 Coaching is facilitating the learning of others to help them reach their unique potential. A coach should consider the effective management of the coaching process to reach session goals as effectively and as focused as possible. Alec McPhedran explains the simple to use but highly effective GENIUS coaching framework for creative talent coaching sessions.
In essence, coaching is a simple process. However, we must make sure we do simple well. At its heart lies good questioning, listening and the ability to summarise. The challenges are building trust and maintaining a positive working and open relationship in which the coachee feels they are the focus of attention and that they are being helped to work on their ideas. The additional skill is managing the process of the coaching session. This has to be timely as well as facilitating the individual to move forward. In the creative industries in which I mainly work, it is critical ideas and solutions came from the individual being coached. That’s really hard when you believe you know what the solution is. But surely that’s one of the issues of coaching, “What you believe the solution is.” Great coaching is about working the individual. It’s their imagination and their aspiration. Our job is to help turn these into a reality. Not the coach’s reality. It has to be owned by the coachee. As a coach, your inputs have to be really relevant, valid and appropriate, if and when invited to do so. You, the coach, act as the conductor. The individual has the talent. The coach’s role is to get the best out of the talent. Like most coaches, I have come across a number of really useful coaching models, including the simple but effective GROW model. The common view is that the GROW model derived from Performance Coaching by John Whitmore. GROW is used to structure the coaching session; Goals, Realities, Options and Will, as in “What will you do?” This is pretty good, particularly for offering line managers a coaching tool but for professional coaches it sometimes might need a bit more. Another useful model is CLEAR, developed by Peter Hawkins. CLEAR concentrates on Contracting, Listening, Exploring, Action and Review. Working in the creative industries often has me having to work with additional technique in the coaching session. Creativity, innovation, exciting aspirations and ideas that need turning into a reality. That’s the amazing and exciting challenge in media with creative coaching. For me, a new approach was needed to help inspire and push my clients. GENIUS GENIUS coaching developed following a chat with a pretty cynical script-writing friend. She felt coaching had its place but most definitely not in the world of ‘creative people’. Her previous experience of being coached at a leading broadcaster had been helpful but only in career progression and not on her desire to be the best in her field of telling stories. A number of coaches had not been able to really meet her creative aspiration. This made me think about myself, my own ability to go further than I had been before with people and therefore how could I meet her challenge? Yes, we do offer stretching objectives. Yes there are excellent coaches who are very focussed on pushing people but are we held back with the SMART objective format? Are we sometimes held back by our own feelings if moving out of our own comfort level? Her point was do we really push people past the boundaries? Was I really helping by agreeing to clients initial objectives or was I really stretching them, taking them to new and exciting places, sometimes scary, in their ambition? Over the following months I revisited my sessions, the processes I was using and depending on subjects, the results we were getting. Goals were being achieved but I was wondering could it have been wider, more challenging – truly daring to be different. The GENIUS model of coaching evolved after testing it out on some knowing victims with mixed success. I was particularly influenced by Jenny Rogers, author of Coaching Skills, a handbook. Jenny mixes coaching fantastically well with Neuro Linguistic Programming. Thinking of end goals, care with language and energy to achieve things. People who were really up for a new adventure opened their mind to great new ideas, concepts and opportunities that truly seemed off the wall. With others, it made them feel uncomfortable and my learning was that you had to work with the aspiration and the reality of their ambition in their style. Again, not my ambition or my preferred coaching or creative thinking techniques. Eventually the GENIUS model came out, probably the result of a fire, aim ready strategy. It’s now one of my favourite models, particularly when working with exciting creative talent. GENIUS coaching is simple. GENIUS is a guide to running a coaching session. It’s yet another useful model for coaches for their toolkit. It does draw its inspiration from the likes of GROW, OSKAR and other useful coaching models. Simple is good but the skills is in doing simple well. Goals The first step of GENIUS is to set the GOALS, a rather obvious starting point. We know the goal, purpose or aim is critical for a number of reasons but primarily it provides us with the reminder of what it is we are working on, what needs to be achieved. It makes sure all future conversation is relevant to achieving the goal. With GENIUS coaching, there are three types of goals to set.
Energy Once the aspirational goal and the session goal (or goals) has been set, the next part of GENIUS coaching is to look at the ENERGY of the coachee. They may want to achieve something that is far reaching for them but do they really have the energy? The desire to achieve and the energy to do something can sometimes be poles apart. Get the client to rate their energy levels to make this work, perhaps by giving a score out of 10. Without the genuine energy to achieve the goal, is the goal the right one in the first place? Another useful tool to use here, again thanks to Jenny Rogers, is to ask how motivated they are about achieving the goals. A rating of 1 to 10 equally helps give some indication of possible investigation. Nurture Once goals have been established and the energy levels checked to achieve them, you then need to NURTURE the range of opportunities and options. This is very much the Options stage of GROW. This again is where the questioning, listening, summarising and creative thinking skills of the coach come into play. Your ability to brainstorm, encourage creative thinking; thinking of things that are really off the wall, never been done before are absolutely critical. When nurturing ideas, this ideally should be treated in the same way as a pure brainstorming session. Pull out the ideas, don’t critique to early, set the parameters linked to the objectives and work through some of the ideas. This is also a great time to use challenging and creative thinking tools such as de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats (data, emotion, negativity, positiveness, feel good, innovative thinking and process). Once you have looked at each idea, work through and prioritise the key actions that came out of the nurturing process. Priority action one is the way forward. Options two, three and four – potential back up ideas. From the Six Thinking Hats model you will then be able to move into the next stage of GENIUS coaching thanks to the identifying emotions and negatives from the red and black hat discussions. Inhibitors That’s because you need to revisit the agreed priority actions from the nurturing stage and identify the INHIBITORS. That is, what is going to stop the ideas from working? This is really powerful as you seek out the negatives. It’s those negatives that you then address with the client to establish how they will be tackled should they arise. I guess the development of the cunning Plan B scenario. We are great at planning the perfect life with Plan A. Unfortunately life’s not perfect. Therefore it makes sense to anticipate inhibitors. Manage them into positives. It’s worthwhile at this point revisiting your nurtured actions to see if they need revising to reflect the points identified in the inhibitors stage of the session. Utopia So, we now know what we want, how much energy the client has to achieve their goal, we’ve generated some great ideas and have identified the potential problems and the likely responses. If all works fantastically well then… UTOPIA; an imagined perfect place or state of things. This is where the coaches Neuro Linguistic Programming knowledge comes more into play. Can you get the individual to visually, auditory and kinaesthetically imagine their Utopia once the goals will be achieved? This is a powerful tool to make the end result of a coaching session feel real. It’s what turns that aspiration into the reality. Visioning, recording or feeling that end goal gives the goal life. It puts Utopia in the mind of the individual. I have even gone so far as to encourage clients to make that picture real – getting or drawing a close or true to life image and then placing it in eye sight at their desk. Weird I know but it definitely works. For the auditory types, a written statement always at hand seems to have the same effect. We’re back to the immense importance of goals. Once they look and feel real, once we are emotionally attached to them, they will become real. Developing, writing down and imagining goals is an essential role of the coach to get the client to understand this. Steps Finally, the coaching session is rounded off by summarising the STEPS to be taken by the coachee. What will they do between now and the next session? These are developed by writing SMART (specific, measurable, realistic, agreed and timed) Action Goals and clarifying the actual steps to take to achieve the Action Goals. I guess in the good old day that was called action planning. So there you have it. Yet another wonderful tool for coaching. The very simple GENIUS coaching model. It’s about pushing ambition and creativity further for creative people, exploring amazing and varied opportunities and imagining the realities of what success will look, feel or sound like. Obviously I know this model may not be perfect for some, that’s the beauty of the business we’re in. If we were all perfect then we wouldn’t have anybody to coach. G – Goals to be achieved E – Energy to achieve the goals N – Nurturing and exploring options to achieve the goals I – Inhibitors that may arise on the way to achieving goals U – Utopia when the goals will be achieved S – Steps to be taken to achieve the goals GENIUS coaching has been developed by Alec McPhedran Chartered FCIPD, Chartered Mngr, MAC, MCMI as a tool for people who coach; to guide them through an inspirational and wide reaching coaching session for talented creative people. Alec is the managing director of Skills Channel TV, the training company for busy creative people. He specialises in one to one coaching, facilitated learning, media training and team development. For further information, contact 0121 366 87 99 or visit www.skillschannel.tv. Copyright © 2006 Alec McPhedran. All rights reserved.
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 The Hay-McBer Six Leadership Styles Coaching Line Managers to Improve Performance
In the current climate, getting the best out of your people is the eternal challenge and today, never more so. Despite the reduction in training budgets, businesses are at least attempting to develop their front line employees to do more for less. But what about the managers and leaders? In this article, Alec McPhedran of Skills Channel TV explores the value of coaching managers as a business critical skill. As a skills development professional, I am constantly (and indeed, continually) amazed that there is still a perception that to move people forward, training is seen as the only option. As a trainer – great, a job for life. But training ISN’T the only option. It’s about development. It’s shadowing, secondments, buddying, watching, reading, coaching, mentoring and of course, training – where appropriate. If we think of development as giving people new knowledge and skills, then we immediately open up our opportunities to give people those new knowledge and skills. Of course training can work, but training in isolation simply gives people knowledge, it instructs; it doesn’t always change behaviour. Training, along with coaching and mentoring, makes learning a more productive process. There is still confusion over the difference between the three, particularly coaching and mentoring. True, similar skills are needed for all three but the purpose of each has very different approaches. Training is instructing, telling people how to do something specific, normally, to their current or future role. Coaching has the same end goal but it’s more about asking, helping people to work out their own ideas, thoughts and consequences. Coaching is typically a one to one relationship to help nurture and develop an individual within their current or future role. Coaching is facilitating the learning of others to help them move forward. If those simple descriptions of training (tell) and coaching (ask) define training and coaching, then what makes mentoring different? Well it can be argued it contains elements of both training and coaching but a significant difference is that it is about the mentoree and not just the job performance. Mentoring is guidance, wise council, pastoral direction from, typically, an experienced person or senior manager. They are concerned with the individual. For example, the hugely successful football club Manchester United work these three aspects really well. All the players train together on fitness, stamina, tactics and team working. They are individually coached and developed on their unique specific skills of goalkeeping, defence, forwards, free kicks and so on. And for the younger players, they are allocated a mentor; someone who has typically had the fame, money adoration and success at an early stage and it is that experience of which the mentor uses to guide the younger talent to remain focussed on maturing into a top flight professional. Coaching is therefore the critical point in taking knowledge and turning knowledge into behaviour change. It is about developing and building experience and therefore improved the behaviour. For senior managers, business leaders, and front line managers, coaching should be a normal part of their everyday role. In a survey by consulting firm Hay-McBer, they found six distinctive leadership styles common to the most successful of business leaders; coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and coaching. Coaching managers and employees is a core skill for leaders. Every day, leaders and managers have opportunities to coach others. Working on a strategy document, planning a budget, preparing a pitch to a client, dealing with a problem are all opportunities to involve their line manager or employees. Of course, there is a down side to coaching. It’s probably quicker to tell somebody how to do something rather than take more time to coach them to the same outcome. But it’s a bit like the old quote of “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.” That’s how I see coaching for managers; investing the time to help people stretch their thinking and management skills under your guidance will pay back the time in bucket loads as people will become more self reliant. As a coaching leader, you are passing on and developing wisdom, knowledge and understanding. You are equally passing on company values and beliefs as well as developing their behaviour. For senior managers, this is particularly important as leaders are continuing the success on what the business was probably built on. Living values and behaviour through coaching helps to set the culture, behaviour and standard as well as the expectation. Coaching managers is incredibly cost efficient as it is done on work activities, it does not require money and can be incredibly specific to the individual needs of the skills development requirements of each different manager. There are two core areas of great coaching; the skills to coach effectively and managing the time of a coaching session. The absolute essential foundation of skills are questioning, listening and summarising. These skills are the platform to successful coaching and indeed, a great many other personal communication elements of leadership. The coach needs to be able to get results out of a coaching session and therefore need to managed the structure, flow and time of the session., typically with the well used and highly effective GROW model developed in the UK by Graham Alexander, Alan Fine and Sir John Whitmore. GROW is a guide to the structure of a coaching session, irrespective of the time, through managing four distinct discussion points. G stands for Goal, which is establishing the Goal of the session. R is for Reality, exploring what has happened to date, what worked, didn’t work and so on. The O stands for Options. The coach works with the manager to explore a range of options and determines criteria for sifting through the options to identify ideas for moving forward. That leaves W which stands for Will or Will Do – based on the Options selected, what they will now do as a result of the coaching session that takes them forward? This approach sums up one of the key aspects of successful leaders. Not necessarily training people, more facilitating learning through using the core coaching skills and working with the GROW model in how they interact with others. People normally can have the answers when being encouraged and guided through coached. As long as the coaching is appropriate, accepted and timely, then conditions are created where they can explore ideas, experience learning and know how to use the new knowledge and skills to move forward. This in turn means the investment in taking time to coach will improve performance and therefore results. Finally, as a bit of food for thought, if you think about it, sometimes you can’t move forward unless you have someone good enough to replace you. That’s actually up to you. The Behind Behaviour Model has been developed by Alec McPhedran Chtd Fellow CIPD, Chtd Mngr CMI, Alec McPhedran is the director of Skills Channel TV, the learning and development company for busy creative people. He specialises in one to one coaching, facilitated learning, media training and team development. For further information, contact 0121 366 87 99 or visit www.skillschannel.tv. Copyright © Alec McPhedran 2020  Getting behing behaviour We naturally react to behaviour. In this article, management coach and trainer Alec McPhedran explains the Behind Behaviour model he developed to discuss and explore performance management and change in people. One of the things I really enjoy is the discussion I have when training or coaching managers on behaviour. Our instincts of flight, fight or play dead dominate our subconscious reactions to others behaviour. The challenge for managers is to build on others good behaviour or change underperforming or unacceptable behaviour. What we need to underdstand is why do people behave as they do in order to identify how to help with behaviour change. The Behind Behaviour model is a mix of theories developed to have a discussion with others on understanding behaviour. Once we have some approaches to underdstanding behavioiur, it helps to make it more targetted and focussed in the areas to work on in coaching or motivating others to want to change. One of the theories I use by way of example is the 21 Day Habit Theory from Maxwell Maltz. In his work as a plastic surgeon, he suggests “…that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.” This statement was picked up and, the quote was shortened to “It takes 21 days to form a new habit”. Equally we have the outcome of a study in the European Journal of Social Psychology which analysed the habits of 96 people over 12 weeks. On average, it is said that a habit takes around 2 months to become an automatic behaviour – 66 days to be exact. For some this can take up to eight months. Despite the debates over these and other theories and concepts about behaviour and habit, the point of the simplicity of the Maltz theory is to explain to managers that just instructing someone to change their behaviour does not work. It takes time. So, in a behaviour change context, we explore how managers need to offer support, coaching, praise and consistency over a period of time and to identify when the new behaviour has been embedded and anchored. Pretty much to the point of unconscious competence. For managers, we work on the fact that in the main, the team behaves as you allow them. Habit is a repetitive behaviour to almost the point of unconscious action – good or bad. We need to agree standards of behaviour, what drives their behaviour and then how to support and change behaviour to, as previously mentioned, unconscious competence. Hence the development of the Behind Behaviour model. Behaviour The behaviour is the external bit we see, hear or feel. It is what we tend to make our judgements on about the other person. Some theory has it that we make out ‘perceived’ judgement within four seconds, some theory almost 1/29th of a second. Again, this is because fight, flight or play dead has took over as a self preservation mechanism. People can manage their behaviour. Tools such as Emotional Intelligence pick up on this. The way we behave is the way we can brand ourselves. Values. We all have our personal values. They are what our parents, grandparents, guardians, family and culture have given us. It embeds itself on average up to the age of sevenish and remains constant for 80% of our lives. It takes a significant life changing experience to change our values. Our values are what are important to us, they are an expression of personal worth – good or bad. As Aristotle is said ‘Give me a child up to the age of seven and I will show you the man.’ In coaching and looking at behaviour change, we can only tend to appreciate values and work with them as they will unlikely want to change their values. We are all different and we should value difference. Beliefs Our values in turn inform us of our beliefs of the world. If I value honesty, then I believe people should be and are more likely to be honest. Beliefs are what people hold to be true. People use their beliefs to help them understand the world around them. Exploring beliefs in behaviour change gives a useful platform to build on for moving behaviour, It links to motivation and self-fulfilment. Experiences As we grow and develop, we accumulate experiences. We associate our experiences with the emotions and feelings linked to those experiences. Some we want more of, some we want to avoid happening again. If people link their beliefs to their experiences, it significantly forms their view of the world. Everybody has significantly different experiences to everyone else. We are all different. In looking at behaviour change, perhaps understanding their experiences and the positive emotions to build on can help. We can explore the negative experiences and emotions and if appropriate, look at different ways to approach and overcome historical experiences. As we get older, we can tend to be more defensive or reluctant to change as the negative emotions and experiences can filter though first. When we were young, nothing held us back. We could do amazing things. It is that positivity that might be worth tapping in to. Thinking In all of us, if our instincts work on our values, beliefs, experiences and emotions. That in turn contributes to our initial thinking. If unmanaged, we could work off our intuitive thinking. Some believe our instinctive thinking is a natural reaction of ‘bottom up’ thinking. They are based on instinct and are unintentional. Bottom up thinking is a survival based stress response brain threat detection system. Essentially driven by instinct. Alternatively, coaching behaviour change could look at ‘top down’ thinking. It takes time to develop top down thinking by evolving connections to the top part of our brain, essentially the executive function centre of the brain. Top down thinking is deliberate and intentional. In coaching, it means guiding others to pause for a second before habitually reacting and thinking in a different and positive way. Attitude With all of the above happening in nano seconds, the challenge is to help others pause and reflect before acting. A key area to explore in behaviour change is an individuals ‘chosen’ attitude. We choose our attitude. I choose if I am going to argue back because you say my work is poor or I can pause, think and change my attitude to want to understand why you believe my work is poor? Our attitude manifests itself in the way we behave. If I am looking to change behaviour, I need to understand why did they behave that way? Why did they chose to take that attitude? It is a rich area to explore and then you can work on an individual to identify and develop strategies to manage their attitude in a more positive or progressive way. From values to attitude, this is all the hidden area – the internal processing. In getting behind behaviour we need to work down the chain in order to change behaviour. The value of the Behind Behaviour model is in the discussion with in helping others to change behaviour and the areas potentially to explore and work on. Of course, there are bits missing or that people disagree with regards to the Behind Behaviour model, but for me, it is an invaluable discussion tool in exploring behaviour change. Telling people to behave in a different way does not work. Identifying why they behave as they do and how to develop approaches to self-change is the key focus. Changing behaviour takes time, support and appropriate positive reinforcement. As a manager I have learnt that people behave as you allow them. Understanding individuals and working with them is simply a great and positive investment of time. The Behind Behaviour Model has been developed by Alec McPhedran Chtd Fellow CIPD, Chtd Mngr CMI, MAC, MCMI as a tool for people who coach or train others; to help understand potential areas to explore in managing behaviour change. Alec is the managing director of Skills Channel TV, the training company for busy creative people. He specialises in one to one coaching, facilitated learning, media training and team development. For further information, contact 0121 366 87 99 or visit www.skillschannel.tv. Copyright © Alec McPhedran 2019   Thoughts on Development Approaches As a professional trainer, of course training works. It is the magic one size fits all Utopia to sort out problem staff. In reality, training perhaps only instructs. It informs people of things they probably already know. So, what do we need to do about it? This article outlines some of the main themes trainer and coach Alec McPhedran covers when supporting managers in understanding people development. There are still a number of people who feel that training is development. Of course, it is part of it but the key focus should be on development. What new knowledge or skills do people need and how can this be achieved? If we think about development in this context, it opens the door to a wide range of development opportunities. This could include shadowing, secondments, coaching, mentoring, buddying and of course, training if appropriate. To explain this, I designed and use the Development Approaches model by way of example. Of course it’s not perfect. It is simply to make a point of considering the most appropriate development approach specific to an individual or teams needs. It does draw from a range of similar concepts such as Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership or Heron’s Coaching Interventions The model works on two aspects. The first is on how much of the facilitator of the learning tells the individual what to do through to asking them what they think they should do. The second is based on the ability, experience or competence of the individual or team. By thinking about these two aspects, it can contribute to shaping the appropriate development approach. Instruct There are many definitions for instruct but essentially, in the field of learning and development, it is one person telling another through the imparting of their knowledge and experience, hence instruct. Train Training is mainly seen as the organised activity or set of activities aimed at imparting information and/or instruction to improve an individual’s performance or to help them attain a required level of knowledge or skill. It involves a mix of tell and ask and is typically used in introducing new information or skills to a person. Coach Coaching is facilitating the learning of another to help them reach their unique potential. It is guiding the new knowledge and skills through asking questions. This helps the individual explore self-learning under the guidance of another. Delegate Delegation occurs with the assignment of responsibility and authority to a team or team member the power to do a specific activity, project or task with the ultimate responsibility for task completion remaining with the delegator. Within development, this acknowledges their potential or capability and we can explore their approach and thinking through questioning. Mentor Mentoring is a personal developmental relationship in which an experienced person guides, advises and challenges another to discover more about themselves, their capability and their potential. It tends to be more about the person rather than just the knowledge and skills needed for their role. Feedback Feedback is structured information that one person offers to another about the impact of their actions or behaviour. Feedback should ideally be factually based and the person giving the feedback needs to ne clear in what it is they are feeding back on and why. Feedback should be given for positive reasons as well as performance improvement needs. The more able a person, the more they will benefit from honest and factual feedback. The Development Approaches model is simply a discussion tool to explain firstly what development is and secondly, the range of approaches and options available. The Development Approaches Model has been developed by Alec McPhedran Chtd Fellow CIPD, Chtd Mngr CMI, MAC, MCMI as a tool for people who coach or train others; to help understand the range of development opportunities available. Alec is the managing director of Skills Channel TV, the training company for busy creative people. He specialises in one to one coaching, facilitated learning, media training and team development. For further information, contact 0121 366 87 99 or visit www.skillschannel.tv. Copyright © Alec McPhedran 2019    Thoughts on Development Approaches
As a professional trainer, of course training works. It is the magic one size fits all Utopia to sort out problem staff. In reality, training really instructs. It informs people of things they probably already know. So, what do we need to do about it? This article outlines some of the main themes trainer and coach Alec McPhedran covers when supporting managers in understanding people development. There are still a number of people who feel that training is development. Of course, it is part of it but the key focus should be on development. What new knowledge or skills do people need and how can this be achieved? If we think about development in this context, it opens the door to a wide range of development opportunities. This could include shadowing, secondments, coaching, mentoring, buddying and of course, training if appropriate. To explain this, I designed and use the Development Approaches model by way of example. Of course it’s not perfect. It is simply to make a point of considering the most appropriate development approach specific to an individual or teams needs. It does draw from a range of similar concepts such as Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership or Heron’s Coaching Interventions The model works on two aspects. The first is on how much of the facilitator of the learning tells the individual what to do through to asking them what they think they should do. The second is based on the ability, experience or competence of the individual or team. By thinking about these two aspects, it can contribute to shaping the appropriate development approach. Instruct There are many definitions for instruct but essentially, in the field of learning and development, it is one person telling another through the imparting of their knowledge and experience, hence instruct. Train Training is mainly seen as the organised activity or set of activities aimed at imparting information and/or instruction to improve an individual’s performance or to help them attain a required level of knowledge or skill. It involves a mix of tell and ask and is typically used in introducing new information or skills to a person. Coach Coaching is facilitating the learning of another to help them reach their unique potential. It is guiding the new knowledge and skills through asking questions. This helps the individual explore self-learning under the guidance of another. Delegate Delegation occurs with the assignment of responsibility and authority to a team or team member the power to do a specific activity, project or task with the ultimate responsibility for task completion remaining with the delegator. Within development, this acknowledges their potential or capability and we can explore their approach and thinking through questioning. Mentor Mentoring is a personal developmental relationship in which an experienced person guides, advises and challenges another to discover more about themselves, their capability and their potential. It tends to be more about the person rather than just the knowledge and skills needed for their role. Feedback Feedback is structured information that one person offers to another about the impact of their actions or behaviour. Feedback should ideally be factually based and the person giving the feedback needs to ne clear in what it is they are feeding back on and why. Feedback should be given for positive reasons as well as performance improvement needs. The more able a person, the more they will benefit from honest and factual feedback. The Development Approaches model is simply a discussion tool to explain firstly what development is and secondly, the range of approaches and options available. The Development Approaches Model has been developed by Alec McPhedran Chtd Fellow CIPD, Chtd Mngr CMI, MAC, MCMI as a tool for people who coach or train others; to help understand the range of development opportunities available. Alec is the managing director of Skills Channel TV, the training company for busy creative people. He specialises in one to one coaching, facilitated learning, media training and team development. For further information, contact 0121 366 87 99 or visit www.skillschannel.tv. Copyright © Alec McPhedran 2019  The Coaching Conversation Model is a tool to explain the way a coaching conversation may at times flex into training, teaching or mentoring mode as well as working towards the ideal coaching approach. Here leading creative sector coach Alec McPhedran of Skills Channel TV, explains the model to help new coaches appreciate the skill in flexing coaching conversations.
When I was being trained to become a coach, much of the advice was to mainly use open-ended questions such as who, what, why, where, when and how. Equally to make use of TED, tell me about, explain to me or describe to me, which are of course powerful open-ended questions. The aim therefore was to ensure that I the coach contributed very little by way of advice or influence to the coachee and that the answer sits within them. This of course is true in one sense. Indeed, that would be the perfect coaching session – I ask profound questions, the you answer them, sort yourself out, you leave happy and I send my invoice. What a life. As we develop out coaching understanding, we recognise that the perfect approach to coaching conversation doesn’t always happen. Sometimes we need to use and trust our experience and step back a bit into training mode to explain a concept and then return to coaching on how they can use that concept to develop their ideas. We may well also throw in some personal experience by way of example, which in turn means I may well be in mentoring mode. To me coaching is facilitating the learning of others to help them reach their unique potential. So, if part of coaching is facilitating, then we need to be able to flex and react accordingly for the benefit of the coachee. When I deliver workshops on coaching to managers, the sessions on managing coaching conversations can come over a bit contradictory or confusing. On that basis, and being a visual type, I developed the Coaching Conversation Model as a discussion tool to explore the range of approaches to coaching conversations. This has evolved over a number of years but what is great about the model is that it helps to initiate valuable discussions on the flexibility needed in coaching conversations. Directive to Facilitative Coaching The more we instruct or influence the conversation, the less the coachee contributes to the conversation. That is directive coaching. If for example, I am trying to help a manager work through giving feedback on a colleague’s behaviour, I tend to see how they would approach it and what the likely outcomes would be based on that approach. If we agreed that it might not be the most appropriate approach or the manager was not familiar with feedback theory, I could offer some ideas on feedback theory to help move the situation forward. A typical model I use, because of its simplicity and usefulness, is the AID feedback model. That is A for action or actions I have seen, heard or felt. I is for the impact of those actions and the likely consequences and D for what should they do about it in the future. On that basis, I am in training or teaching mode using my training skills. Once I have put the theory across, we then move back to a coaching approach by getting back to asking them how they could use that model in that particular situation. I am back to facilitating the thinking of the coachee, not contributing ideas but simply coaching. That is facilitative coaching – the main conversation coming from the coachee. Much of this approach has strong links to Heron’s Six Categories of Intervention (1975, in Hawkins & Smith, 2006) offering approaches from an authoritative set of interventions to facilitative interventions. Heron’s models confirm that as a coach, we need to flex our approach as we work with our coachees. Development Through Coaching A frequent misunderstanding I find when coaching managers is their understanding of development. Many people feel that development means training. To me, development is how do we give people new knowledge, skills and behaviours. This widens our options with development opportunities such as coaching, mentoring, teaching, shadowing, secondment and so on. Training may or may not be a part of development. In developing the Coaching Conversations model, and for the sake of simplicity, I have used training, coaching and mentoring by way of example. You can use whatever is appropriate to your learning group with headings such as educating, teaching, facilitating and so on. For me, the basics of training, coaching and mentoring work well. As an introduction to discussing coaching conversations, I run an activity in which the group is normally split in to three. Each group is allocated either training, coaching or mentoring. They then write words on a Post-It that reflects clearly their development option. They then select the top three words and create a simple sentence defining training, coaching or mentoring. During feedback and discussion, we then evolve their work in a way that explains each and differentiates the three. Before the session, they are encouraged to bring along a preferred description on coaching and mentoring. We all have our view on what each development option are but the point of the exercise is to understand those options and develop a way in which to explain them simply and clearly in a coaching session. The value of the exercise is that participants gain a better understanding of each and recognise the differences, especially between mentoring and coaching. I often support this with am anecdote that highlights those differences. From this we can then move on to discussing coaching conversations, and on my events, I tend to use training, coaching and mentoring. To keep it simple, I use the following explanations for training, coaching and mentoring: Training In training mode, we instruct, we tell. Much of the input to the conversation is from the coach. It is explaining ideas, concepts or theories. Coaching When we coach, we facilitate, we ask. This is where the coach concentrates on the objective of the coaching session – be it coachee or jointly identified. This uses questioning, active listening, feedback, problem solving, idea generation and summarising skills to guide the coachee. It’s asking rather than telling. It allows the coachee to develop their thinking capability and self-belief in their capability. The main input on the conversation is ideally from the coachee. Coaching is facilitating the learning of others to help them reach their unique potential. Mentoring A mentor is a more experienced or senior person who offers guidance, support, pastoral care, challenge or wisdom to another in developing them as a person. This is where the coach applies their mentoring skills, jointly contributes to the conversation with the coachee. The mentoring approach allows the coach to offer ideas from their experiences, points out ideas in an appropriate direction and guides based on their wisdom. I’m conscious that my definitions of training, coaching and mentoring will not sit well with others. In fact, when I search on a web browser for ‘definition of coaching’, it tells me if has found 331,000,000 results with thousands of definitions and interpretations of definitions. We all have our own views, beliefs and versions of each based on our unique experiences. The key thing is you have a description in which you feel is right and it helps to explain what it is to a coachee, yet it is simple and easy to understand. I also feel it must clearly differentiate between the three development approaches. The Coaching Conversation Model The purpose of the coaching conversation model is to help a new coach understand that the conversation will flex in to the territory of teaching, training, education or mentoring but with the aim of making sure we focus on and always returning to the coaching approach where appropriate. A pure coaching session is the Utopia but in many cases I have experienced, we do have to flex for the benefit of the coachee and the coaching session or programme goal. The Coaching Conversation Model has been developed by Alec McPhedran Fellow CIPD, Chtd Mngr CMI, MAC, MCMI as a tool for people who coach; to help understand the conversation management of a coaching session. Alec is the managing director of Skills Channel TV, the training company for busy creative people. He specialises in one to one coaching, facilitated learning, media training and team development. He developed the GENIUS Coaching Model, a guide to managing the flow of a coaching conversation. For further information, contact 0121 366 87 99 or visit www.skillschannel.tv. Copyright © Alec McPhedran 2016 Proving a return of investment for learning is quite a common challenge for those who manage a learning and development budget. Quite reasonably, the question posed is what do we get back for our investment? Here, Alec McPhedran outlines a useful approach to developing learning while thinking about longer term evaluation.  Evaluating the Return on Investmermt from Learning The evaluation of learning starts right at the beginning of any learning initiative. What needs to change and how will you measure success when you get there? The ROI of Learning model is a tool to help people think about planning the learning and how they can evaluate its progress at various stages.
Outcome It’s useful to determine what you are looking to improve, change or introduce as a starting point. Sometimes it is helpful to state what the ideal outcome will be. For example, on a project, to reduce absenteeism levels in an organisation. it might have an outcome to improve the line managers approach to managing and reducing absence levels.’ Aim Once you know what it is you are trying to do you can then set a clear learning aim or objective for the intervention. SMART based goals are a useful approach. In continuing with the absence challenge, a programme of learning aimed initially at line managers might have an aim to provide managers with the knowledge and skills necessary for managing and reducing absence levels within their team to support the company improvement target of reducing absence level averages per employee from 5.5 days to 3 days for 2020. Performance Objectives In developing a learning programme, it is incredibly valuable to consider developing performance objectives. Performance objectives describe the behaviours you would like to see, hear or feel happening following the learning. For example, a performance objective could be to consistently carry out a detailed and supportive WARM (Welcome back, Absence, Responsibility and Move on) return to work interview thoroughly following every absence with their team members. Essentially the performance objective is what they will do following the learning. Learning Objectives In putting together the learning, what knowledge will they need to carry out the activity? This helps to think about the learning objectives. For any learning intervention we need to consider what they need to know (new knowledge) and what they need to be able to do (new skills). Continuing with our absence programme one learning objective might be to understand the stages and application of the WARM return to work interview model. Development Interventions Once we know out aim, performance objectives and learning objectives we can then consider the most appropriate development options. This could include online learning, YouTube clips, classroom based learning, reading, coaching and so on. When we start selecting and organising our development options, we can now consider how we will start measuring learning during and after the programme. An example of a modular learning programme on absence management for line managers could be pre-work through self-reflection, two online video clips, an article to read and a highlighted section of the ACAS website to read through before attending a one day workshop. Evaluation There are many ways to evaluate learning but a useful model as part of this is the Kirkpatrick Phillips Model of Evaluation. As a tool to prompt learning design thinking relating to measuring impact and success, it is one method that creates useful reminders of areas to evaluate in learning. If we continue our absence management programme, the following ideas could be considered using the Kirkpatrick Phillips model: Level One – Reaction We need to identify how we can check how well the learning is being received with activities that check the reaction to the learning content. Ideas include:
Level Two – Learning When identifying candidates for a learning programme, sometimes it is useful to ask delegates before attending to identify their learning needs and behaviour needs. This helps the individual, sometimes with their line manager, identify what they need to learn and how this can both be supported and reviewed following the programme. In some cases, this could be linked to their personal development objectives or CPD plans. Reviewing learning could include many of the activities similar to Level One Reaction along with discussions with the line manager or post programme tests or short reports. Level Three – Behaviour Evaluating behaviour can take quite a while after a learning event. Essentially it could mean behaviour change and this is not instant. There are a number of theories around how long it takes to change one behaviour ranging from 21 days to 55 days and in some cases, up to 255 days. So, evaluating behaviour needs planning that will take place soma time after the learning event. An example might be a one to one with the line manager some three or four months later. For example, how are your WARM interviews going? What have you changed and what has happened since? Sometimes, with behaviour questions, it is down to observations, feedback from others or discussions looking for competence-based responses. Level Four – Results When looking at the one to one discussions or recording of behaviour improvement for Level Three, this presents a great opportunity to identify areas that have improved within the individuals actions with their performance. This contributes to Level Four Results evaluation. Linking this to absence management, a manager might acknowledge that since the training, in the past six months, average days absence in their team of 15 has fallen from 6.2 days last year to 3.1 days so far this year following the return to work interviews approach was introduced. This is a great result likely linked to the learning intervention. Of course, one of the challenges in evaluating the ROI from learning is how can you definitely claim this as a direct success of the learning? However, the more examples from individuals that can be collated, the stronger the claim can be that the event has made a difference for the better. The results on behaviour improvement can then be checked back to the initial programme aim or objective. Level Five – Return on Investment If we collate as much of the qualitative and quantitative data from a selection of candidates from the learning event, we can build up quite a good case for demonstrating both business improvement and a return on investment from the initial budget for the learning event. With some solid thinking, we can often turn those improvements into financial figures. From the previous example we can identify that over six months, with a team of 15 people, we have an average of saving 3.1 days salary x 15 people. That is quite a good return on investment, especially if we revisit it over a twelve month period. If we collect a sample range of between 20% to 30% or more from course delegates some three to six months later, we can gain a total guide on potential return on investment. Looking for figures such as increased sales, reduced wastage, quicker response or down time, etc it can nearly always be monetised. The total can then be used to reflect on achieving the initial need for the event based on the outcome identified. The value of the ROI figure is that this helps justify value in investing in learning If a training programme for 40 managers, at a cost of £32,000 in total, can be seen to save the business up to £197,000 in twelve months through reduced absenteeism, then why would we not want to invest in more development. Of course, the above is simplifying it but none the less, the role of the person responsible for learning events is to demonstrate the value and positive business impact of their services. Identifying the return on investment from learning should be a regular part of the role. Alec McPhedran is a creative sector trainer and coach and managing director of Skills Channel TV. You can see more at www.skillschannel.tv or get in touch at info@skillschannel.tv. Copyright 2019 Alec McPhedran. |
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