Conducting Coaching Meetings

• why it is important that all coaching meetings are well structured
• how to conduct productive meetings with your client using the COACH model
• to identify your client’s barriers and suggest strategies to overcome the barriers
• what to do if your client does not make progress toward objectives

Introduction: Juanita’s Case

Juanita is the manager of a small call center. She was hired one year ago to improve performance of the busy call center, and given the mandate to decrease turnover rates. In the last year, she has earned the respect of the call center employees and turnover has slightly improved. However, performance indicators (orders taken) have not improved and other department managers say that she has not reached out to them. Juanita is extremely busy on the job and has found that the few comments she has received from other managers have not been helpful. In the data feedback meeting with her coach, Juanita agreed to set up meetings with other department managers, but the first one did not go well. Juanita plans to discuss this with her coach at the next coaching meeting.

David is an internal coach. He was asked by the department manager, Juanita’s boss, to be her coach. Juanita readily agreed to the coaching relationship. David conducted a 360-degree feedback survey and has conducted a feedback meeting with Juanita. During that feedback meeting, Juanita set two goals:

1. She would set up individual meetings with the other department managers in the next three months to understand the operation and needs of each department.
2. She would improve the orders taken by call center employees by 10 percent over the next six months.

It is now time for David to conduct Juanita’s next coaching meeting, and he wants to discuss her progress toward these goals. Below is how their conversation went.

David: Hi, Juanita. How are you?

Juanita: Great, David. How are you?

David: Good. Juanita, I’m eager to hear how you’re progressing on your coaching goals. Are there other items for today’s agenda before we talk about those goals?

Juanita: No, I’d like to jump into goals and the action plan.

David: Okay. What action steps from your plan have you taken so far?

Juanita: Well, one of my actions was to set up individual meetings with other department managers to understand their needs. I had my first meeting with Steve from finance. It didn’t go very well, and I wanted to talk to you about it before I set up any more meetings.

David: We can definitely discuss that. Anything else?

Juanita: I guess that’s it.

David: So, Juanita, is your objective today to talk about the interaction with Steve?

Juanita: Yes, to figure out what went wrong.

David: How would figuring out what went wrong contribute toward your coaching goals of understanding the operation and needs of each department head?

Juanita: Hmmm. By thinking through the effect of what I said and did, I can more readily realize the gap between what actually happened versus what I intended. From there, I can determine alternative approaches. Overall, this would help me determine a different way of communicating that would be more successful in determining the needs of the other department managers.

David: How will you know if a different way can be or is successful?

Juanita: Well, I’ll know it is successful if I use the different technique and Steve and other department managers don’t get defensive.

David: Great, Juanita! So let’s talk about what you did say and what some alternatives might be.

(The dialogue continues with many alternatives discussed.)

David: Well, Juanita, we’ve discussed many ways you can approach Steve and how you can respond if he gets defensive. What specifically are you going to do?

Juanita: Well, I really like the idea of slowing the pace and asking him more questions. I think I argued with him too much and didn’t listen enough. I think I need to let him know that I can appreciate his perspective. I need to stop using words like “should” and phrases like “that won’t work.” I also want to invite him to visit the call center and listen to some of our calls—I think he would be enlightened!

David: When are you going to meet with Steve next?

Juanita: I’m going to call him tomorrow and set up a meeting for next week.

David: On a scale of one to 10, how committed are you to taking these actions?

Juanita: Put me down for a 10!

Exploring goal opportunities, objectives, and alternative actions is best done within a well-structured coaching meeting. By using an organized approach, you can guide your coaching client, formulate powerful questions, maintain focus, and conclude each meeting with your client committing to taking action. This chapter offers a four-step model that you can use to plan and conduct successful coaching meetings. Since coaching meetings happen throughout a coaching relationship—and progress through various stages—this activity is noted under the process side of the organizational coaching model depicted in figure 8-1.

The COACH Model

The COACH model is a model for conducting an actual coaching meeting. There are four easy phases that provide an excellent framework for a productive coaching meeting:

C = Current Situation

O = Objectives

A = Alternatives

CH = Choices.

C is for Current Situation. The first phase of conducting a successful coaching meeting is devoted to describing the current situation. This entails getting the clients’ feedback on their perceptions of what has transpired since the last coaching meeting. It may include the status of actions committed to on the action plan or new, emergent issues that were unanticipated but ever so common in organizational life. In a sense, this discussion is empowering the client to set the agenda for the coaching meeting. Getting mutual clarity on the current situation is necessary to establish clear, realistic objectives for development.

O is for Objectives. Once the current situation is mutually understood, the coach and client determine the coaching goals, desired results, and measurable objectives (for the particular coaching meeting or for the overall coaching process). Even the most seasoned coaches will tell you how easy it is to slip into friendly conversation that bears no resemblance to coaching when the focus is not on monitoring progress toward objectives.

A is for Alternatives. In this phase, it is time to explore alternative approaches and ideas to reach the desired objectives. Use brainstorming and other techniques to help your clients surface their reasoning, beliefs, feelings, and perceptions. Refrain from offering your ideas, especially at the beginning of this step. Use powerful inquiries to encourage your clients to discover their own resourcefulness in generating ideas. Remember that this is the fertile ground where profound change occurs.

CH is for Choices. A successful coaching conversation concludes with a choice to take action, even if that conscious action is to do nothing. Choices for action may include next steps, milestones, and how success will be measured. The dialogue around choices should also include a realistic appraisal of obstacles and how to overcome them, resources, and support needed. Sometimes, time constraints during the coaching meeting require abbreviated dialogue or completion as a homework assignment. In any case, they are important aspects of choice making and action planning.

Inquiry and Advocacy Within the COACH Model

Let’s look back at the coaching dialogue between David and Juanita. You may notice that David inquired about Juanita’s current situation with the question, “What action steps from your plan have you taken so far?” That’s an excellent question that will give him up-to-date information on Juanita’s progress toward her coaching objectives. What if Juanita had said that she had not completed any of her action items because she was too busy? What would have been your reply? This is an excellent opportunity for advocacy, such as “I’m concerned that coaching seems to have a lower priority than everything else. Is that a correct assumption on my part?”

While inquiry and other powerful questions are often the tools of choice for successful coaches, you may find that advocacy is appropriate when following the COACH model during a coaching session. As we discussed in chapter 4, advocacy is a powerful dialogue tool for testing reasoning, fostering inclusion, and offering ideas. Let’s look at ways to use both inquiry and advocacy for each step in the COACH model.

Phase 1: Current Situation

The Stuck Client

Coaches have a vision of the perfect client who makes regular progress from coaching meeting to coaching meeting—thanks to our awesome coaching—until graduation day when our client thanks us and happily goes back to the job where all the learning from coaching applies immediately and perfectly. If only that were true!

The reality is that most clients get stuck along the path of coaching for one reason or another. Perhaps crises occur in the job that derail the coaching process. Or perhaps the client tries a strategy; it doesn’t work as well as anticipated and the client becomes discouraged. There are many reasons for steady progress to be impeded.

Katie’s Case

Katie is director of media strategies for a national volunteer organization. She hired a coach with the approval of the chief executive officer to develop her leadership skills. Her data collection revealed that Katie was admired for her technical skills and that her co-workers felt intimidated by her controlling, non-participative management style. Over the course of her coaching partnership, Katie began to adopt more collaborative, team leadership strategies, and she was encouraged by her team’s reaction. Then, a new vice president was hired and became Katie’s supervisor. Within a few weeks, it became clear that Katie’s new boss was going to be very involved in Katie’s work. Katie became angry, fearful, and defensive about her role and her work. Her interest in her coaching objectives changed to, “How can I get my boss off my back?”

One dimension of conducting effective coaching meetings is recognizing when your clients are stuck and helping them to break free. Three common elements that cause clients to become stuck are fear, ego, or impatience (Staub 2002).

Fear is a common barrier, trapping coaching clients in a cycle of inaction, defending intentions, and interpreting or explaining away others’ perceptions. A well-thoughtout defense allows the clients to protect the ideal self-image that they have created. Most clients are afraid of change, the unknown, and failure. What is your coaching strategy? Name the fear when you hear it. Discuss its benefits and drawbacks. Ask what your clients would choose if they weren’t afraid. When you make fear discussable, it tends not to be so scary. In Katie’s case, her coach helped Katie to talk about her fear that her boss would derail her career. Once that fear was articulated, a secondary fear emerged—the fear of letting Katie’s boss know how her involvement was affecting her and discussing mutual expectations.

Ego is a barrier to change that often is perceived as arrogance. Employees are usually rewarded for a combination of technical and interpersonal skills. Ironically, the same interpersonal behaviors that served them well in a more junior position may now be getting in the way. Getting the work done through others may now be more important than individual contributions. Your job as coach is to help your clients set aside their egos so they hear feedback and use it to grow and develop. Discuss how perceptions by others are critical to success. Help your clients reframe what success looks like. Katie was defensive about her work and not open to her boss’s input. Her coach helped her see how that would be perceived by her boss and how that would not help her achieve her career goals.

Both clients and organizational stakeholders may become impatient to see coaching results. Being action-oriented and results-focused is great, and changing behavior and maintaining it takes time and practice. Your strategy to overcome impatience is to address the potential expectation for immediate change right from the beginning and throughout the coaching relationship. Help your client and the entire organization exercise patience, support, and perspective. Hold out for long-term, sustainable change to be the ultimate goal. Katie’s coach helped Katie see how patience with her new boss and her own career objectives would help her to be successful in the long term. Her coach encouraged Katie to expand her thinking and to view the situation from her boss’s perspective and not just from her own perspective.

As you coach your clients, you may hear a range of expressions that signal they are feeling stuck. Table 8-1 lists some of the more common ones that you might hear with some possible coaching responses. Some responses are useful in more than one kind of stuck scenario.

Moving Ideas to Action

You can use the following application to practice using the COACH model in a situation that is relevant for your workplace. Ask someone from your workplace to practice with you. First, think of a pertinent coaching situation within your workplace and discuss the following elements:

1. What is the role of the coaching client?
2. What is the role of the coach (internal, external, etc.)?
3. What is the coaching objective?
4. What is the status of the coaching relationship (new, data feedback meeting, well-established coaching relationship, etc.)?
5. What is the goal of the coaching meeting?

After discussing the coaching situation, determine who will be the coach and who will be the client. The coach should use a balance of inquiry and advocacy and use the COACH model as an aid. After the practice, discuss the following questions:

1. How did the coach ascertain the
   • current situation
   • objectives
   • alternatives
   • choices?
2. How did the client respond?
3. What challenges did the coach experience? How were they handled?
4. What alternative behaviors might you suggest?