Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Awareness (3)

In this week’s continuation of the Building Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit series, we’re going to explore awareness.

Awareness can be just as important as action in any coaching process. As I posed last week – is our action, the right action.

In exploring awareness with teams and groups, we usually drop “Below the waterline” into areas that are not always seen. Coaching for awareness can include areas such as:

• ·         Belief Systems
• ·         Values
• ·         Perspectives
• ·         Assumptions

When coaching a team it is these elements that get translated into behaviors. What is interesting is that many of these elements are not articulated or shared, which may lead to differences in how the behaviors are demonstrated. 

For example, if I am driven by a value of speed, I may find quick ways to do things which get the results but may not be of the same quality as someone who has a value around quality. This can lead to differing results, which sometimes is in conflict with each other.

 As we have seen in past posts, one of the greatest challenges for teams is finding alignment so that they are all pulling in the same direction.  When alignment around behaviors and results is not present, a team coach may want to “drop below the waterline” with the team in exploring beliefs, values, perspectives and assumptions. It is likely that one, or more of these, are at play.

At the group coaching level, when a coach is working with a group of new business owners for example, it can be useful to explore how these elements (beliefs, values, perspectives, assumptions) are shaping each individual in the group. Hearing from others may surface some new learning for other group members.

Coaching Areas we may find oursleves coaching around:

Beliefs (Enabling Beliefs, Limiting Beliefs, Inner Critics/Gremlins/Saboteurs)

Values

Vision

Assumptions

Perspectives

Questions to explore around awareness:

1.       In the big picture, what’s important?

2.       How are your values getting translated to action?

3.       What are the different perspectives you are holding around X topic? (i.e. growing your business).

4.       What assumptions are you making?

5.       What belief systems are shaping your actions?

6.       What else is important to note?

In my work as a mentor coach I have found that coaching around awareness can be an area that is rich and valuable. While it may not have the allure of coaching into speed and action, it is the layers or awareness that create shift and movement towards the results that matter most.

What is important for you to note this week as you coach your clients around awareness?

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
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