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.

Implementing your research project: Writing your research report

Judith Barton

The final blog in this series looks at writing up your coaching research project in the ‘appropriate style’ (see section 3, below).

1. The writing process
For many people, the prospect of writing their research report can be quite intimidating!  It can help to remember that basically what you are doing is to tell a story:
•    what you planned to do (and why);
•    what you actually did (and how);
•    what you found out;
•    and what these findings mean.

One way to make it more manageable is to write a draft of sections of your report as you go along.  One of the joys of computerised word-processing is the ease with which you can add notes, edit, cut and paste text and generally update your work as required without the major effort of physical re-writing, so use your word-processing functions to maximum benefit.  When I get ‘stuck’ on what to write, I put down a ‘stream of consciousness’ (relevant to the topic!) just to get started and then go back with a metaphorical ‘red pencil’ to get rid of or re-organise or re-write the text until I get to the point of being reasonably confident that I am communicating what I want to communicate.

So, once you have defined and clarified your research topic and question(s) write a draft of that section in continuous prose which can be incorporated, with any editing, into the final report. Similarly with the other components of your project, draft the report as you go along.  At the end, you can go back through to ensure that the whole ‘hangs together’, is consistent and accurate and tells the story you set out to sell.

It is much easier to write your references as you go along – using a tool such as Reference Manager can be exceptionally helpful, but will probably only be worth the cost and time if you are writing a lengthy report with pages full of references.  Getting to the end of writing your report and then trying to ensure that you have all references in the text also listed at the end and in the same format will be a time-consuming and tedious job – time and energy that could be better spent on writing, editing and generally polishing your work.

A key feature of writing your report is creating titles – the title of the full report and the title of each chapter or section.  These should be sufficiently interesting to attract the attention of the potential reader, whilst remaining sufficiently serious to reflect the nature of your work and the effort you have put into it.

The final task(s) of writing up your research is very careful proof-reading. It can be quite difficult to spot your own typing mistakes, so asking a friend or colleague to double-check can be helpful. Make sure that proper names are spelt correctly and that the grammar is both correct and appropriate to the audience for whom you are writing.

2.  What should you include in your research report?
The key components of a research report are: a description of the aims and objectives of the research; the methods used to collect and analyse data; the findings and conclusions. Depending on the size of the project and the audience of the report, research reports may contain:
•    An introduction – describe/explain what you are going to write about (best left until last, when you have completed your research and know what it is you are writing about!);
•    Aims - describe what you set out to do, what your objectives were;
•    Rationale - your reasons for carrying out the research and the reason why the research is important – this latter may involve a detailed review of the literature;
•    Methodology – how you collected your data and why you choose a particular method/methods of data collection; and the methods you used to analyse your data once collected; information about yourself or the team of people involved in carrying out the research project and their skills/expertise and knowledge may be relevant here;
•    Findings (i) – be clear about any limitations of the data you collected – response rates, statistical issues, limitations to the results – e.g. can you generalise from the data or is it a ‘snapshot in time’?; may a differential response rate from different groups of people bias the results, and how you will compensate for this in your analysis or the conclusions you draw for the data?;
•    Findings (ii) – the results of your data analysis;
•    Conclusions – drawing out the implications of your findings for coaching theory and/or practice;
•    Recommendations – if relevant to your research – these may be directed towards those who purchase coaching services; leaders/managers in organisations where coaching is a preferred management style; practising coaches, internal or external; those running their own coaching practice. 
•    References.
•    Appendices – again, if necessary.

3.  The appropriate style.
By this, I mean that you should think about the intended audience of your research report and adjust your writing style accordingly.  For an academic audience you should retain academic language and ensure that references are always made when referring to another’s work (published or unpublished), including your own (cross-reference within the report or other work you have written). Referencing should follow an accepted standard, such as the Harvard method.  Academic work requires a high level of detail and is likely to be quite lengthy. For academic work a higher proportion of passive verbs, with longer sentences and paragraphs will be acceptable.  If you plan to submit your research report for publication in an academic journal, an ‘abstract’ will be required – this is a summary of the key points of your research written in an academic style.

A management report is likely to be shorter and ‘punchier’ with less detail (although sufficient to support your conclusions and recommendations) and less research jargon, with more focus on the practical, management implications of the research.  A short summary of research methods and analysis is appropriate, with reference to where greater detail can be found.  Greater use of bullet points, short sentences and active verbs are more appropriate for a management report.  Recommendations may be particularly relevant to a management report.

For a report for the professional reader you should avoid research jargon as far as possible or, if the use of technical language is essential to communicate your points, a clear explanation or definition should be provided when technical terms are first used. Again, this type of report is likely to include a summary of your methods and findings rather than all the detail, with the focus on the implications for professional practice - your findings, conclusions, and where relevant, recommendations.

It is of course quite possible that you could write up your research in more than one style.  Again, word-processing makes it a great deal easier to write up the same project for two or three audiences.

4. And finally…
This is the last in this series of blogs – which I hope you have found informative and useful. The key text with much more detail and technical information which I have used for some of the ideas in these blogs is: M Saunders, P Lewis, A Thornhill (2000) Research Methods for Business Studies 2nd edition. 

Implementing your research project: analysing your data

Judith Barton, Director of Coaching

Once you have collected your information you will need to analyse it. In this blog I will be looking at two broad methods of data analysis – quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (words). Then I will comment on drawing conclusions from your data.

1.  Quantitative data analysis.
First, to say that sophisticated statistical analysis should probably best be left to sophisticated statisticians! If your research project includes large data sets based on random samples looking for proof of generalisable ‘cause and effect’ relationships or statistical modelling this is probably best done with the advice of a specialist in this area - who will already have advised you on your research question, research design and methodology. 

Quantitative analysis is basically counting – how many, how much, how often, how long – and aims to be logical, and objective – although this depends on how objectively your data are collected, coded and allocated. In this section I will be providing a brief overview of some types of numerical data and look at simpler analysis which would be relevant for organisational or survey data such as sickness absence rates, staff turnover, customer complaints, sales figures, educational achievement of students or health outcomes for patients.  The focus will be on ‘descriptive statistics’ and graphical presentation of data. 

Numerical data can either be ‘categorical’ or ‘quantifiable’.

Categorical data can be classified into groups and a number allocated – for example, gender.  In this case, you could allocate ‘1’ to subjects who are Male, and ‘2’ to subjects who are Female. Once these values have been allocated to each subject correctly, data can be inputted into a simple spreadsheet such as Excel and the proportion of male to female identified. Analysis can then describe, say, the proportion of male to female participants who take up the offer of coaching training in an organisation or the proportion of male to females who are being or have been coached.  

Quantifiable numbers are real numerical values which can be ranked in order – continuous data can take any point in a range, for example length of service in an organisation; discrete data can be measured precisely, for example number of clients coached or number of customers served.
The first step towards completing your data analysis is coding. This may be done as part of the data collection, as when a survey asks you to select an answer which most applies to you, e.g. what age are you? Are, more usually, which of a predetermined age group do you belong to?  Coding simply refers to allocating a single number to a variable or factor – this might be the actual number, e.g. actual income of a subject; or a number allocated to a grouping of income.  For the former, an example of income might be £21,500; and of an income group, £20,000 - £29, 999 – to which the actual income would be allocated in this example. It is helpful to use established, published coding frames where available and relevant – e.g. classification of ethnic status, social class or marital status as coded by the Office of Population Censuses and Survey. 

Once coded the next step is to input your data into the computer and software programme of your choice.  Once entered, it is crucial to check for errors – in either the coding or the data entry.  This can be very time-consuming, but deciding not to undertake it can be dangerous, as errors (there are always errors!) will feed through into the analysis and findings, and from there lead you to false conclusions.

The first stage of analysis is usually about exploring the data you have collected and looking for findings of interest. For evaluating the effectiveness of coaching in an organisation you may wish to look at the distribution of different age groups compared to the benefit they perceive they have received from coaching, or the number of coaching sessions research subjects have received compared to the number of days lost to sickness/absence. The easiest way to start understanding the data is through the use of tables and, particularly, diagrams such as bar charts (to show the frequency of occurrences from highest to lowest), pie charts (to show the proportion of distribution of variables) or scattergrams (to show the relationship between two variables).  Graphic presentation of data can now easily and speedily be generated by everyday software. Descriptive statistics enable numerical descriptions and comparisons of variables, and focus on the spread of the variable across your subjects; and the tendency of the data to group towards the centre.  Examples of the latter include the mode (the value that occurs most frequently), the mean or average, and the median (which represents the middle value).  Measures of the spread of data include for example: the range (difference between the highest and lowest); the inter-quartile range (the difference within 50% of values) and the standard deviation (the extent to which data differ from the average).  

A word of warning about the ease in which numerical data can be analysed by spreadsheets such as ‘Excel’.  This software (and others like it) can readily be used to present tables, graphs of various sorts and quite complex statistical analyses. Be aware that, although this software can produce sophisticated graphs and statistics these are only as valid and useful as the quality of data input and the correctness of the function requested of the programme – or, the risk is, as the acronym GIGO has it, Garbage In, Garbage Out, even if it is beautifully presented! 

Reference: M Saunders, P Lewis, A Thornhill (2000) Research Methods for Business Studies 2nd edition, Chapter 11.  This includes more technical detail and more information about statistical analysis.

2. Qualitative data analysis
Many of us are more comfortable with words than numbers so there is a tendency to see qualitative data analysis as easy – which is not necessarily the case.  You still need to take care that you can ensure that your conclusions are based on the evidence you have collected. 

A common method of qualitative data analysis is ‘categorisation’ – or coding - which breaks down the data into meaningful and related parts (categories) allowing you to identify key themes from different sources (e.g. interview transcripts or policy documents). These categories enable you to manage your data and bring together concepts and ideas from the data. Coding can be done manually (post-it notes, cutting and pasting from interview transcripts) or electronically (creating a coding table or using computer software designed for qualitative analysis). Coding is an iterative process and is usually done as you go along, after each interview for example, checking all the while that your themes or concepts accurately reflect the data you have collected.  Re-analysing earlier interview data in the light of categories or themes emerging from later interviews can enhance and deepen your understanding of the data and its significance; or you may wish to re-catergorise earlier interviews in the light of understanding developed in the later interviews. It can also be helpful for you to keep a record of ideas and any other information such as the context, individuals involved or non-verbal cues as you go along. Keeping summaries of key points from each interview can also help you to identify emerging themes and categories.

It is probably more usual to use an inductive approach to analysing qualitative data – that is, you seek to build up theory and understanding derived from and grounded in the data you collect (rather than a deductive approach which involves starting with a theory or hypothesis then collecting data to test the theory’s validity).  This inductive approach allows your research participants to ‘drive’ the development of theory and avoids the risk that their views would be forced into a theory or interpretation which they themselves would disavow.  It can be useful to quantify qualitative data – i.e to count the number of times a particular event, issue or theme occurs in the course of your data collection and present this as a table.

3. Drawing conclusions from your data analysis.
Whichever type of data you collect and analyse, great care must be taken to ensure that the conclusions you draw from the data are sound and accurate.  Review your data and analysis carefully and check that you have relevant and appropriate evidence for your conclusions to the research. For example, a small survey of staff who have been on a coaching programme is unlikely to ‘prove (or disprove) that coaching is effective’.  It may however indicate, that for those staff involved, they perceived that their engagement and motivation at work, and hence their performance, were improved.  This could, however, inform a larger study, with measurable outcomes to formally evaluate the effectiveness of coaching in the workplace. Alternatively, a large questionnaire survey could provide evidence of effectiveness of coaching but would be less likely to explore the staff’s perceptions and experiences of coaching and being coached.


Reference: M Saunders, P Lewis, A Thornhill (2000) Research Methods for Business Studies 2nd edition, Chapter 12.  This also includes more technical detail and information.

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

Implementing your research project - collecting your data

Judith Barton

In this blog I will be looking at collecting information for your research project.  This will include three common methods of collecting data – the survey questionnaire; the focus group; and individual interviews. 

1.  Survey questionnaire.  With questionnaires every effort needs to be made to persuade people to respond – firstly by providing an explanation of why it is important, how completing the question will help – improve services, working life – and secondly by making it as easy as possible for respondents to provide meaningful answers. This is especially important when respondents are answering questions on their own – such as a postal or online survey.  The value of piloting a questionnaire cannot be overstated as a means of ensuring that you have not got any questions that are ambiguous, incomplete or unanswerable. (Piloting a questionnaire means asking a small number of people to complete it and identify any difficulties in answering questions and recording the answers.  You are not interested in the actual answers, only in the ease of use of the questionnaire and the meaningfulness of the answers). 

There are some key principles involved in designing a postal/online questionnaire, which include:

Clarity of instructions – for example, do you want respondents to tick a box? to circle an answer? or to ‘delete as necessary’.  If instructions are not crystal clear, you may end up with returned questionnaires that you cannot analyse without difficulty; that have gaps where respondents could not work out what you wanted; or a low response rate because respondents found it all too difficult and time-consuming.

Clarity of questions – for example, do not include two questions in one. This is relevant to questions asking ‘free text’ responses, such as “please write down how easy was it to establish rapport with your and did your coachee engage in the coaching process?” This should be two questions – the first about rapport; and the second about coachee engagement.  Where ‘multiple choice’ questions are involved there are two points of particular importance.  First, ensure that all possible options are included – often, a question will not be relevant to a particular respondent or not all respondents will know an answer, so the options of ‘not applicable’ and ‘not known’ are essential where this may be the case.  This is particularly significant in online questionnaires, where the inability to provide an answer to one question often prevents the respondent from moving on to the next one. Secondly, make sure that your options are mutually exclusive – for example, if you are asking respondents to allocate themselves to an age range.  ’25-35 years’ and ’35-45 years’ is not helpful for those who are 35 years old!  This could better be classified as ’26-35 years’ and ‘36-45 years’, or ’25-34 years’ and ‘35-44 years’.  The same principles apply to income range; length of time in employment; or any other numerical ranges.  

 2. In-depth interview topic guide. This guidance is intended for face-to-face or telephone interviews. 

The interview process. The first requirement for carrying out an in-depth interview on any subject is to establish rapport and agree the ‘contract’ – how the interview will be carried out, any ‘ground rules’, anonymisation or pseudonimisation, confidentiality (and the limits to confidentiality) – sounds familiar?! Many of the skills and processes of the coaching conversation are equally applicable to the in-depth research interview – except that the purpose is different. In the research interview, the purpose is to collect accurate and meaningful information, relevant to the research topic and question.  So, deep listening, questioning, probing and summarising skills are all central to carrying out a successful research interview.  

You may need to use some ‘closed’ questions for specific information – e.g. age group, length of time in this employment, status within the business/organisation.  But primarily the information you are seeking will be gleaned through ‘open’ questions – ‘how do you feel about …..?’, what do you think about ….?’, ‘tell me more about what happened when …….’  It is good practice to prepare and pilot an interview guide which simply lists the topics you wish to discuss without specifying the order and wording of questions – a particular topic might be covered at the beginning, middle or end of the process depending on the natural ‘flow’ of the interview. 

Recording the interview.  Another issue in common with coaching is recording the interview – the usual process is audio recording, which is transcribed and the interviewee asked to amend, edit or clarify and then confirm the accuracy of the transcript. This often raises issues of confidentiality, especially when a relatively small number of people are being interviewed who all work in the same, relatively small organisation or section/level of an organisation.  You need to be very clear about who will have access to the recording; how the information (recorded and written) will be securely stored; and when/how it will be destroyed.  Interviewees also need to know about how their information will be written up, and how you intend to protect their information.  This can be through using false names, initials or numbers to identify individuals; changing gender, age or using generic descriptions of role or status within the organisation.  Issues of confidentiality should be addressed at the very beginning and can be an important element of creating rapport and establishing trust. 

3. Focus groups

The process. Running a successful focus group needs an experienced and skilled facilitator, who is expert in ensuring that the group is a ‘safe place’ for all members to engage with the discussion, respond accurately, respect each other and their opinions/feelings, and all have the opportunity to contribute in the knowledge that their contribution will be taken seriously. These ‘ground rules’ need to be established at the beginning – and should be written down in the invitation to individuals to participate in the group. Again, these will be common themes to those accustomed to team coaching or group supervision.  Facilitation skills are key.  A topic guide to help you keep the ‘focus’ of the discussion is also crucial – this will also ensure that you do not forget to discuss all aspects of the research question. 

The skills of developing rapport, listening, questioning and summarising are required for focus groups as much as for in-depth interviews, with ‘managing’ the group an additional requirement. 

Recording. The discussion is usually audio-recorded, with the same provisos about confidentiality as the in-depth interview.  If for some reason you (or members of the group) prefer to have contemporaneous notes taken then you will need another person to do this – it is not reasonable to expect one person to facilitate the discussion and take notes. Generally, audio-recording is a more convenient method, providing that you can use adequate equipment and that all members of the group agree to the recording.  

The next blog in this series will look at analysing the information and drawing conclusions from it.

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.