Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Virtual Facilitation Essentials: Wednesday February 19 2020 (8.5 CCEs)

I've been getting a number of inquiries about what we'll be covering tomorrow, Wednesday February
19 2020, in the one day Virtual Facilitation Essentials program. A picture is a thousand words so here's a short video on 23 things we'll be covering.
If you can't join us for the Wednesday February 19th session (8-4 pm ET on zoom), I'll be offering a few more Wednesday dates throughout the year.

Hope you'll consider joining us for this 8 hour Virtual Train-the-Trainer program. It's approved by ICF for 8.5 CCES (including 5.5 hours of core competencies).

In addition to giving you an opportunity to learn more about creating and leading virtual calls (coahcing, training and facilitating), you'll also have a chance to get "Behind the dashboard" of virtual sessions, to see behind the scenes.

Cost: $475 US
Enjoy and hope to see you join us!
For other ICF CCE programs check out GroupCoachingEssentials.ca
Questions? Call me at 416-996-8326

Check out this short video for 23 things we'll be covering at the VFE program:
 
Prefer a five week format? That starts on Monday Feb 24th:

Monday, February 17, 2020

Team Coaching - Five areas to consider

Team coaching is getting a lot of attention these days - from within the coaching community, and also organizations and teams themselves.  In the last few weeks I've shared a number of posts which included articles on some of the differences between group and team coaching, and you are invited to take a look at what's been written here since 2005. Some of this, of course, appeared in my 2013 book - From One to Many: Best Practices for Group and Team Coaching.

Today's post is focusing in on five areas you'll want to pay attention to in your design and support of the team coaching series of conversations.

Five areas you will want to consider taking more time to focus on, and be in dialogue around, include:

The Contracting Phase - Contracting is always an important part of Designing the Coaching Agreement. As it relates to team coaching, be sure to focus in on who is involved, what's the focus, what assessments (if any are going to be used), how the conversations by the team will get the necessary support, time and resourcing so that they can make the changes, as well as other items around confidentiality, logistics, etc.
What are you wanting to explore around contracting?


The Context in which the team operates  - Most team coaching approaches will take a systems view of the conversations, even in a remote team environment. The context in which our team members operate is heavily influential within the team coaching engagement. What are the elements which are important to take into consideration around the context?

The team itself - Team composition is not always static, or similar. Over the last decade there's been a lot written to support members in terms of teaming (See the work of Amy Edmondson), as well as Is the team, really a team in its purest sense, or is it more like a work group, given the location and focus of different tam members? Are there a number of smaller micro-teams in the larger team you are being asked to coach? How do these smaller groups operate and communicate with the larger body?

Involvement of the team leader - The team leader is one of the many voices of the team, and their involvement, and buy in is critical in ensuring that time and resources are allocated for the ongoing focus of the team in the conversations they need to have between the official team coaching touchpoints. If the team does not have time to implement their new learning, or the pause to continue to glean insights, the best intended team coaching is destined to fail.
What are you doing in terms of pre-conversations with the team leader to help them create the space and focus needed for the work?

Team Effectiveness Elements - What are you doing to provide the team with time to explore the elements which underpin how they operate - their vision and mandate, to their goals and roles (to name a few). Returning back tot he basics around core team effectiveness elements can be of importance. Many coaches are also eager to learn more about this area. For an introductory primer of the components of team effectiveness, you may want to take a look at this short on-demand course on Team Effectiveness I created as part of the Teams365 series a few years ago. It's a great way to get up to speed on some of the foundations of teamwork. Learn more about this on-demand program and sign up here.

These are five areas of a much larger series of items which need to be explored as you go to set up a team coaching engagement. For further ideas check out this supplementary Digital chapter - Team Coaching in Action which you can find at my From12Many.com website (use code 4411 when prompted). These chapters are a supplement to From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching.

Enjoy your week,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton - Group Coaching Essentials | Teams365 | Potentials Realized
Instagram @Remote Pathways (for remote workers) and @CoachingBizBuilder (for coaches)
Author of Effective Group Coaching (2010), Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Check out my author page on Amazon for all publications.
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com

If you are looking for  coaching skills development through CCE approved programs - The next Group CoachingEssentials CCE approved program starts on Friday February 21st - meeting for 4 weeks on February 21, 28, March 6 and 13*.  This 8.75 CCE program also includes weekly 1-1 time with me (15 min each week). Is 2020 your year to get your groups going or expand the number of groups you are doing? Whether you are new to group coaching or stepping into your next year, there’s always something to learn – I hope you’ll join us. Reserve your spot here.

Join us Wednesday of this week for a special 1 day delivery of the  Virtual Facilitation Essentials - for those that want to expand their conversations to the virtual domain. 8.5 CCEs. . Jazz up your zoom calls! Become more confident and savvy in leading and designing virtual sessions, and using things like breakouts, annotation etc.

The 60 Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator March cohort will kick off March 1st. Are you ready to focus on your coaching business and take regular action for 60 days? A hybrid program of individual, group and on-demand supports to help you accelerate your business. Learn more here. 

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Expanding the Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Communication: Directness

This week's Expanding the Group and Team Coaching Toolkit focuses on DIRECTNESS in
expanding your group and team coaching toolkit communication directness
Coaching Many.

The current ICF Competency framework has direct communication as competency. It is described by the ICF as:

7. Direct Communication—Ability to communicate effectively during coaching sessions, and to use language that has the greatest positive impact on the client.
  1. Is clear, articulate and direct in sharing and providing feedback.
  2. Reframes and articulates to help the client understand from another perspective what he/she wants or is uncertain about.
  3. Clearly states coaching objectives, meeting agenda, and purpose of techniques or exercises.
  4. Uses language appropriate and respectful to the client (e.g., non-sexist, non-racist, non-technical, non-jargon).
  5. Uses metaphor and analogy to help to illustrate a point or paint a verbal picture.
 Source: ICF Core Coaching Competencies

As coaches of groups and teams, there are several core skills to be exploring, namely:
Metaphor and Analogy. For groups and teams this may be one of the more significant, and impactful, doorways into having teams and groups articulate and explore themes, finding areas of common ground.
While questions are always the primary vehicle into the world of metaphor, don't hesitate to get more creative in incorporating visuals and other metaphor doorways - take a look at the photos I've included here of some of the 2020 kick off work I did using Rory's Story Cubes and a beta version of some of the Remote Pathways Icon project.

Reframing is also another key part of the group and team coaching conversation. What are you doing as a coach with clients to help them reframe? This may take us into perspectives work, and/or

Directness with Feedback - an interesting area is about directness with feedback. What is direct for one, may be soft for another team member. What is the role of feedback in the coaching process? What might we do to boost the team's feedback muscles? This is an area which many teams struggle with and team coaches may find themselves exploring in multiple touchpoints.


What is important to note in your conversations around Direct Communication? How can more of a focus on this competency support support the shifts teams and groups need to make?

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - GroupCoachingEssentials | Potentials Realized
Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Author of Effective Group Coaching (2010), Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Check out my author page on Amazon for all publications.
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com

If you are looking for  coaching skills development through CCE approved programs - The next Group CoachingEssentials CCE approved program starts on Friday February 21st - meeting for 4 weeks on February 21, 28, March 6 and 13*.  This 8.75 CCE program also includes weekly 1-1 time with me (15 min each week). Is 2020 your year to get your groups going or expand the number of groups you are doing? Whether you are new to group coaching or stepping into your next year, there’s always something to learn – I hope you’ll join us. Reserve your spot here.

Starting up again soon is the  Virtual Facilitation Essentials - for those that want to expand their conversations to the virtual domain. We'll be meeting on Mondays from 1:30 - 2:45 pm Eastern on February 24, March 2, 9, 23 and 30, 2020. 8.5 CCEs. Now also offered in a convenient one day format selected Wednesdays. Jazz up your zoom calls! Become more confident leading virtual sessions, and using things like breakouts, annotation etc.

The 60 Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator March cohort will kick off March 1st. Are you ready to focus on your coaching business and take regular action for 60 days? A hybrid program of individual, group and on-demand supports to help you accelerate your business. Learn more here.