I use coaching to help individuals be their best selves. Most of my coaching is company sponsored, though I welcome individual clients too. While overt coaching needs result in my clients looking for a coach in the first place, I believe these are manifestations of deeper assumptions, beliefs and ways of seeing the self and the world, and the work of coaching is really in these areas, with meeting the overt coaching needs being the outcome of this work.
Through a joint exploration of assumptions, beliefs and self-views in the context of coaching goals, I help coachees understand the impact these have , and help build behaviour-experiments. The coachee implements these in his work and life, we see their real world impact, and after suitable modifications, work together to embed them into the coachees way of life, thus moving towards achievement of the coaching goals.
Since 2007, when I began coaching, I have coached over 300 senior and mid-level executives across industries, countries, ethnicities and life stages. Despite this diversity, I find coaching needs and issues are surprisingly similar;I believe the top 10 coaching needs cover over 80% of all coachee needs, regardless of their background and current life and work circumstances. It is precisely this sharp clustering of coaching needs, and the fact that the coach is essentially a thinking partner, that allows me to coach diverse individuals across work areas without having to be a domain expert.
Coaching begins with an understanding of current reality. In the first instance, this entails a conversation with the key organisational sponsors to understand why coaching is being considered. This is then followed by understanding the coachee’s reality through a self assessment, a psychometric assessment, and a 360 degree feedback document. As the coachee and I go through the process of building a picture of his reality through understanding these assessment blocks, we also take the time to understand each other—who we are, where we come form, what has formed us—and in the process build the trusting relationship that is the core to all coaching success. This understanding of the assessment, life influences that have formed the coachee, and where he wants to go, help us set relevant, meaningful coaching goals. In company sponsored coaching interventions once the goals are set we have a three way meeting with the supervisor to get his inputs (though the coachee is always the final arbiter on goals to be worked on), and then we move into the coaching proper.
The coaching intervention typically consists of 6-8 coaching sessions of about 90 minutes each, spaced about 3-4 weeks apart. Each session ends with some actions for the coachee to take in his ‘field of play’—typically his workplace and home—and in subsequent sessions we jointly examine the impact of these actions on the coachee and his environment. We course correct as needed and move ahead, all the while taking the time to also explore how this is playing out with who the coachee is, and ensuring that authenticity is never lost in the pursuit of efficacy.
In corporate sponsored coaching, we meet the supervisor at the midpoint of coaching (for a debrief and course correction, if needed) and then at the end (to understand how the coachee and supervisor can take the learning needs further). All these conversations are conducted keeping in mind the strict confidential relationship between coach and coachee—typically the coachee will lead these conversations, choosing what to share and what not to.
The ‘how’ of coaching is as important as the ‘why’ and the ‘what’. I take coaching confidentiality very seriously and do not take up a corporate assignment unless the client company agrees to respect the coach/coachee confidentiality and does not ask me to assess the coachee in any way for his role. Trust and intent are very important elements for me; I bring myself into the coaching intervention in line with my work charter and I ask the coachee be similarly invested. I see my role as being a learning partner to my coachee, and in this process there are times when I have to be honest and say things that might be uncomfortable for both of us. As long as we both understand and acknowledge that this is in the greater interest of learning, we can work with this. And finally, I believe in creating and holding a space for my coachee to think, reflect, examine, talk, act, and release emotion so that he may learn and grow.