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.

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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 - 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 
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 May 3rd - 4 spots still remain - 8.75 CCEs), Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (starts Friday May 3rd - 3 spots open: 10 CCEs) or the Virtual Facilitation Essentials(starts Monday May 6th  - 4 spots open - 8.5 CCEs)

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.