Five Posts on Creating Awareness in Group and Team Coaching

I'm sure that if you are a coach you too often get asked, "What makes coaching different from other modalities?". I often point people (prospective clients, organizations etc) over to the research the ICF has done over the years, including the 2009 Global Coaching Client Survey. Goals, Action, Awareness and ongoing accountability were all highlighted by clients in that survey as being definers of the coaching process.

A few weeks ago my post looked at Five Past Posts I had written on Goals. Goals to me are the foundation and starting point of any coaching process, especially for teams and groups. In a team you will likely have the team focusing on collective goals, and also possibly have individual members working on goals. In a  group coaching process, while there may be a shared META goal such as "I want to grow my business" or "enhance my work life harmony" it is likely that each group member may be working towards separate, and possibly unrelated goals.

In today's post I wanted to highlight another layer of the team and group coaching process. once goals are clear, we then want to focus on creating opportunities for group or team coaching clients to expand awareness around their goals, their vision etc. The land of Awareness in coaching might take us into the terrain of:
Values
Assumptions
Paradigms
Beliefs - empowering beliefs, limiting beliefs (including Saboteurs/Gremlins/Inner Critics - depending on the coaching models you are using)
Future/Ideal/Best Self
Other selves
Perspectives
Enablers/Derailers
Opportunities/Roadblocks
etc.

This can be a very rich area to be coaching in, and I always like to assert that in coaching for awareness and action it's not always a 50/50 balance. This week notice where you are spending your time with different clients/groups/teams - what's the mix of action and awareness?

Here are five past posts I've written here at the blog on the topic of Creating Awareness:

Six Powerful Questions to Deepen Awareness - Click here to read

Group and Team Coaching: Four Elements of Good Design - Click here to read

Group Coaching : Awareness and Action Through Questions - Click here to read

Six Ways to Bring Visuals into Your Work with Groups and Teams - Click here to read

Exercises for Group Coaching - The Importance of Closure - Click here to read

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPCC, CPT
GroupCoachingEssentials.com | Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2009) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
(416)996-8326

Creating Awareness is one of the 11 core coaching competencies of the ICF. We explore this in greater depth during the Mentor Coaching Group. Next group starts Thursday June 2nd at 9:15 am ET by phone/zoom. 3 month program - 10 hours. Click here to learn more or reserve your spot.

We explore the topic of creating awareness in the Group Coaching Essentials teleseminar as well as the Group and Team Coaching Intensive - Join us in beautiful Bracebridge Muskoka on July 14-15 (Thursday and Friday) for a two day hands on training around best practices for team and group coaching. We have just submitted a CCE renewal application for 19 hrs (including 17 hrs core competencies). Register with a colleague and each save $200 plus tax. Special room rates available for those coming in from out of town. Bracebridge is 2 hours north of Toronto, easily accessible by bus (takes you to the front door of the venue!) and car.

Five Posts on Coaching Goals

Welcome back to another top five series, where I'm pulling together some past posts from the last 12

years as we look at different coaching competencies of the International Coach Federation.

Planning and Goal Setting is one of the eleven core coaching competencies of the International Coach Federation. You can view the ICF competencies here.

ICF defines Planning and Goal Setting as "the ability to develop and maintain an effective coaching plan with the client".

 Consider what you do to support your clients in goal setting and focus. My guess is that it looks a little different whether you are focusing on individual coaching, group coaching, and team coaching.

At the core of my work across these three modalities, is the One Page Plan. Providing clients (individuals, groups and teams) with the opportunity to write out their top 3-5 goals during our work together and keeping them visible in one page is key for success with many of my clients. From the One Page Plan I have people creating MindMaps or using Post Its or Index Cards. Within a team context people may have their own individual plan as well as a collective one.

What are your best practices around goal setting and suppport? As always, please feel free to comment below.

Here are five past posts from the Group Coaching Ins and Outs blog which explore this foundational topic area:

From March 2016: Six Coaching Questions Around Goals. Click here to read.

Goal Setting at Multiple Levels in Group and Team Coaching - Click here to read this 2014 post.

Core Coaching Competency - Goal Setting - Click here to read this 2013 post.

A reminder of the 1% rule to business development - Click here to read this 2012 post.

The Power of a One Page Plan. Click here to read this 2015 post. 

What resources do you recommend as a coach? Please feel free to share these with others in comments or over at the Effective Group Coaching Facebook page. 

Best wishes,
Jennifer


Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPCC, CPT
GroupCoachingEssentials.com | Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2009) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
(416)996-8326
Goal setting is something we explore in the Mentor Coaching Group for ACC Renewals and ACC/ PCC portfolio - next group starts Thursday June 2nd at 915 am ET. Runs to September 8th.

We'll also be exploring goal setting in the context of group and team coaching during the 6th Annual Group and Team Coaching Intensive which will run in person on July 14-15 in beautiful Muskoka Canada. Early bird savings on until May 30th.