COACHING GUIDES

This guide will give you some quick suggestions as to how to structure your coaching meetings: your 1st session and subsequent sessions.

1st Session Guide

This guide is for coaches who are preparing for their first coaching session with a new coachee. Regardless of whether or not you already know your coachee well, this first coaching meeting is critical because its very likely to set the stage for the entire coaching relationship.

SESSION GOALS Establish trust. A coachs job is hard: helping people change. Change is usually only possible when the coachee feels safe. In a coaching relationship, safety starts with trust. Establish coaching commitment. The success of coaching greatly increases if coachees feel that their coaches genuinely care about their success. Its critical that your coachee hears and feels like you care about him or her and are committed to their development. Spark the development journey. Usually, coachees need help pulling together a good plan that he/she finds deeply motivating, achievable, well prioritized and efficient.

BEFORE THE MEETING Reflect on this document. Review this document to help you think through your coaching session. Review coachees development plan. Log in to Qrew and check out your coachees development plan. If your coachee is just getting started then he/she wont have much in there but the little he/she does have will be helpful to get started in the session.

EXAMPLE AGENDA 90 minutes For the first meeting, you should give 90 minutes because, if you do it right, its likely to go longer than you might imagine.

Verbal Commitments 10 minutes Show you care. Start the meeting by explaining the agenda and what you hope to accomplish. Be sure to clearly and strongly voice that you take this coaching role seriously and that you are committed to the coachees development and success. Make sure it comes across that you care. Its up to you to show that this matters and that youre onboard to make this work. Confidentiality & Control. Nothing discussed in the coaching dialogue should be shared with anybody else. This is critical to establishing a safe space for the coachee to discuss delicate things like his/her weaknesses or problems he/she is having with another person. Also mention to the coachee that he/she is in control. Anything he/she wants to discuss or not discuss is up to him/her. It is critical to reiterate that Roshan Peer Coaching is not part of the performance process and the information shared will not be used to penalize the coachee.

Getting to know the person 35 minutes Even if you already know the person well we recommend taking your time to get to know the coachee. Ask questions like those offered below to unearth whats most important to your coachee and what are the issues in his/her life right now. The more the coachee gets away from a thinking mode (in the head) and to a feeling mode (in the body), the better. This is because it will establish trust, and because the most important things to people always evoke a deeper emotional (heart/gut) response. How do you want coaching to help you? What do you want to achieve right now in your life? In your work? What are you most passionate about in your life right? In your work? How does your job fulfill you or not? When do you feel the most fulfilled? When do you get the most stressed? What are the biggest challenges in your life right now?
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Development plan discussion 35 minutes Next Career Step. Start at the high level by discussing your coachees career aspirations and next career steps. Be warned, some people have an easy time talking about it and some have a very hard time. If theyre having a hard time, dont push too much but also make it clear that you do want to know. Itll probably come over a longer period of time. Development goals. Review any development goals that the coachee has already outlined in Qrew. Talk about whether theyre aligned with what they want to achieve at a higher level. Evaluate other potential goals if appropriate. If there are multiple goals, think about how to prioritize them. Research shows that people cant realistically change too much about themselves so picking the top one or two goals is usually recommended. Actions items. Goals are worthless without a good plan to achieve them. Sometimes the most important role of the coach is to brainstorm the action plan. What really is the best way to achieve this goal? Have they considered other options? You can suggest other ways to achieve these goals that might save them a lot of time and effort. Summary 10 minutes A lot can happen in a coaching session, but much can be wasted if not remembered. Part of the coachss role is to hold the coachee accountable to his/her goals and what he/she truly wants to accomplish. Make sure the coachee summarizes any changes or new takeaways for his/her development plan. Be specific to summarize the next career steps, the goals, and corresponding actions items. If something is undecided, thats fine but its important to say so. Explicitly ask them if they are ready to commit to (pledge) any goals. If not, ask them what they think itll take to be ready. If yes, remind them to do so in Qrew. Also remind them to update their development plan in Qrew based on the coaching session. If you didnt do this in the beginning of the meeting, remember to decide on: Meeting Frequency: how often you do want to meet? (i.e. monthly) Meeting Schedule: Date and time (1st Tuesday each month for noon lunch) Meeting Format: In person or phone call. Be sure to let them know if youre planning on giving online feedback between meetings or if ad hoc phone calls are ok.
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Subsequent Sessions Guide

This guide is for coaches who are preparing for their second, third or any coaching meeting besides the first. SESSION GOALS Deepen trust & coaching commitment. Establishing trust takes a while so its important to reaffirm your coaching commitment. As time passes, its important for the coachee to see that you continue to care; saying and showing it once in the first meeting is not enough. Support continuous development. Committing to change is easy but changing is hard. Hold your coachee accountable and support him/her where ever possible. Find opportunities for sponsorship. People dont achieve things on their own. Many decisions are outside their control. Think about opportunities to help your coachee get ahead that you can help make possible.

BEFORE THE MEETING Reflect on this document. Review this document to help you think through your coaching session. Review your coachees development plan. Log in to Qrew and check out the updates to your coachees development plan. You might want to print out his/her development plan so you can reference it in the meeting.

EXAMPLE AGENDA 60 minutes Updates 25 minutes Have the coachee give you updates on whatever you talked about last time. If they already gave you updates online, then ask them to explain it in a bit more detail if necessary. Issues 25 minutes Identify any issues or blockers the coachee is having with his/her development. If he/she hasnt made any progress on a goal, then you might want to dig down deeper into why. Dont let him/her get away with just saying that he/she didnt have the time. Why wasnt there time? Is
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the problem that he/she doesnt think its important or that he/she has a very hard time getting started? Are the actions not concrete enough? Are they too difficult to get started on? Also check if there are new issues on the coachees mind. These issues usually point to areas for improvement and usually need to be dealt with by the coachee before advancing on the long-term development goals. Summary 10 minutes A lot can happen in coaching session, but much can be wasted if not remembered. Part of the coachs role is to hold the coachee accountable to his/her goals and what he/she truly wants to accomplish. Make sure the coachee summarizes any changes or new takeaways for his/her development plan. Be specific to summarize any new clarity or changes with regards to their career aspirations, goals or actions items. Also remind them to update their development plan in Qrew based on the coaching session. And last but not least, get feedback on YOUR online/offline coaching feedback. If you didnt do this in the beginning of the meeting, remember to check in on: Meeting Frequency: Is this timing you decided on before still ok? (i.e. monthly) Meeting Schedule: What is the next date, time and place. Meeting Format: In person or phone call.

SESSION NOTES

SESSION NOTES (continued)

SESSION NOTES (continued)

SESSION NOTES (continued)