationship

Martin Hill, Senior Tutor BSC

“Let us watch well our beginnings, and results will manage themselves” –Alexander Clark

In this blog I thought it may be useful to draw on the lessons I have learned from my own coaching and supervisory practice relating to the beginning of a coaching relationship with a new client.

Frequently coaches say that they achieved rapport and gained trust, but when asked what they did and how they did it, they frequently are unable to do so. This can even apply to experienced coaches. The risk as one becomes more consciously competent is that complacency can begin to creep in and we begin to take some skills and behaviours almost for granted, meaning we give them less focus and attention. I would recommend taking some time to review and reflect what you do and consider how you managed to create a safe environment that helped to build trust and rapport.

Here are some of the factors that I have noticed that help build an effective and successful coaching relationship:
– Preparatory Actions- Even before the first session is held, your preparatory actions can be critical in building a sense of trust and rapport with your coachee. Do you always follow up your potential leads? How is that done? Have you got your “elevator pitch” fine-tuned? Prior to a first session I forward my coachees a copy of my profile, a brief explanation about what coaching is, a copy of the proposed coaching contract/agreement and a copy of the Code of Ethics I follow. The advantage of that is that the first session spends minimal times on dealing with these “administrative” necessities, and the majority of the session is focused on coaching. The pre-session material outlines what the coachee can expect of me, and also the expectations of them.

– Research Preparation- taking the time to research the coachee and/or organisation is something that can potentially reap huge dividends- not only does it illustrate a professional and committed approach, but it can provide you with background knowledge that can be used to make the coachee feel at ease and relax, once they realise that there is some element of common understanding.  Some coaches take this a stage further and ask the coachee about their preferred learning style or their “challenge” preference/tolerance. This can enable the coach to adapt their coaching style to accommodate those preferences. Bear in mind, however, that sometimes it is useful to “stretch” someone by choosing a different style – but that is something that is likely to be more productive once the coaching relationship has had time to establish.

– Contracting- Again this is a preparatory element – who do you have to contract with? This could be a 2 way contract (between coach and coachee directly) or a 3 way contract (coach, coachee and sponsor). Take time to scope all the players involved as there may be a multiplicity of parties- for example, coach, coachee, sponsor (HR), line manager, department head, organisation etc. etc. This also influences what documentation may be needed – for example the “formal” legal contract (dealing with fees, deliverables, termination, confidentiality etc.) needs to be agreed with the “sponsor”, but I also ensure that the coachee in these situations completes a coaching agreement which outlines what they can expect from myself as the coach, what is expected of them, confidentiality and termination and cancellation). Think what may be needed for your own practice. Finally, this may also assist with who should be invited to attend the first session – I have found it useful to invite , having discussed with the coachee, the line manager so that the coachee and line manager can both hear me outline what will happen in the session and critically, what confidentiality means- which helps build trust as the coachee knows there is not going to be a separate conversation between coach and line manager ( which could create doubts or concerns about what will be discussed at that meeting) and also means that the line manager and coachee are clear about what the coaching sessions will focus on, which avoids misconceptions and misunderstandings arising.

– Chemistry Session- some coaches offer “chemistry” sessions or calls so that coach and coachee can discuss preliminary matters and establish whether they can work with one another. Some coaches offer the first coaching session as a “free” session at which they cover similar matters to those outlined in “preparatory actions” above- explaining what coaching is; dealing with the contract etc. This can be done face to face or by telephone or Skype.

– Location- This depends on how the coaching intervention is going to be conducted – it could be face to face or it could be done remotely via telephone or Skype. Whatever the method, ensure that the coaching room is a “safe” environment – not just for the coachee, but also for you. Make sure that the room is comfortable and that interruptions can be minimised, if not entirely avoided.  Make sure that you get there early to set the room up to ensure that the coachee feels relaxed and focused.

– Dress- wear something that helps you feel comfortable, relaxed and professional. It is worth checking as well with the coachee, if you are coaching at their organisation’s premises, whether they have a particular dress code that needs to be followed.

– Materials- Have you got everything that you need –pen, paper, laptop, charger etc.? Make sure you keep your “coaching kitbag” stocked and also make sure that you keep it current and topical to suit your practice.

– Authentic Self- Edna Murdoch once said “Who You Are Is How You Coach” – [2010] Personnel Zone. Make sure that you are behaving as your natural self and being true to your values and beliefs. Sometimes assumptions and presumptions can be made by a coach about what they think the coachee is expecting about how they behave and act and this can lead to the coach overcompensating or undercompensating their own skills and behaviours. If you are not being true to self, not only will you feel uncomfortable – but the probability is that the coachee will notice – at the very least it will affect the session flow and feeling of naturalness.

– Adopt a 3R Evaluation Approach- Review, Reflect & Revise- following each coaching session that you conduct, seek feedback from the coachee, but also take time to review the session, reflect on what you did and what the effect was; also consider what worked well, what could have been improved on or what could have been done differently. Finally, if the reflection leads you to conclude that something needs to change, and then revise your approach before the next session.

I hope that this has provided a catalyst for your own thoughts and reflections and I would be interested to hear from you with your own comments or observations.

In my next blog, I will look at the ending of coaching relationships.

Permissions to Coach

Martin Hill, Senior Tutor

One of the recurring topics that I have noticed in my supervisionary practice is the issue of contracting within the coaching session itself. Most coaches put a lot of focus and attention on the formal legal contract which governs the coaching intervention-especially the bits about payment, cancellations, terminations etc.etc. However the informal contracting that arises within the session itself rarely attracts the same levels of attention and focus.

What do I mean by informal contracting? It is the practice of ensuring that you have the client’s permission, or consent for any new development or initiative that may arise within a session. For example, the client may start a session by declaring that they wish to discuss a particular topic or goal, but as the session develops a different one arises. How do you manage that when it arises within your own practice?  I check in with the client, highlight what had arisen and then ask which topic or goal they now wish to focus on. By actively seeking that permission, both the client and I were clear as to the focus for the rest of the session and the aims, outputs and outcomes that were to be aimed for.

Here are some of the occasions when the need for permissions may arise:
•    Boundary Management – you may have contracted to coach the client within the constraints of certain boundaries; for example, you may be hired by an organisation to deliver coaching for a particular organisational goal, such as leadership or management development. If the coachee then wishes to expand the scope of the session to their own personal development. Not only would the expectations of the coachee have to be managed, but it may also necessitate the coach having to “park” that topic until the permission of the organisation had been sought to expand the initially agreed parameters of the coaching intervention. (NB As you gain wider experience as a coach, you can often avoid such issues arising, by anticipating developments that may arise and addressing those in your initial formal contracting with the sponsor.)

•    Role Management – sometimes in sessions, subject to this being within the coach’s range of competence and ability, the role of the coach may need to shift, for example to mentor role, in order to assist the client’s learning or knowledge to enable them to develop their own options and ideas. By actively seeking permission to shift roles, and then to shift back, the client and the coach are both clear as to which role the coach is in and thus which boundaries or rules apply for that role- thus, managing expectations for each.

•    Confidentiality Issues – in the, hopefully, rare occasions when a coach is faced with a situation where confidentiality has to be broken because of something that has arisen in a session, it is critical that the coach explains that disclosure needs to be made and seeks the client’s permission to do so. This is a rare occasion where, if the client refused permission, the coach needs to explain that their professional and ethical obligations mean that the disclosure must be made.

•    Feedback – this is a key tool and skill that a coach can use to really help the client to gain a wider perspective and understanding. In order to “signpost” to the client, and thus ensure that they are actively listening and are focused, I find it is useful to say something such as “Would it assist if I provided some feedback?” or “May I provide some feedback or observations?”  This also provides clarity and understanding.

•    Challenge – although challenge is a key, distinguishing feature of coaching from other interventions, each client has a different “tolerance” level or preference to how that challenge occurs. The style of challenge is something I specifically address in sessions and seek permission, having agreed the preferred approach. Actively seeking this permission manages the client’s expectations and helps build rapport and trust. In fact, my reflection on my own practice is that the majority of clients actively desire a strong level of challenge, as and when appropriate.

•    Use of tools/models – it is often useful to seek client’s permission when thinking of using a model or tool as not only does this provide an opportunity to explain that particular intervention and how it will work, but it also helps build rapport and trust as it makes the client feel more comfortable and relaxed as they have a greater awareness of what is taking place.

•    Supervision – if planning to record the session for supervision purposes; or if it is to be an observed session – ensure that client’s express permission and consent is obtained. Even if your supervisionary practice is to engage in post session discussion  of anonymised sessions with your supervisor or peer or group supervision colleagues, then it is useful to explain this to your client and seek permission.

The above is not an exhaustive list. In short you will find that the more transparent and collaborative approach you take to informal contracting/permissions, the more successful the coaching interventions tend to be as there is greater clarity for both coach and client and thus greater rapport and trust.

Permissions + Rapport/Trust Building = Success

Resolutions - A goal setting lesson

Martin Hill, Senior Tutor BSC

“Resolutions are most often empty promises for those who have an abundance of dreams, but refuse to wake up and live them”- Dr Steve Maraboli.

 When we started the New Year everyone’s thoughts turned to setting resolutions. A boom time for diet clubs and gym memberships. The media coverage also saturates our every moment with articles about resolutions, often “guilting” people into setting resolutions – and inevitably these resolutions are so unrealistically ambitious that they are designed to inevitably fail.

“What’s all this got to do with coaching?” I hear you ask. Well let’s look at the definition of resolution. “The act of resolving or determining upon an action, course of action, method, procedure, etc.” (www.dictionary.com) That definition sums up for me what I am trying to achieve in a coaching intervention with my clients.

Coaching should be goal based and action-orientated. So what lessons can we learn from our resolutions experience and knowledge?

• Whose is it? Notice the influence of media or peer pressure? If the resolution or goal is not wholly owned and believed in by the individual – you’re doomed before you start. The resolution or goal must be desired by, believed in and owned by the individual- have you connected head, hand and heart?
• Realistic? Unless you’re called Tim Peake you’re goal to become an ambition is perhaps more Star Farce than Star Wars. But it took Tim Peake from 2008 until 2015 to achieve that ambition. If it is an ambitious, big, goal – bear in mind the proverb “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”. Make the goal attainable by setting small steps and ensuring that there is always a future, forward facing, focus.
• Get back on the bike- even with the most committed, the road to embedding the new resolution is often not a straight A to B journey. Falls and setups are inevitable, to quote Nat King Cole:

“Nothing’s impossible, I have found
For when my chin is on the ground.
I pick myself up,
Dust myself off
And start all over again.”

Your job as the coach is help the individual reflect, reassess and then re-motivate them.
Keeping with the theme of resolutions – you will undoubtedly be setting your personal resolutions – but what about your coaching resolutions? Need some food for thought?

• Review and refresh your Continuing Professional Development plan – does it address your needs AND your business needs?
• Widen your network – what plans do you have to increase your networking breadth? A gentle introduction could be the British School of Coaching’s Network - the next UK Network is May 2016 and the Middle East Network is February 2016
• Join a professional coaching body – remember all British School Of Coaching learners have affiliate membership of International Society of Qualified Coaches (ISQC) whilst they are studying. Look at the choices out there and select the one that suits your needs and your practice.
• Set a learning goal – what new skill do you want to learn or what do you want to improve?
• Continuous Improvement – how can you ensure that you extract every drop of learning from your own coaching interactions? What is your reflective learning practice? Why not embrace new technology and use your smart phone to make a voice recording to capture your thoughts, feelings and reflections immediately after the session – and then write up later, allowing for further reflection in the interim.
• Supervision – review and refresh your own supervision regime. Try a combination of approaches – individual or peer or group. An opportunity to sample a group supervision session is available at the British School of Coaching’s UK Network in May 2016.

Hope that gives you some food for thought. May I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2016!!

Reseraching your practice

Judith Barton, Director of Coaching&Mentoring

Once you have identified your research topic and refined your research question, the next stage is to decide on your design and methodology – what and how information you will collect to answer your question.  Once you have decided on these, a plan with SMART goals and a realistic timetable is necessary to ensure successful completion. 

Research Design

A key component of your question in determining the appropriate design is whether or not you want your results to be ‘generalisable’ – i.e. to apply to all similar research participants now and in the future; or are happy to find out what applies only to the people who actually participated in your project – a ‘snapshot in time’? The former will require statistical input to identify the sample size sufficient to answer your question; and the method of selection from all the possible participants in who you are interested (the sample)  - the method of randomisation. The latter is much more straightforward – the people in the organisation or setting of interest who you can approach and who agree to participate. 

The nature of the design and methodology will be determined primarily by your research question, but may also be influenced by time and resources available to you. You might ideally wish to generate results which can be generalised, but in the real world time, expertise and other resources may lead you towards a snapshot approach. 

For the purpose of this blog, I am concentrating on research which looks at effectiveness – particularly the effectiveness (or otherwise) of coaching and mentoring. This could focus on the impact on an organisation; a single individual; or a number of individuals.  Examples of research methods which look at effectiveness include experimental, observational, surveys, case studies, qualitative research.  

Experimental research requires that the ‘research subjects’ or participants receive an intervention which is expected to have an impact on them and/or their organisation; measurements are taken before and after the intervention; and the researcher can conclude whether the intervention ‘makes a difference’ to the things which are being measured. Examples of interventions include executive coaching with Board level directors; performance coaching with middle managers; mentoring with young people.  

The ‘gold standard’ for identifying whether an intervention achieves its desired outcome is the ‘randomised controlled trial’ (RCT) (as used in trials of clinical interventions such as new medicines). Briefly, this method involves at least two groups (those receiving the intervention, the ‘experimental’ group’) and the ‘control’ group (who do not receive the experimental intervention).  ‘Before’ and ‘after’ measurements from each group are compared. The two groups are matched for key indicators – e.g. age, gender, level of seniority in the organisation. The total numbers and the numbers in each group are determined by a statistical process, the power calculation.  Research participants are allocated to each group by a process of randomisation, which means that each individual has an equal chance of being allocated to either group. The processes of the power calculation and randomisation improve the likelihood that the results are genuine and can be generalised or happened by chance and only apply to the individuals included.  

RCTs clearly involve complex, expensive, and time consuming processes. Whilst new medications cannot legally be brought to market without proven safety and effectiveness, other types of intervention can be evaluated by less intensive methods – although the results will not be as robust. A more readily used ‘before’ and ‘after’ comparison, either without a control group or with an unmatched control group would be the cohort study – when a group of people are assessed before the intervention – e.g. a programme of executive coaching - and again after the intervention has been completed.  If used with a single organisation this approach could be described as a case study, although a full case study would also involve analysis of the organisational context as well as the impact of the coaching programme. If involving a single individual this would also be a case study, but would not give any information beyond the individual concerned. 

Research Methods

When looking at impact or effectiveness of coaching and mentoring, organisational and individual indicators can be used – for example the impact of management coaching on sickness absence rates and/or on retention and turnover figures; or the reported well-being and motivation of coachees before and after the programme.  This approach (using both quantitative and qualitative methods) is described as a ‘multi-method’ study, rather obviously because - it involves more than one method.  The quantitative information includes those mentioned above – absence rates, turnover, or productivity, which organisations will be collecting routinely.  Information about individuals will probably need to be collected specially by the researcher. This could be achieved through questionnaires, individual interviews or focus groups. Questionnaires may be used to collect quantitative information (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity; or answers to ‘multiple choice’ questions) about participants and qualitative information with their attitudes and behaviour in respect of either giving or receiving the coaching.   

So, what do I mean by ‘quantitative’ information and ‘qualitative’ information? Fundamentally, the former is expressed in numbers; and the latter in language. Quantitative information is expressed through numbers – it may be rates, inputs such as hours worked or outputs such as the number of goods produced or services completed; or numbers may be allocated to linguistic answers (e.g. Male = 1; Female = 2; LGBTI = 3). Qualitative methods are especially useful for researching people’s feelings and thoughts about processes and allow you to probe more deeply into matters which could be quite sensitive.  Some examples of the main methods for collecting information are provided below, with some of the strengths and weaknesses identified. 

1 Questionnaire surveys – these are usually self-completed without you being present to offer clarification to the respondent.  These may be administered as paper documents or, more commonly now, online.  The benefits of questionnaires include the fact that they relatively inexpensive and easy to send out.  Weaknesses include the need to phrase questions so that there is absolutely no ambiguity about precisely what information is being requested and encouraging people to complete and return the questions.  Ease of analysis will depend on how well the questions are phrased and whether the answers requested are numerical or linguistic. A higher number of participants can be approached for the same resource input as interviews or focus groups.

2. Organisational information such as sickness absence rates and staff turnover are usually collected routinely – as a researcher you will need to be able to access this information. Some thought should be given to how this information will be analysed. 

3.  Semi-structured and structured interviews are often used to collect ‘feelings’ information from people, for example about how they experienced the process of coaching or being coached.  These have the advantage of the researcher being present so that the interviewee(s) can seek clarification and the researcher can probe more deeply into the answers provided. If you are wanting to ask about more sensitive and personal issues (e.g. career plans) interviews will have an advantage over focus groups in which people may not be willing to divulge their personal plans and ambitions.  These methods have the advantage of sharing some skills with coaching – e.g. building rapport, questioning and deep listening.  

4.  Focus groups can be useful in that the opinions a larger number of people can be collected at one session; and members of the group may ‘spark’ ideas off each other. Using group discussion will require some additional skills to individual interviews – e.g facilitating the discussion, ensuring all members of the group have opportunity to contribute, similar to team coaching.

There are some similarities in the skills required for research and for coaching, although the purpose is different – to collect information which will enable you to draw conclusions about the question you originally asked. 

Research Planning

As with any complex set of activities, successful achievements depends on a clear and realistic plan.  The precise details will of course depend on the specific details of the research project.  The following example of a plan is based on a case study approach to a research project which will evaluate the effectiveness of introducing a programme of coaching into an organisation.  The organisational plan is to provide Executive Coaching training to Board directors; and Performance Coaching to senior and middle managers. The middle managers will be trained in two consecutive cohorts – the cohort to be trained first will be the ‘experimental’ group and the second will the ‘control group’. Both groups will be asked about their motivation and commitment to the organisation and their engagement.  The research has been commission by the L&D Lead and will be carried out by an external researcher.

Task	Person responsible	Deadline
Coach training programme and associated research agreed.	Board	Day 1
Draft pro forma for collecting information from organisational sources – policy for introducing coaching, procedures for introducing coaching; quantitative information on sickness absence, turnover.	Researcher	Week 4
Draft interview topic guide (for Directors) and focus group guide (for managers and coachees)	Researcher	Week 4
Draft letters for trainee coaches and coachees	Researcher	Week 4
[Identify Board Directors to be trained as coaches	L&D Lead	Week 4
[Identify middle managers to be trained as coaches and allocate them to members of the 1st and 2nd cohorts;	L&D Lead	Week 4
Identify staff to be coached by both Directors and managers.	L&D Lead	Week 4
Negotiate details of research with organisation (HR, L&D, CEO) to have access to organisational information; and to approach trainee coaches and coachees to invite them to participate in the research. Specifically issues to do with confidentiality.	Researcher	Week 4
Pilot and refine as necessary pro forma; topic guide; focus group guide.	Researcher	Week 5
Collect baseline organisational information	Researcher	Week 6
Carry out baseline interviews with Directors	Researcher	Week 7
Carry out baseline focus groups	Researcher	Week 7
Interview Directors	Researcher	Week 25
Hold focus groups with trainee coaches and cohort 2.	Researcher	Week 26
Collect organisational information after the coaching training is completed.	Researcher	Week 27
Analyse organisational information	Researcher	Week 27
Analyse Director interviews	Researcher	Week 28
Analyse focus group information	Researcher	Week 29
First draft of research report	Researcher	Week 35
Review and refine research report	Researcher	Week 38
Submit final report to commissioner	Researcher	Week 39
Present key findings to Board	Researcher	Week 40

This plan includes activities which need to be carried out by other parties, in italics.  The purpose of this is to highlight the dependence of researchers on others.  It may take longer for the organisation to complete its tasks; and there may be reasons (outside the researcher’s control) why the timescale may drift – it is essential to be prepared for this and to be realistic in your timescale and to build in some ‘slack’ so that the eventuality that there are delays it remains likely that you will complete the project on time. 

My next blog will look at issues of data collection and analysis.