Keep calm and get a coach in 2016

Judith Barton, Director of Coaching&Mentoring

As I reflect back on the previous year I find myself thinking of things I didn’t do and now become part of my must do list for 2016. A large part of my life focuses on reflection and self development, which is just me! It can be quite easy to sit and write a long list of the things we need to get better at, but what will make the biggest impact? Where is the greatest return for my investment?

I invite clients to think of themselves as their own finance director and ask some tough questions. Remember to consider the longer term return on investment, not just the next 12 months, will it add to your skills and the service you offer clients. It is likely that whatever your work is now it will be different in ten years.

In the UK the fastest growing workforce is the over 50’s. With the removal of a compulsory retirement age and an increase in health and life expectancy, many individuals are continuing to work longer in their field or move to a new field of work which may require training and support. So being ready mentally and physically for our next career will become increasingly important. Of course not all of us will be able to continue in our chosen career, look at the work of Frey and Osborne 2013. In their study they indentified those jobs that are likely to be extinct in 10 years (2023) from now, so don’t train for extinction!

Investing in Evidence Based Development

If we are able to continue developing we are continuing the process of learning (Viall 1996). As a coach we need to invest in our CPD (continuous professional development) by firstly considering what will make the greatest difference to our clients. To do this we really need to understand our performance as a coach. Understanding our own performance will come from:

• Client feedback +
• Supervisor feedback +
• Self reflections +
• Peer coaches +
• Supervisor +
• Coaching +

= Analysis

Real understanding will come from analysing all of the above. Then identify and prioritise what will make the greatest difference.

An example could be, you are working with a client that would benefit from more focused career coaching work and you recognise this is likely to be the area of need from potential clients for the next 5 years and you feel less comfortable in this area. A second very easy example for all coaches is the return on investing in supervision. Supervision provides the essential ‘scaffolding’ to support your practice – the quality control, an assurance to your clients, or thirdly sometimes we forget, get a coach to support your development in 2016.

We then apply our learning to our activities to add value to ourselves and of course our clients. In certain countries such as the Nordic ones, lifelong learning is embedded in the culture. Learning new stuff is pleasure in itself.

In the coaching profession and other fee for service environments learning is more likely to depend on the impact it has on the services we offer and on the performance of the session. In order to make this impact we need to really understand ourselves and our performance. Coaches I work with will be well aware of my passion for indentifying how well we perform and what makes the difference in our performance. I advocate frequent self review and reflection supported through supervision and essential to this is client feedback using the following model.

Through this approach you will be able to compile your evidence and prioritise your development needs.

Analysis and Definitions
When we consider areas for development we can be quite general ‘I need to be a better listener’. ‘I want to improve my questioning’. The first step is to analyse what is listening, for example, what needs to be improved? By truly understanding this, the coach can identify the focus. For example, is the coach an effective listener but runs out of energy? So energy and stamina during the session is an issue, not listening. Once the analysis is complete and the development issues are defined move to prioritisations.

Prioritisation
How are you going to prioritise your investment in the next 12 months based on impact? A very important question to ask yourself is what does impact mean to you? An example, impact = an improvement in my coaching performance, which consequently enhances the client experience, which in turn leads to return/attracting more clients.

Using a methodology such as this will focus thinking and investment. It also offers an evidence based development approach to share with clients, sponsors and professional bodies.

Have a very successful coaching and mentoring year. Remember support yourself, to then support your clients, with a coach/supervisor in 2016.

Preparing for Supervision

Martin Hill, Senior Tutor BSC

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle

“Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening.” – George Grudjieff

The key factor in my view that distinguishes a professional and ethical coach from a “run of the mill” coach is the supervision regime of the coach. The Ridler Report and recent coaching tenders and literature all have one element in common – the importance of supervision for an ethical, professional and safe coaching practice.

Supervision can also be a key element in helping you attain your CPD requirements as a coach.
Supervision can be accessed in a variety of forms – peer supervision, group supervision and individual supervision. In relation to my own practice, I use a combination of all three elements- why? Peer supervision and group supervision have their advantages – drawing on, and sharing group knowledge and experience, but there may be time barriers, confidentiality concerns and/or confidence issues in sharing some topics in these environs. Individual supervision provides a bespoke, focused opportunity to have a detailed reflection on my coaching practice.

All well and good I hear you say, but what about the expense? I know it’s difficult to find two bankers to rub together but pause for a moment – if you are expecting clients to invest in your coaching services, what is stopping you from investing in a supervision programme that ensures that your coaching is the best it can be. It is an investment and the purpose of this blog is to provide some tips to ensure that you get value for money from that investment.

• Type of Supervision – choose the most cost effective package that fits your needs. This may involve a “pick and mix” approach- using peer supervision or group supervision may reduce the frequency required for individual supervision and thus reduce the cost.
• What does good supervision cover? The supervision should cover the following elements:

NORMATIVE – ensuring that you are working in a competent and ethical way as a coach- the quality assurance that you can provide for your marketing strategy for your practice.
FORMATIVE – helping to refresh and develop your skills, theoretical knowledge, personal attributes, self-awareness etc. so that you become increasingly competent as a coach.
SUPPORTIVE – There can be sessions that have an emotional impact on you as the coach – sometimes this presents as a conscious effect, sometimes as an unconscious impact. This is where the concept of transference comes into play. Supervision provides a health check and provides a check and challenge mechanism to ensure that the coach and coaching practice are kept healthy.

• Format for supervision – are you going to rely on a verbal summary of a session or focus on a specific session – some coaches use video/audio. Think of the impact this may have on your client’s engagement, also make sure you cover confidentiality and Data Protection Act issues re the retention and handling of any material by yourself and the supervisor. Remember to specifically contract with your client re this aspect as well.
• Make sure the “whole” of you turns up – you do not coach in isolation, to get the most from supervision be prepared to share and reflect on work, home, personal issues etc. as relevant.
• Preparation – don’t just turn up. Build on your own reflective practice skills by reviewing the sessions and identify the topics/issues/themes that you wish to focus upon.

In “On Being a Supervisee-Creating Learning Partnerships, 2^nd edition”- Michael Carroll & Maria C. Gilbert (2011) Vukani Publishing the authors suggest the following useful preparation l exercise – “let your mind drift back over your recent work. What surfaces for you immediately? Notice it and let it go (you might want to make a note of it…). Let your mind wander over the following questions:

1. What interactions/sessions/clients/interventions were you pleased with?
2. What was difficult for you?
3. What were you/are you, uncertain about?
4. What are you looking forward to in your next working session?
5. Are there any anxieties about the way you are working with a particular client/group/programme?
6. Are there any anxieties about your relationship with clients/other tutors/managers etc.?
7. Are there some doubts/anxieties/feelings just “out of view” which you would rather keep out of view? Identify the feelings as well as the items.
8. What interactions have you enjoyed most? What were the feelings?

…Immediate preparation for the supervisory session:

1. Are there any crisis/emergency issues you need to talk about?
2. Are there any themes emerging for you in your overall work that you would like to review in supervision?
3. Are there any organisational/training areas you want to talk about in supervision?
4. What do you want from this session of supervision? For yourself, your clients, your learning?
5. Are there any areas of the supervisory contract you want to review/negotiate”

I hope that this blog has provided some useful tips for supervision. The hardest step is perhaps the first, finding what it means in practice. A useful introduction could be to attend the British School of Coaching’s UK coaching network event on 16 January 2015, when you can join a group supervision session – feel free to join us. Suitable for anyone who is interested in coaching and mentoring – regardless of level of experience.

• Learn about the key elements for supervision – formative, normative and supportive
• Discover the challenges coaches face in managing a coaching session – and discover tips to assist.
• Comes with a free gift- REFLECTIVE LEARNING

For more information go to http://www.britishschoolofcoaching.com/cdp-courses/bsc-coaching-network/ or email info@britishschoolofcoaching.com

Selfie, supervision and success: reflecting on my coaching selfie

Judith Barton, Director of Coaching and Mentoring

I attended the Coaching at Work Annual Conference “Onwards and Upwards”. Hearing Liz Hall, Editor of Coaching at Work reflect on the last ten years (of the publication) the challenges, the achievements, the thrill of making it work has made me reflect on my year.

2015 is a big year for BSC and there is always tremendous energy in the practice, which I think is key to generating ideas and progression. When I reflect back on the last 12 months, I do this by “seeing and feeling”; then the highlights and lowlights very quickly come back to me. I wonder who else does this in such a visual way – or is it me?

When I say seeing and feeling, I am referring to the visual imagery and emotional triggers. So I have begun to think about how this could be used for supporting evidence based reviews such as: performance development review, evaluation of team performance, performance of a class over their school year and essential for us coaches; coaching supervision.

To share my thinking on this I will return to my title, “selfie, supervision and success”. Taking a selfie is now the done thing, and the use of selfie sticks is the new annoyance, finding itself banned by museums and Disney, personally I am not a fan.

Only once have I taken a selfie, that was to capture a ‘really can’t believe it’ moment. I had lost all my hair as a result of chemotherapy and I couldn’t believe the head on my shoulders was mine. It was a moment when seeing was believing, particularly when I would wake up and try to flick my long hair off my shoulders to be surprised it had gone.

My Grandmother would refer to taking a photograph as “having your likeness taken” and this was a difficult likeness to comprehend the selfie was a realisation of my current reality.

So I suppose the advantage of taking a selfie or photograph is it clearly captures the likeness, no matter how we may say “I don’t look like that”, I have come to realise that recognising how we truly look or truly are is that from this position we can see the true potential.

A) Continual Professional Development (CPD)
As coaches and mentors we must develop further our knowledge, understanding and skills. Effective CPD needs to have not just learning but application, how do we apply or implement the learning. As a new coach or mentor there is a lot to learn, everything from managing a session, environment, questioning, silence, suspending judgement and so on. As we become more experienced we need to become more critical of our own practice. Unpicking each element of a session and exploring what makes the difference. The more experienced we become the smaller but possibly deeper the difference is likely to be. It is the minutiae, the tiny difference I refer to as the “slither of difference”, which will ensure growth making us all more effective coaches.

Sir David Brailsford, CBE British Cycling Coach, refers to a similar philosophy of improvement as the “aggregation of marginal gains” the 1 percent margin in everything we do. If we add up these gains our slither of difference I think of the potential, the impact for our clients. According to a blog by James Clear no detail is too small when it comes to improvement; “They searched for 1 percent improvements in tiny areas that were overlooked by almost everyone else: discovering the pillow that offered the best sleep and taking it with them to hotels, testing for the most effective type of massage gel, and teaching riders the best way to wash their hands to avoid infection. They searched for one percent improvements everywhere”.

B) Identifying the “slither of difference”
Identification of the “slither of difference” can be tough, especially immediately after a coaching/mentoring session. You may have another session – you may be travelling or you may simply be too tired to review the session effectively.

I recommend scheduling a review some 36/48 hours later, this for me is the optimum time, personally rather in the morning rather than afternoon or evening. Energy is more likely to be restored and the step away brings clarity. However a word of warning, your review is dependent on your recall, so with your clients permission it is a good idea to voice record the session. Listening to this will provide greater insight into what worked for the client and areas less effective and help document the session and identify the slither of difference.

C) Capturing the selfie moment
Whether you choose to voice record or not I would suggest have a go at capturing the image. What I mean by this is capturing the moment, the image that recognises your slither of difference either as a strength or an area for development. For example the time it took to ‘unlock’ the client in a session by an image of the clock in the coaching room; an image of stillness to remind you of doing nothing and the power of silence in a session.

You may find it useful to write up the ‘unlock’ question and photograph it. With phones and tablets this is extremely easy and makes my next suggestion even easier.

D) Preparing for supervision
Supervision is essential. To fully benefit from supervision I believe we need to invest in it, make time for it and take our reflections to the session. Remember you only get out what you put in, and this is especially true for supervision. Through the images we have generated we have the when and possibly the how we did something through reflection and supervision we can understand the why we did it, and the so what or what next. Through supervision we can receive support and challenge to work on our “slither of difference”.

E) Performance Timeline – Reflecting on previous 12 months
Using selfies or images we can build a timeline, say 12 months and reflect back to understand our growth. If we wish to understand more we can identify the data points of where our practice developed or didn’t and where support may be needed.

If this sounds interesting try overlaying your coaching sessions data with the rest of your life. Take your timeline and add to it:
A) Health
B) Energy – you may remember great highs and lows, a time when you may have operated slightly below par – a selfie/image may be particularly useful here.
C) Work
D) Home – family, personal events, life happenings
F) The whole person coach

Then stand back and see if this visual representation of your whole self provides evidence as to your performance over your timeline. An example of this will be presented in my next blog.

Working out your whole person timeline will provide immense data when identifying the slither of difference. I believe we are only as good as our whole self, so our coaching performance is more than likely to be affected by what is happening in our world or whole self. Whilst we all practice suppressing daily distractions, life events such as illness (ourselves or our children), bereavement, work challenges etc can cause interference  and often a reduction in energy which is likely to have a knock on effect with a reduction in mental agility. The Full Spectrum Model, Edna Murdoch, focuses on the whole person.

So consider snapping your selfie for supervision and reflect on the whole you to inform and develop your practice – to be the most effective coach you can be.

Judith Barton, BA, MSc, Chartered FCIPD, FISQC, MInstLM, EMCC Member,
Director of Coaching and Mentoring
British School of Coaching

Judith is leading the ILM Certificate/Diploma in Coaching Supervision starting 8th December 2015.

Reflective Practice

Martin Hill

Reflective Practice – a phrase that you may have encountered numerous times as you conduct your own coaching practice, but what does it actually mean?

Take a moment to recollect the most successful coaching interventions that you have conducted - what did the client do to make the success occur. I would suggest that what the client did was reflect on the challenges and interventions in the coaching session and then implement that learning, having adapted it to suit their own style and goals.

Julie Hay in “Reflective Practice & Supervision For Coaches” (2008) Open University Press- Coaching In Practice series  states “Supervision is the process of helping you to step back from your work so that you can take a meta-perspective or broader view of your practice….Reflective Practice refers to the same concept as supervision but without the benefit of a supervisor or colleague”

I use reflective practice as a tool to make my own supervision more effective. Indeed Hay makes the point “Prior analysis of your own practice saves supervision time and enables supervisors to operate at a higher level when they support and challenge you.”

Reflective practice needs planning on your part in order to be effective and efficient. One of the key tools that I use is ensuring that I capture my own learning and reflections from a session as soon as possible after the session whilst still fresh in my mind. In this age of technology there are a myriad of options – using a smartphone voice recorder or dictaphone; making a selfie-video – personally I prefer using a notepad. I initially simply record as much as I can recall from the session in a “stream of consciousness” flow- not taking time to reflect or review what I have captured at that stage. I then leave it for 20-30 minutes or overnight and then reflect on that as I write up my own coaching journal notes. Try to focus on what you did; what you felt or what you thought rather than capturing the content of the session. Watch out for making broad statements which simply set out the outcome – drill down to examine and reflect on what happened ; what you did - how the client and how you reacted; feelings etc. What could you have done differently? What can you adapt or improve? What made that particular tool/interaction unsuccessful?  This provides a rich seam of learning to mine to continuously improve your own practice.

When you initially start off, the reality is that you will be reflecting on what you have done in the PAST- the last session and previous sessions. Hay states “The point of reflection is how to enhance capability so time spent reflecting on how to behave in FUTURE situations allows you to identify more options and to plan for increased flexibility, with specific clients, and more generally.”

Give it a try – you’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain!!

Martin Hill LL.B (Hons), FInstLM, FISQC, MAC, EMCC Member, Coach &Coach Supervisor

Faculty Member

Programme Director for ILM 7 Coaching & Mentoring Courses

Coaches need to be coached – Oh and supervised!

Judith Barton, Director of Coaching and Mentoring

To me, running a coaching practice is similar to being in a legal or medical practice.  As a professional coach I am going on a journey with my clients enabling them to delve into their own resources so that they can develop a sense of their own potential and are supported to realise that potential through listening, questioning and challenging.  But in the end it is their own decision – as a coach it is not my place to provide guidance or advice but to draw out from clients their own understanding and enable them to make choices to develop their own careers and futures. 

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.

www.britishschoolofcoaching.com

What's in your Coaching Kitbag?

Martin Hill, Senior Tutor, BSC

 Sir John Whitmore in his preface to “Challenging Coaching” by John Blakey and Ian Day states:

“A coach’s task and responsibility are to benefit not only the coachee, but also the client company and all of society too... Anything that is appropriate in the moment to help a person move from A to B is coaching.”

That started me thinking- what tools should I take to a coaching session to ensure that I can ensure that “anything that is appropriate” is delivered?

It goes without saying that context is king and the coach must take into account their own personality and preferences, as well of those of the coachee. Similarly the environment in which the coaching is taking place may also impact on the tools that can be used- but may well also be used to provide some of the tools.

Here are my thoughts for the coaching kitbag:-

• Bag - well, the kit has to fit into something hasn’t it? The likelihood is that whilst the Bag for Life from the local supermarket may be doing your bit to help with the environment. It isn’t likely to cut it with your clients. Remember first impressions are made in seconds but last for much longer! Whilst it doesn’t have to be a designer label, make sure that the bag is professional and practical for the purposes for which you need it… and big enough for all your needs.

• Coaching Agreement and Code of Ethics - always useful to take along a copy of the coaching agreement that is being used for the particular coachee. Can serve as a useful reminder for coach and coachee as to what the parameters are and also what each can expect from the other. Similarly with the Code of Ethics.

• Coaching Profile and/or Business Cards - always to hand in case an opportunity to promote your coaching services arises.

• Technology – in this fast moving hi-tech age – as well as making sure you have your smartphone and/or tablet/laptop, do not forget your plugs to charge them up, or invest in a mobile power pack to provide a handy backup. As another “just in case” do you need a portable hard drive to back up the work you do in a session to avoid losing the material?

• 1970s Laptop (also known as a notebook) - always useful to have as it can serve many purposes – capturing “gems” in the session and also serving as a memory jogger to write up your own reflective journal after the session.

• Pens - make sure to take a pen and also have a spare. Like the bag. Do not ruin your professional image with a cheap and cheerful pen. Get a decent pen – “because you’re worth it!!”

• Plain Paper - plain paper is great if you are going to be using the “scaling” tool. It may also be useful to use if the opportunity arises to use other VAK styles- such as drawing a visual representation of the issue and/or capturing metaphors pictorially. Also useful for passing to the coachee to record the agreed actions on. 

• Coloured Pens/Pencils - great to use a variety of colours when using scaling etc. as mentioned above. Different colours can be useful in reinforcing with the coachee the different stages covered and variety of actions agreed.

• Diary - if you are not using technology as an alternative, remember to take the diary to capture next appointments and keep track of all your commitments.

• “Thought Provokers” - there is an absolute myriad of accessories/ merchandise that can be used for coaching interventions – for example coaching cards providing sample questions; tools/techniques . Also bear in mind that there are free resources that can be accumulated by you – for example, collecting pebbles or other indicators to use as a tactile scaling model. If you are an accredited user of tools or models, for example MBTI, FIRO B etc., there may be support materials that you need to take to draw upon as well.

• Stickers/Post It Notes - again a different method to highlight issues and/or actions.

• Dictaphone/Recorder - what are your supervision arrangements? What is your own reflective practice regime? May be useful to take a Dictaphone /recorder to record the session and reflect back thereon. Bear in mind the need to contract specifically about this with the coachee and also explain clearly what will happen to the recording, how it will be stored, length of retention etc. Also keep in mind Data Protection Act obligations. A dictaphone is also a great alternative to the notebook in capturing after the session your thoughts and key points.

• Coach - remember that you are the key “tool” that the coachee will be relying upon in the session. Make sure you are focused, energised and “in the zone” for the coachee.

• Timepiece - how are you going to keep track of the session length- watch, travel clock etc.You will need to ensure it is something big enough to be seen, but not too big to create an interference or distraction. 

• Tissues - emotional reactions are not uncommon in coaching conversations. A pack of travel tissues can be useful in acknowledging the emotion in a quiet, understated and empathetic manner.

• Refreshments – doing a long session, or sessions, bear in mind the need for you to keep your energy levels up. A healthy snack or a piece of fruit and some water may be useful in ensuring that you retain your focus and energy.

Those are my starters for ten ……..what are your thoughts?

Developing your Reflective Gene

 

Judith Barton, Director of Coaching

I have arrived at a point in life, where I’ve started to look back.  Like many I’m sure this was brought on by a life event – in my case it was two major life events.  The death of my dear mother and a cancer diagnosis.

This post isn’t meant to be sad.  On the contrary, it makes me remember and makes me smile.

Mum had this wonderful ability to catch me when I fell, without saying ‘I told you so.’  Instead she focused on how I would develop my thinking.  She would often say ‘take me through it.’ 

As I look back on it, it makes me smile and say a little thank you; for everything I’ve learnt, everything I can hear myself saying and see myself doing.

I consider this a particular art – or is it a scientific approach?  Who knows.  For me, I’ve discovered it has a name – REFLECTION. 

If you develop your reflective gene, you will become better at whatever you do.  If you are a coach, I recommend putting it on your priority list.

Developing your reflective gene will make you a better coach and accelerate your coaching practice.

And thirdly, focus your supervision.

So, how do you develop your reflective gene?

There are 5 points you might like to consider:

1.     Include personal reflection time in all your sessions. E.g.  For a 1.5 hour session, one hour should be coaching, with fifteen minutes for reflection and fifteen minutes for write up

2.     Reflect deeply rather than widely.  Focus your reflection on a particular aspect, and examine every element of your approach.  E.g. listening – consider, how do I listen?  When do I lose my 100% focus?  What do I need to be an even better listener?

3.     Think about your baseline/where your skills and attributes are, and revisit this frequently.

4.     Identify your tiny development steps – make sure they’re tiny and achievable

5.     Contract the key aspects of your development plan with your supervisor

6.     I couldn’t resist a 6^th point – make sure your supervisor is of the same mind – they are also developing their reflective gene!

Judith Barton is currently delivering the ILM Level 7 Certificate in Executive Coaching and Mentoring for the British School of Coaching.

How to Cope with a Challenging Client

Charlotte Randall

One of the things that tested my resolve the most during my training as a coach was learning that coaching sessions may not always leave you with an instant gratification of the influence your facilitation has had on the clients thinking.  

I understand now that you may not receive the real-time positive feedback you are hoping for from your client, and that the expectation of this can leave you over-analysing your performance. 

My first experience of this came when coaching a client who was extremely challenging in their behavior and mannerisms. I left every session drained, feeling like I was an inconvenience to them and not really sure how much I had really facilitated their thinking. 

At this time I turned to my supervisor for support. We planned an observation of a session with the client and debriefed at length afterwards. Within the supervision environment I was able to speak frankly and accept feedback about my approach and discuss the best way forward. 

Without a shadow of a doubt this supervision enabled me to maintain the professional coach/client relationship, reflect on my practice objectively and to ultimately stay the distance with this client to a beneficial end. 

I still didn’t receive much gratification through verbal or body language communication from my client in subsequent sessions, but as a consequence of the support from my supervisor I was able to manage my own emotions better. 

A little while after their final session I received a message from the client thanking me for everything I had done to challenge their thinking and develop their learning, and still receive intermittent communication of how they continue to put their learning into practice! 

Charlotte Randall

British School of Coaching run coaching and mentoring training programmes up to Masters- level.  Programmes are currently being delivered in the UK and the UAE - see if there are any courses that might benefit you here