Group Coaching Core Essentials #13 of 18 - Incorporate the 4 Core Elements of Coaching

 This week our blog post comes to you from our Team Lead - Group Coaching, Evana Valle. 

As I shared earlier today in my conversation with the ICF Team and Group Coaching Community

of Practice (COP) the four elements of group coaching (and any type of coaching) are:

Accountability

Awareness

Action

Goal (Attainment)

These four elements make coaching, coaching, and the emphasis on these four areas makes them distinct from other modalities like facilitation, training, etc.

Here's what Evana shares in our 13th post in the Group Coaching Core Essentials series, as part of our 18th anniversary:

This week we discuss what's at the core of coaching, which also supports us to stay out of training or facilitation.
 
Frequently, new group coaches come with years of training or facilitation experience and wonder, "How is group coaching different from training or facilitation"?
 
In 2009 International Coach Federation surveyed over 11,000 coachee's to know why they hire/work with a coach, and the following reasons emerged: Goal-setting, Accountability, Awareness, and Action. 
 
Whether you are designing your program or a session, please keep these four elements front and center. 
 
These four core elements ensure you are in the coaching conversation.
 
Principle: Always ensure that at least one of the core coaching elements (goal-setting, accountability, action, and awareness) is incorporated into any activity, tool, or exercise.
 
Action: Awareness with followed action comes from speaking more than thinking.
 
Consider the following questions:
 What activity can you introduce to support your participants with goal-setting? And Accountability? Awareness and Action?

• What powerful questions can you use when working with each core coaching element?
• Identify the element leveraged for each of your program sessions.
• Is your program designed with a balance of core elements used throughout your program? 
• Consider how you can support your participants to anchor their awareness and, in turn, activate them into action.  
• What activities do you already use, and where do they fit within the core elements? For example, consider asking yourself to do this activity:
• Support your participant in establishing goals.
• Support creating awareness? 
• Activate your participant into action?
• Create accountability?

 
If you notice that you can't relate an activity or tool to a coaching element, consider not using it or modifying it so it does connect back to one of the coaching core elements.

Enjoy your next steps around this!

Jennifer

What is your unique style as a coach? Take 2-minutes to complete the NEW Group and Team Coaching Superpower Quiz. You can find it at https://bit.ly/gtcoachingsuperpower. Share your style using the comments below and/or follow along on Instagram at our CoachingBizBuilder site.

Join us for an upcoming program including: 

Group Coaching Essentials - Mondays 130- 245 pm ET starting November 7 with Jennifer (5 weeks) or the Tuesday and Thursday 1015 - 1130 am ET accelerated delivery on November 29, December 1, 6, 13, 15 (with Evana - 2.5 weeks)

Reconnecting Workspaces Certified Coach - 24 CCEs - Join us for an intensive 3 day virtual workshop November 18 - 20 and build out your specialization for coaching in today's evolving workspaces - hybrid, in-person and remote. 1, 2 and 6 payments available.  Calls 830 - 430 pm ET. With Jennifer.

Team Coaching Essentials (14 CCEs)  - Being asked to coach teams? Equip yourself with the foundations of this quickly evolving field. This program is grounded in our From One to Many methodology PLUS what works right now in today's evolving workspace. 1.5 day delivery Monday November 7 (830-430pm ET) and Tuesday November 8 (830 - 12noon ET) with Jennifer.

Check out our Intensive November 2022 offerings which will be delivered by Jennifer between November 7 - 20. More information and schedule at GroupCoachingEssentials.ca.

 

Expanding your group and team coaching toolkit (24): Metrics that Matter

My October monthly article for my PlanDoTrack newsletter recently focused on “Metrics that

Matter”. What are the guideposts that are helping the teams you are working with track and understand their metrics?

In launching the PlanDoTrack workbook and planner late last year, and the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner eighteen months ago, a significant focus  in conversations with individuals, groups and teams, has been on tracking, and noting data. As we reflect on data gathered there can be some interesting pictures, and patterns that emerge. Data is data and when we track it on a regular basis, it’s easier to see what the “True picture” is.

Throughout the workbook planners there are many different ways for people to track data on a daily or monthly basis - through the Monthly Daily Trackers, the One Line a Day or in the Monthly Content trackers.

As a coach, some things you might want to track on a regular basis are:

• Sales
• Website visits
• Downloads
• Revenue
• Reads
• Sample Sessions
• Products Developed
• Speaking engagements
• Likes
• Numbers of clients
• Hours Billed
• Net Profit
• Social visits
• # of books sold
• Operating Revenue

What else do you have metrics around? What else might you want to note?

With groups, consider what types of trackers will help them. Could a wheel of life or leadership included at the front end of coaching, be revisited mid-point and/or at the end, to help the team understand what progress they are making?  Would a daily tracker help to capture lessons learned? Would a journal provide the written story for them?


If you have a copy of Coaching Business Builder or PlanDoTrack, check out the Monthly Daily Trackers I’ve included in the Content Planning Section (Section 5). There’s one that will provide you with space for capturing key activities, and one where you can capture key thoughts of the day.

With teams, the starting point for a team coaching engagement may be a team assessment providing them with data they can incorporate throughout their coaching, and work, journey.


At the team level, helping people note where they are at so they can make the small micro-shifts which are needed. Have discussions with the team around what they want to track - collectively and individually.


Questions to consider:

What do you want to track?
What data do you have available?
What do you notice about patterns, changes, etc?
When will you dedicate time to note and review your data?
What story can you make up about the data you have available?
How can this inform your decisions and priorities?

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 (8.75 CCEs) starting Friday November 1st at 1015 am ET (running to December 2nd), Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum ( 10 CCEs) starting Monday November 4th at 3 pm ET or the PlanDoTrack Facilitator Training Program (24 CCES - starts Friday November 15th at 530 pm ET - virtually!)

Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Action (2)

Last week in kick off of this blog series, we started exploring different elements of the coaching

conversation, especially as it relates to tools and questions for teams and groups. If you haven’t read last week’s post, take a look at it here.

Another core foundation of the coaching process is action. Action creates action, and it can feel easy to coach around action.

 There is an elusive belief that to coach someone to do something quicker, faster or better, may be the best thing, but is it? A key question to explore is “is this the right action?”.

In coaching a group it’s likely that each person will have their own action plans. On a team, helping team members get clear on the collective actions which are prioritized, and what success looks like, can be a significant focus.

Questions you may want to explore as a team are:

What are the priority actions right now?

What will success look like?

How do I contribute to this collective goal?

Where might I impact others on the team  - overlap or be in conflict with?

In coaching for action, we’ll also want to keep in mind the varying layers of awareness. What else is possible? Awareness will be our focus next week.

In coaching for action, we can draw on a number of different coaching and related tools including:

1. Coaching around planning tools such as SWOT Frameworks (this strategic planning tool can provide the backbone to a rich exploration by a team around their STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITES and THREATS.
2. If you prefer an appreciative inquiry stance, coaching around the SOAR instead of the SWOT
3. Identifying what we want to START, STOP and CONTINUE Doing
4. The Stoplight framework of GREEN (Good, go), YELLOW (Cautiion, proceed slowly) and RED (STOP,  CAUTION/CRISIS)
5. One page plans
6. Urgent/important matrix made famous by Steven Covey – What are the actions which are having impact? Which are coming from a crisis mindset – yours or others?

What tools do you use in coaching for action?  Feel free to share one of your favorites in the comments below.

Six Coaching Questions to Explore around Action:

What actions are going to move you towards your goal?

What are the steps which are going to move the team forward collectively? As individuals?

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

To move you towards your vision, what do you need to do?

What’s the one thing you want to focus on?

What do you need to stop doing?

Next week we turn our attention to Coaching For Awareness. Stay tuned!

Enjoy the conversation,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPCC

Group Coaching Essentials | Potentials Realized

Join us for an upcoming ICF CCE Approved program - the Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs), the Group Coaching Essentials program (8.75 CCEs), or the Virtual Facilitation Skills Essentials (10 CCEs) 

Join us on Facebook at EffectiveGroupCoaching

Connect on Instagram @ CoachingBizBuilder