6 Core Group and Team Coaching Resources: 12 Days of Holidays 2022 - Day 1 of 12

 For years (and I mean years) I've done a year end series of blog posts. Take a  look at the 2010 and
2016 series here. My team here at Potentials Realized asked me earlier this month if I'd be doing something special for the holidays and I said, OF COURSE! So here we go with the 12 days of holidays for 2022. The series this year will include some tips and a focus on one of our many programs and services. I hope you join us for all 12 posts leading up to December 23rd (our 12th day!)

I thought I'd start with 6 Core Group and Team Coaching Resources I return to time and time again, ones that I think every coach will want to consider having in their toolkit:

1. Post it notes - Post it notes continue to be a favorite of mine and have been so for decades now. They are a great tool to elicit participation from all group members, see connections and focus thoughts. Read this 2008 post I did entitled Post It Notes: A Facilitators Ally. In the virtual space, Miro and Mural are our digital twin.

2. Visual Decks - For many years I have been using visual cards and photographs with in person and virtual groups. A wonderful "conversation sparker" across differences, photos help group members create new perspectives, insights and connections. Whether you are using Visual Explorer, the JICT Deck, Points of you - The Coaching Game, or Conversation Sparker (my deck) consider the many ways you can use cards as openers, closers, or as the main focus of the session.  In late November 2016 I released the 40 Ways to Use Visual Cards E-Resource, which includes detailed instructions on 40 ways to facilitate activities with cards (from goal setting, to innovation, to strategic planning, to closure) and also five worksheets you can use "as is".

Working with visuals was also my focus of the Design Studio Blab #6 - View it here.

3. A selection of virtual platforms - The last few years have shown the importance of having a variety of platforms at our disposal - from Zoom, to Teams to others, what are you using to bring people together?

4. A variety of back-pocket ideas - You never know what's going to be needed when you work with groups and teams. It's always a great idea to take stock of the different activities and resources we have at our disposal. Spend 15 minutes this week doing an inventory of what you have available and/or going through some of the books/resources you which are accumulating dust. What might you bring into an upcoming session?

5. A community of other practitioners - Developing your own network of follow facilitators/coaches and trainers is not only good for business when you want to scale your work, it's also really important in terms of ongoing development. Consider how you will invest in your relationships with other practitioners this year, and also expand your skill base.

6. Evaluation Resources - Gathering feedback about what's working well, and what's not, helps keep programming expanding, and coaching growing. What are you doing to poll your group and team members throughout the coaching process.  I always like to recommend Lisa Edward's work around evaluation and coaching.

That's it for today - Day 1 of 12 complete for this year's 12 Days of Holidays.

Be sure to check out our Conversation Sparker decks - including the Square Journaling Cards (my favorite) and the standard Conversation Sparker decks - digital edition.

Enjoy!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton

GroupCoachingEssentials.ca | Potentials Realized

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 - Fridays 1015 - 1130 am ET: January 13, 20, 27, February 4 and 11 (with Evana) - 8.75 CCes

Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum - 10 CCEs - Fridays 1230 - 145 pm ET: January 13 - mid-Feb (6 weeks) with Jennifer

Reconnecting Workspaces Certified Coach - 24 CCEs - Join us for an intensive 3 day virtual delivery on December 12, 19, 21  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. 6 week program on Mondays 12 - 130 pm ET  January 9,  23, 30, February 6, 13, 27 2023 with Kathy

Mentor Coaching Group - 10 hours Fridays 9-10 am ET: January 13 - April 13th with Jennifer. 5 spots open. (For ACC renewal or PCC)

Year End Business Planning Retreat - December 13 (1 - 5 pm ET) with Jennifer (4 spots open)

Check out our Intensive December 2022 offerings which will be delivered by Jennifer in early December. More information and schedule at GroupCoachingEssentials.ca.

SAVE THE DATE For our 19th Annual Holiday Party - 10 - 1 pm ET on Tuesday December 20th (virtual on zoom)!

 

 

Group Coaching Core Essentials - 9 of 18: Exercises

This week's blog post comes to us from Evana, our Team Lead for Group Coaching.Thanks !

This week focuses on the value and benefit of including exercises in your group programs to support participants in achieving their goals and integrating their learning after sessions through action and accountability by group coach and their respective peers in the program. 

 

Similar to the experiential learning model, “What? So what? Now what?” it supports layers of awareness, and also action based on awareness; its equally important coaches have participants bring their learning outside of the program and integrating their knowledge in their lives.

 

Depending on your programs focus, you will likely have a toolbox of tools, exercises and possibly assessments to draw upon based on participant’s needs and goals. As a group coach your role is to stay present to participants needs providing feedback on what’s showing up in the sessions as possible topics to support participants achieving their goals and fulfilling their commitments.

 

 

Principle – Provide space in your program for exercises such as action planning, setting commitments, creating structures, and identifying accountability steps.

 

Action: Participants have frameworks to take learning of the programs back to their every day lives.

 

 

This week, consider reviewing what you can add or modify within your program (or separate sessions) to include exercises that support your participants to bring the learning from your program back into their lives. Consider the following questions: 

 

 

*How are you ensuring everyone is autonomous in the design of goals, actions and accountability during the group coaching program process?

 

*What structures can you add in your programs to create accountability both with the coach and within the group?

 

*How can you support participants integrate their learning outside of the session?

 

*What activities can you modify and migrate individual coaching to group setting to support awareness and action of participants goals?

 

 *What technologies are available to create accountability and action amongst the group members?

 

* How is your How are you continuing to develop yourself as a coach ?

 

*How can you leverage participant experiences and synergies to support participants to propel action?

 Blog post by: 

Evana Valle - Team Lead - Group Coaching, Potentials Realized

For more on this topic check out the Appendices of  Jennifer Britton's books - Effective Group Coaching, and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching. 

 Group Coaching Essentials | Effective Virtual Conversations | Potentials Realized
Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder (for coaches)

Want to know what's new? Looking for remote and hybrid resources - Pick up a copy of the  Reconnecting Workspaces book or the 90-Day Guide for Success. Instagram: @ReconnectingWorkspaces

Group Coaching Essentials (8.75 CCEs) - Join us in September on Fridays from 1015 - 1130 am ET starting September 9th for 5 weeks

Team Coaching Essentials (14 CCEs) - next starts on Monday September 12th from 130 - 3 pm ET for 6 weeks - With Kathy Vaughan and Jennifer

Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs): Starting Fridays at 1230 pm ET on September 9th for 6 weeks (With Jennifer)

Mentor Coaching Group - for ACC/PCC - Fridays 9-10 am ET running from September 9 - December 9th (with Jennifer)

Supervision Group for Team Coaches - 10 hours - Thursdays starting September 15th and running to March (with Jennifer and Kathy - meets ICF and EMCC supervision requirements for team coaches)

Jennifer is also the author of Effective Group Coaching (2010), Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Check out her author page on Amazon for all publications.

 

10 Approaches to Zest Up Your next Group Coaching

The possibilities are endless in terms of what you can do with groups during a group coaching engagement. Recently in my monthly group coaching newsletter, I shared these 10 ideas of different approaches you can incorporate into your next group coaching. Consider which ones you might want to add in to your next group or team coaching process:

Visuals - From digital photos to incorporating a process like Draw Your Future, what's possible?

Using Annotation to create your roadmap of where you are going to go

Incorporating Somatic approaches (i.e. getting in touch with, and activating your bodies)

Meditation

Journaling

Bringing in a guest speaker or a guest coach for one of your sessions (Call me... I'd love to join you and maybe even do some tag-team coaching!)

Peer partners

Having the group or team find one thing that is common across all group members; (A tip from last month's article!)

Questions

Reflective Pause

Laser Coaching

And, of course, dialogue!

What's your favorite approach to working with groups or teams? What is going to jazz up your next program?

Enjoy your conversations

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - Group Coaching Essentials | Effective Virtual Conversations | Potentials Realized
Instagram @Remote Pathways (for remote workers) and @CoachingBizBuilder (for coaches)
Author of Effective Group Coaching (2010), Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Check out my author page on Amazon for all publications.
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com

Phone: (416)996-8326 

Upcoming programs include:

Group Coaching Essentials - Fridays 1015 - 1130am ET: starting this Friday March 19 with group calls on Fridays March 19, 26, April 9, 16, and 23, 2021 (8.75 CCEs)

Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum - Fridays 1230 pm ET - 145 pm ET: March 26, April 16, 23, 30, May 3, 2021 (10 CCEs - bundle with the Essentials and save)

Virtual Facilitation Essentials - 875 CCEs - One day program starting Thursday March 25 - 9 - 4 pm ET

Mentor Coaching Group - 10 hours over 3 months (meets requirements for ICF PCC and ACC): March 29 - June 29 2021 with calls on Mondays 10 - 11 am ET

Group Coaching: 5 Things to Lean Into As a Group Coach

As I go to wrap up up with both the Group Coaching Essentials Winter session, and the Advanced

Group and Team Coaching Practicum later today, I always appreciate the questions I receive about WHAT NEXT and Where I am going to take my learning.

One of the questions I received in the last few days warranted a blog post given that it's been a while since offering up some of these top 10 or Top 5 lists.

For those that are exploring What's Next in the work and conversations as a group or team coach, I'd encourage you to explore some of these areas:

1. Continuing to leverage your coaching skills - As I was saying last week when presenting at this year's WBECS, group and team coaching is grounded in coaching. We need to continue leaning into our core coaching competencies, or else we run the risk of not coaching. What are the core skills you want to lean into as a coach? What are the skills you are working on sharpening this quarter?
Whether we have been coaching for 3 months or 15 years, there is always something to learn and sharpen. It's what keeps our work fresh, and also probably relevant.

What are the coaching skills you want to further refine as a group coach?

2. Leaning into business systems - Systems help us streamline and automate tasks that we undertake on a regular basis. From registration to accounting activities to designing worksheets or slides, systems can really help us cut down on time and allow us to focus on what's important --- HAVING the Conversation with clients!

What are the systems that are going to support you in your work?

3. Building Your Toolbox - Great group coaches continue to add onto their toolkit. They consider what can be woven together in service to their team or group client. Once your learning curve plateaus, consider adding something new each and every engagement (as long as it is in service to the group or team you are working with). It's easy to get in our own ruts...What are the tools you might want to explore?
Some of the tools and approaches we have been exploring this winter have been:

• Visual cards
• Body-centered geography or Somatic approaches, where we incorporate kinsethtic approaches or movement
• Using Metaphor
• Incorporating video (whether it's pre-work or post work or an energizer). This is an area we have been exploring at both the Coaching Biz Growth Lab and LLDS.

 What tools do you want to add?

4. Ensuing you continue to co-design what is needed in every engagement. I learned early on in my work as a coach trainer and speaker that saying "IT DEPENDS" so much , is not really useful. While there is not one model for group or team coaching, there very much are core principles and elements we ground our work in. otherwise, we probably aren't coaching. How are you grounding your work in core coaching principles, as well as a deep focus on Goals, Action, Awareness and Accountability.
What really is required in each and every engagement? What do you need to co-design?

5. Exploring related fields to bring even more to your clients. Organizational change and culture is embracing many different areas at present. While I flagged many of these as emerging trends back in 2013 and 2017 in both my From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching and Effective Virtual Conversations, these things are now part of organizational culture. They influence the context in which we operate. For example, Design Thinking and Agile.

 What are the elements that are going to support your continued work in your industry? What are the things that are going to be of service to not only your learning, but their performance?

As you consider your work in the coming weeks and months, what are the areas you wan to lean into? Where do you want to grow?

Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

 Warm regards,
Jennifer

Author of Effective Group Coaching (2009), and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and Coaching Business Builder - Workbook and Planner (2018)
Phone : 416-996-TEAM (8326)

Upcoming Spring 2019 programs include Group Coaching Essentials program (8.75 CCEs) which starts Friday March 22 (10:15 am - 11:30 am  ET - 5 weeks no call 4/19) and the  Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs which focuses on the "practice" of group coaching). Advanced will start Friday March 29th (1 - 2:15 pm Eastern - meeting for 6 weeks - no call 4/19)

Did you hear that I've just released a new on-demand course? If you have been enjoying the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner, you may want to join me for my 19 Productivity Tips program which includes short-video based lessons AND bi-weekly live calls around productivity for the next 5 months. Kick off to the live calls are held bi-weekly on Fridays from 2:30- 2:55 pm ET. Check out the 19 Productivity Tips program here.