Articol de: George Agafiței, Strategy Designer & Innovation Catalyst, Certified Associate Emergenetics®
What should you be doing next?
The first step is to clarify who the clients are and what their purpose is for the coaching program: one pays, another uses your coaching services. Never forget the client who pays. The following questions are key to a good relationship with this sponsor:
Let’s suppose this „Fix’em” program is a success story: How will we know this? What will be different afterwards? (very useful questions in setting goals)
- What are you going to do different then? (it refers to the sponsor’s support for the coachee’s efforts to produce lasting results).
- What else do you want to mention? (it refers to the questions above, and the answers are somewhat related to opinions and/or beliefs that the sponsor often holds, but „what else” brings him to things he has not thought of before, sometimes even solutions to its problems.
If we turn our attention to the beneficiary of the program, to the coachee, if he does not know why he needs coaching (and in Fix’em programs this is a constant), it is good to ask:
- Dear coachee, please tell me what brings you in this conversation? What do you hope to be different – better – for YOU because of coaching? (these questions help the coachee recontextualize the situation from „my boss wants to do something with me” to „I want to do something for me”)
- The program sponsor wants to invest so that you enjoy the benefits of coaching. What are the aspects that you think the sponsor appreciate about you it comes to making this decision? What does the sponsor hope you to get out of this program? (it creates trust and helps eliminate a possible perception that everything is black).
- What else? (it helps to explore things beyond what the coachee is already conscious about. It’s about getting to „I did not think about that up to now” or „I’ve had a different perspective so far. I’m a little confused.”)
Once you have clarified the relationship with these two types of clients, you need to know how the process will go: directly with the coachee and without the sponsor’s involvement, or a process where all three will be present. Additionally, you need to be aware of the three main challenges of coaching in „Fix it” programs! About all of this in the second part of the article.
Foto: Pixabay
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