Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Creativity (11)

Depending on the types of clients you work with exploring creativity may be at the heart of your   This week we are going to explore the landscape of expanding your group and team coaching toolkit around CREATIVITY. This is a huge topic and today’s post is literally, the tip of the iceberg. Creativity is a topic of importance to most professionals today – those who have it as the main part of their work – authors, artists, course creators AS WELL AS other professionals who are being called upon to do things in sometimes a radically different way due to changes in resourcing, timelines and/or other factors (political, environmental etc).

process.


In today’s business context we’ve been talking a lot about VUCA for several years now, where things have become volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Whether you are leading (or supporting) people who see each other every day or are supporting remote teams, creativity is a “go to” in times of disruption and change.


Let’s take a look at some of the different tools we might incorporate in our work as group and team coaches. In addition to several creativity tools which I mention on a regular basis such as “visual cards” or Mindmapping, helping people expand and explore different perspectives around topics is a central part of creativity. The focus may be slightly different in the landscape of coaching many.

When group coaching, it’s likely that the perspectives work will be on the individual. Questions like “What’s another way of looking at this?” or “What’s another perspective?| can help the individual expand their thinking. Inherently, in a group coaching process, hearing from others about their perspectives can also be a powerful way to expand thinking.


In a team coaching context it’s likely that the focus on perspectives may be a blend of individual and collective. In fact, in coaching for creativity we may be aiming to expand thinking, harnessing the varying perspectives across a team so they can explore the myriad of angles possible.


Many coaches have know the power of time urgency in their work as well. For many years, as I have coached using exercises such as the Sweetspot (something I share in From one to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching), I’ve helped people “short circuit some of their creative blockages” by giving short time windows. Whether it’s been 90 seconds to come up with an answer to a  question of “What do your clients want, need and prefer” OR giving people a two minute writing prompt, the use of time windows may also be another way to jiggle some new creative spins, and move people out of blocks.


A third one I wanted to mention is something I have incorporated in my own work since the spring of 2016 – offering shorter program cycles which I call Sprints and Hacks. For years I would work with program designers for a 4-6 hour program, providing them with lots of space for structured program design. A few years ago, inspired by the rapid iteration of Agile processes, I started shortening this and offering 45 – 60 minute design sprints. The results have been amazing! Several of the skeletal programs which were initially sketched out have come to fruition for several group coaching clients. How might a sprint or hack focus expedite your clients work?


Questions to consider - Coaching For Creativity:

What does coaching for creativity mean for you?

What does it mean to be creative?

What’s going to help you get unstuck?

What role can time play with unleashing creativity?

What’s another way of looking at things?

If you knew you would not fail, what would you do?

What else?


Resources to check out:

https://www.creativityatwork.com/2015/03/25/creativity-coaching /: A great article How to Coach for Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace by Creativityatwork.com

The Creativity Coaching Association - https://www.creativitycoachingassociation.com/

Coaching Toys Company - https://www.coachingtoys.com  : Find a wide variety of great tools you might incorporate as you explore this topic

MindTools – https://www.mindtools.com: MindTools takes a deep dive into a wide-range of topic areas, providing links to resources and how tos


Enjoy the exploration this week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, PCC – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development)

Join us for an upcoming ICF CCE approved program - Group Coaching Essentials (starts Friday June 7 - 8.75 CCEs), Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (starts Monday July 8: 10 CCEs) or the Virtual Facilitation Essentials(starts Monday June 3rd  - TODAY at 1:30 pm ET - 8.5 CCEs)

Jennifer

Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Strengths (9)

It’s week 9 of Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit. This week we are going to explore one of my favorite areas to coach around – Strengths. 

Why are strengths important?

Gallup has undertaken decades of research on the topic of strengths and has found:

Individuals and teams that are able to lead more by strengths, are:

•       6x more engaged

•       3 x more likely to report having excellent quality of life

•       8.9% greater profitability

•       Teams which focus on strengths have 12.5% greater productivity

(Gallup Strengths Center)

As teams we work collectively and understanding our strengths can make a big difference in terms of communication, triggers, stress, prioritization and flow. As team coaches you may be working with a blend of individual and team strengths.

Questions around strengths : Teams

1.       What do you notice about your strengths collectively?

2.       What strengths can you rely on?

3.       What do you notice about roles in the team and strengths?

4.       What strengths are missing across the team?

5.       What is the blindspot created by over-relying on your strength?

6.       What strengths do you need to collaborate with, or bring in?

As group coaches the primary focus will likely be on individual strengths and how people are capitalzing on these in their own worlds. There may, or may not, be any intersect between individual group members in between the sessions.  

Looking to your own self around strengths consider these questions I posed here at the blog in 2012:

As you consider your strengths ask yourself:

1.       How are you using your strengths on a regular basis?
2.       Which ones are not being used?
3.       Which ones are being overused, and may be creating a blind-spot?
4.       Which, if any, were you surprised to see?
5.       Which one would you like to place some focus around and use more in your work or life in the next month or quarter? What changes would this entail?

For more on this topic check out StengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath, Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, or Go, Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Buckingham. If you prefer to work around Signature Strengths with the VIA Character Strengths Survey Check out The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate and Ignite Your Positive Personality by Drs. Ryan Niemiec and Robert McGrath

Enjoy the conversation,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, PCC – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development)

Join us for an upcoming ICF CCE approved program - Group Coaching Essentials (starts Friday June 7th - 8.75 CCEs), or the Virtual Facilitation Essentials(starts Monday June 3rd at 1:30 pm ET - 4 spots open - 8.5 CCEs)

Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit – Habits (8)

Habits are the things we do repeatedly. As coaches these are elements that are often “under the

waterline” and may be done subconsciously, without a lot of thought. Under times of pressure or stress, this is where we go to naturally. 

Exploring the topic of habits with clients can be a rich area of insight and exploration. 

 Research has shown that habits do take more than the 21 days we used to think they needed to create. 

The most recent research points to an average of:

Some of the habits we may coach around include:

Taking daily action around marketing, weight loss, reading, organizing etc.

Getting up at a certain time of day or ensuring that we log off by a certain time of day

Modifying activities

Getting into a practice of writing or posting on social media

What are the habit areas which you might coach your clients around?

Coaching Tools Around Habits:

There are several ways we may coach around habits

Back to the analogy of the Iceberg which I include in my books – Coaching Business Builder and Plan Do Track – habits are below the waterline

We might also have people note or track their activities to notice the patterns of behavior. Note the photo in the graphic here  - this is one of the Monthly Daily Trackers from the Coaching Business Builder and Plan Do Track. Whether we are tracking revenue in or when we post, data can be invaluable in pointing to patterns and habits.

Habits usually include some work around mindset as well as behaviors. What are the tools you have at your disposal to coach around mindset? What are the mindsets that are helping others around consistent action?

Six Questions around habits :

1   Thinking about HABITS:

       What are the areas you want to build more automatic behaviors around?

2.       What habits are you leaning into right now to get success?

3.       What habits are hindering you?

4.       What one thing would you like to do consistently?

5.       How can habits help you get the results you want?

6.       What mindsets are feeding into your most important habits in business right now? (Consider one thing you do consistently. What are the beliefs and mindsets behind this)?

Resources:

Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of our Daily Lives - Gretchen Rubin

The Coaching Habit – Michael Bungay Stanier

The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg

Smarter, Faster, Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity- Charles Duhigg

 Wellcoaches School – Habits – This looks like an interesting on-demand program around habits. Check it out here.

Enjoy your conversations,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, PCC – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development)

Join us for an upcoming ICF CCE approved program - Group Coaching Essentials (starts June - 8.75 CCEs), Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (starts July): 10 CCEs) or the Virtual Facilitation Essentials(starts July 8.5 CCEs)