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| Judith Barton, Director of Coaching and Mentoring |
Professional
coaches are also practicing – practicing our skills, reviewing and reflecting
on how each coaching session progressed and the interactions which took
place. Finally, a coach must create an
accurate an accurate baseline. This sets out their strengths and areas for
improvement and leads to a personal development plan to be actioned. Once implemented, this plan is subject to
review, reflection and further planning for improvement. As part of this process, the coach must also
recognise and celebrate their strengths and achievements. This leads me to four
central tenets of running a coaching practice – which are: self-review supported
by supervision, maintaining their skills base; keeping up to date with research
and thinking about coaching practice; and ensuring that purchasers of coaching
understand the concept of ‘coaching practice’.
1:
Self review supported by supervision is critical. To be effective, review of practice should be
carried out soon after each session is completed. You will need to find your own balance between
being to close to the interaction to be objective; and too far to be able to
remember key points. Self-review on its
own however carries risks – that you will become overly self-critical or
insufficiently self-aware. In order to
ensure some degree of distance and to avoid getting too drawn into feeling that
you have to sort everything out on your own, the input of a supportive,
challenging and knowledgeable coaching supervisor is an equally critical
element of self-development. You should
choose a supervisor who understands your approach to coaching who is willing
and able to be both supportive and challenging to question your assumptions and
self-evaluation and provide a platform for continuous improvement of your
practice.
2:
Coaches need to Coach – this may sound obvious but coaching is not something
you can do once or twice a year whilst maintaining professional standards of
competence. I feel that I need to be practicing my coaching skills at least twice
per month. Coaching a number of
people who have different issues to resolve, different learning styles and
different interpersonal skills ensures that I can maintain a variety of
coaching skills and the ability to deploy these skills in working with a range
in types of client
3:
Keeping up with new thinking in coaching. As a professional coach I can only provide a
‘state of the art’ coaching experience for clients if I spend time on a regular
basis reading, evaluating and, where appropriate, working out how to use new
techniques in my coaching practice. I
regularly read a number of journals – Coaching At Work, Edge, Management Today,
Harvard Business Review – which keeping me up-to-date with not only coaching
theory and practice but also management thinking. As well as providing some coaching articles,
the latter keep me up to date with the issues which may be facing my clients in
their professional roles. In addition, I attend relevant conferences and CPD
events. For example, Association for
Coaching conferences, Institute of Leadership and Management events and coaching network's can
provide useful insights into developing my coaching practice and ensuring that
my practice is evidence-based and leading edge.
4:
Purchasers of Coaching need to understand the concept of practice. For those who purchase coaching, for
themselves or members of their leadership or management teams, it is critical
that they appreciate and seek out coaches who undertake regular supervision;
who maintain their coaching practice, at the appropriate level of seniority,
and who can demonstrate that they are up-to-date with the latest thinking and
practical skills. Purchasers have an
in-depth understanding of what they are purchasing and what they hope to
achieve for both individuals and the organisation. I will be further sharing my thoughts on ‘Selecting
the Right Coach’ in future blogs.
