There are many different models and strategies that have been developed to create a framework to follow through a coaching session. They range from step-by-step coaching models, such as the GROW model or 3-step coaching process, to a model that gives a variety of coaching skills and tools that can be used flexibly together – as in the co-Active coaching model by the Coaches Training Institute (CTI). The GROW model is based on the following:
G – goal – setting for the short- and long-term R – reality – checking to explore the current situation O – options – alternative strategies or courses of action
W – will – what strategy or action is to be done when, by whom and the
The 3-step model is based on a more flexible template of: 1. Who?
Get to know the client or individual, and their values, skills, experience, aspirations, and fears. For a company these might also include purpose, product revenue and profit margins.
2. What?
Clarify the goals. Where did the goals come from? Are they really the client’s and do they fit with their core values? No ‘should’ or ‘must’ here about the aims and objectives of goal setting – they must truly be wants and ambitions to seek this change.
3. How?
Strategies to get there. What needs to be done to close the gap between the current position and where the client wants to be? The client needs to recognise this from within. Break goals down into manageable projects and prioritise them. Identifying with the issues also helps to close the gaps.
The CTI Co-active coaching model has flexible and interlinked skills and tools for the client and coach to use together based on an holistic view of issues of balance, fulfilment and process in all aspects of per- sonal and professional life.
All professional coaches will train within the models in order to learn their skills and develop. In time, most coaches will become used to working with an array of tools and skills that they can perfect during their commitment to continuous professional development and supervision. One analogy showing this professional development would be to look at the work of two famous artists in the 20th century who both broadened the horizons of art in general. They were Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian. Both had a solid classical art training and were excellent draftsmen in their own right and could not have
achieved their experience and progress in modern art without this knowledge. Their figurative art, especially the portraits by Picasso between 1914–1918 and Mondrian’s early landscapes, demonstrates this fact. However, they both chose to explore the additional ways that visual art could be exercised to coincide with the changing world they found themselves in. Professional external coaches tend to follow the same path – exploring, being curious and never forgetting that life is about learning. There are some organisations that create their own coaching models to use the language and culture of their individual organisation. In cases like these, internal coaches are usually bound to using these models. However, any progressive organisation will encourage new tools, skills and ideas being incorporated as they see fit.
Some organisations have a preference of coaching models but the basic broad strategies for coaching are the same. They are:
i Recognising and using the client’s gifts and talents i Moving to an action based environment
i Deciding what has to be added and what has to be taken away to progress
i Defining where the client can get support (emotional, financial, physical etc).
Questions that support the basic broad strategy
This basic broad strategy is supported by client’s questions such as: i ‘What am I putting up with?’ – By identifying the little problems
that interfere with life, and removing them, gives us clarity to move on to more major blocks.
i ‘Who am I to other people?’ – Trying to identify where the client’s standing among their contemporaries or how they are perceived (or perceive themselves).
i ‘What is the essence of my dream/goals/purpose in life?’ – What is the client doing with their life and how can they start to live in ways that are meaningful for them.
i ‘Why am I not doing this already?’ – What is the reality of their true levels of engagement? It can be a case of the coaching process enabling them to review their values (VALUE), or in the case of organisations, their mission, values and strategy.
The questions listed here are for illustration only. It is best for the coach to chose their own questions based on the meaningful language and understanding that they created in the springboard session. If, going through these steps, the coachee is unsure or undecided, then the coach needs to take them back to the previous stage to re-gain deeper insights and understanding that will spring the coachee forward again.
The work presented in this book is based on a review of many coaching books and models, the continual development of coaching as a profession and the experience of coaches in the field. In an endeavour to bring some cohesion and understanding to the practice of coaching and its effectiveness and value, it has been revealed that the only word or term common to all (with the same meaning within the word) was ‘question’. However, by comparing and over laying the models, language and terms often used solely to create a registered product that could be a business income stream, some similarities did come to light.
The coaching model illustrated in Figure 7, page 23, creates a framework that both experienced and novice coaches can work with, maintaining a structure as well as giving flexibility to coaching sessions for both individuals and an organisational third party or for sponsored coaching. As with the illustration, the coaching structure is based on a jigsaw, with everything interlinking and only effective when all parts have been completed. The process can be carried out in a linear fashion, but the use of the jigsaw motif is a reminder that the parts can be revisited and recalibrated at any stage. The experience of action and the learning from that experience both encourage reflection and subtle changes.
Having completed the springboard phase in the last chapter, and before embarking on facilitating the planning of the coaching process, it would now be a good time to look at the process of learning that everyone experiences.