As the coaching industry is rapidly growing, every organization seeks to hire a certified coach or develop coaching skills for leaders and managers through a coach training program to help them adopt a coaching leadership style and assist their teams in moving forward.
Adopting a coaching leadership style also entails fine-tuning your conversational style with your team members and employees within the organization and taking every conversation as an opportunity to practice and progress further instead of just instructing your team members on what to do and how to do it.
Let us divide the article into three parts to make the topic more understandable. Focusing on what coaching is First, Secondly, on knowing what is a coaching conversation and Finally, getting to know what makes a great coaching conversation.
What is Coaching?
Coaching is a process that enables clients to unlock their thoughts trapped in the web of challenges and barriers, such as limiting beliefs and unconscious thinking to live a fulfilled life by overcoming them independently and achieving their personal and professional goals.
What Is a Coaching Conversation?
A coaching conversation is a solution-focused transformation from problem-solving and advising to allowing the other person to own their challenges and take responsibility for their actions. The purpose of having coaching conversations is to stimulate the other person's thoughts by identifying limiting beliefs and bringing about change that leads to long-term success and accomplishment of their goals. This is done by actively listening to the other person and asking powerful questions to evoke new awareness about the situation and find their solutions independently.
It is all about the other person's process and not about instructing or advising them based on our opinion or expertise as a coach.
What Makes a Great Coaching Conversation?
Coaching conversations are powerful. They can help you understand your clients better, allow them to develop ideas for improving their work, and get them excited about taking action on these ideas. But what makes a great coaching conversation?
According to Henna Inam, C-level executive coach, global speaker, and the author of the book “Wired for Disruption,” there are five elements to remember when planning your next coaching conversation. These elements are often referred to as the 5 C's of great coaching conversations, namely:
Clarity,
Compassion,
Curiosity,
Confirmation, and
Commitment.
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Clarity
Most leaders and managers begin the conversation without thinking about what the employee might want from it. Being clear and specific about what the team member or employees want to take away from the conversation allows you to gain clarity around the topic and confidently begin the coaching conversation.
The best example to gain clarity in a coaching conversation is actively listening to the other person's verbal and non-verbal cues without interruption and responding or asking further without judgment.
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The coach training offered at CoachWhizz trains you to run a coaching conversation by focusing on enhancing your soft skills such as Active Listening and many more that allow you to engage and converse with your team more confidently.
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Compassion
Compassion in a coaching conversation helps build trust and increases the employees' comfort level in sharing their emotional experiences, resulting in a more positive and effective coaching conversation that helps to elicit positive emotions and generate new ideas.
An example of compassion demonstrated in a coaching conversation is by providing reflective feedback, which aims to provide honest and direct observations while ensuring not to hurt the other person's feelings.
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Curiosity
Curiosity is what keeps us present and engaged during the conversation. The curiosity to learn more about our employees will enable us to ask them questions, increasing their curiosity to identify and comprehend what is working for them and is on the horizon. However, it is imperative to remember the 80/20 rule, which means actively listening and asking questions while allowing the employee to speak more.
In a coaching conversation, the best example of curiosity is asking open-ended and powerful questions to the client, which allows them to discover the answers, gain deeper insights, and foster greater self-awareness.
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Confirmation
Coaching conversations are difficult because our emotions often get entwined in them. When emotions are involved, it sometimes becomes challenging to maintain presence and listen clearly. Seeking confirmation of what the employee says allows us to be on the same page as them and helps us understand the points missed out earlier.
Paraphrasing what the client says and confirming with them if it is right is the best example of confirmation in a coaching conversation. It allows them to clarify their thoughts and assures them that they are being heard.
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Commitment
Ending the conversation with a clear commitment to results makes it a great coaching conversation, which can be accomplished by acknowledging and confirming your employees' takeaways from the conversation. Furthermore, challenging their existing beliefs and allowing them to develop the right mindset for achieving their goals.
Wrapping Up
It is important to remember that coaching conversations are not a one-way street. The client has the most control over their growth by choosing to engage in the conversation and using your feedback to reinforce their beliefs, thoughts, and expectations and being committed.
The coach training provides coaching skills for managers, transforming them into effective leaders in their organizations capable of leading their teams toward success.
