We are celebrating the beginning of a new year AND the start of our TWENTIETH LSCC training cohort! What a milestone!
Create Courageously
This month we’ve been focusing our attention on the discovery process and coaching objectives. At our Co-Lab Conference call in January, we had discussion and learning around this theme with lots of great resources and take-aways shared.
Here are some suggestions from your fellow LSCCs on items to include in your pre-discovery client education:
Put coaching concepts into a metaphor that’s easy to explain and easy to understand
Share a bit about yourself as the coach (a written or video bio)
Send a discovery questionnaire (Be sure to ask what prompted their interest in coaching and if they’ve been coached before.)
Send them an example of a coaching agreement
Acknowledge the courage and commitment of a client to participate in the coaching process
Choose Aliveness
In this skill refresh, we give you access to the latest Alliance & Client Management lecture being used in the LSCC training program. You can also find the presentation slides for your quick review here.
(As a reminder, please do not copy any images or content from these presentations without our written permission.)
Example of presentation slides from Alliance & Client Management Lecture.
Discover Purpose
This video was submitted by another LSCC during our monthly Co-Lab conference call, and we thought it was a great resource to share with all of you. If you have a potential client that’s interested in coaching but unsure of how it’s different from other professional roles, try sharing this video that makes clear distinctions between the differences and review our “What is a Coach” handout.
Brittany Ussery (E17) and Anthony Eyer (E7) packing up for Made Wild - Fall 2021.
Develop Potential
Up your coaching discovery by reviewing and refreshing your discovery coaching questions regularly, as well as your discovery forms. Check out some of the form examples in our updated LSCC Toolkit.
(You’ll need to request to be added to the folder once you click on the link.)
And here are some of our favorite discovery questions from recent LSCC grads:
Identify 6 objects or pictures - 2 objects or pictures to represent your past/younger self, 2 to represent your current self, and 2 to represent your future/older self (Elizabeth Sparks)
What song makes you feel on top of the world? (Brittany Ussery)
What is one thing people get wrong about you? (Stephanie Haglund)
Who is in your “fan club”? (Matt Thomann)
What if you were brave instead of perfect? (Tamara Rulon)
Brittany Ussery, LSCC (E17) submitted the most excellent, personalized, and professional discovery process we received in 2021. If you’re interested in an example of how to set up your discovery process with clarity so you and your client both know where you are, where you’re going together, and what it’s going to look like along the way, take a look at this example that Brittany has generously given us permission to share with you. Please do not copy or duplicate without her permission. Her contact info is in the Co-Lab Directory, if you have any questions or would like to connect with her.
Megan Gilmore - doing a lot of coaching work from the home office these days.
Lead to Serve
Coaching is ALL about insight (new learning) and action (new habit creation). The first without the second feels awe-inspiring but lacks any substance that will evoke transformation in the client’s whole person. The second without the first is initially motivating, but ultimately hollow and disconnected from the client’s soul.
The coaching discovery process is the time to set the stage for this kind of professional relationship to happen. If I could say one weakness that I see in our LSCCs, it’s that they err on the side of focusing too much on the insight and not enough on the new habit creation.
Once you’ve gotten over your “fix it” addiction, the cozy place for a coach to land is in the middle of these deep, curious questions. The better you get at them, the better you listen and the more insight comes up for your client. And we want that, but if you ONLY stay in the curious questions, you are amputating some of the most powerful skills and competencies you can bring to a coaching relationship. Things like making distinctions, blurting your intuition, risky requests, bold challenges, championing your client to the unimaginable, and rigorous accountability. This is when it becomes incredibly important to clearly understand your client’s coaching objectives - that “Big A” agenda that’s established during the discovery process.
The two things that must be accomplished during your discovery process are:
1. Establishing a strong designed alliance
The assumptions, agreements, and safety norms that this professional coaching relationship will operate from, a strong designed alliance means that the client and coach know what to expect from each other, what each person is committed to, and what will happen if something goes wrong.
2. Co-creating the client’s coaching objectives
One to three coaching objectives is recommended for each client that you’re working with. These objectives should be clear, measurable, motivating and personal to your client. Whether or not the coaching objectives are met will be your indicator of whether or not the coaching is successful.
Bottomline, if you leave a discovery process without a strong designed alliance OR without clear coaching objectives - you’re not done yet. These are the necessary building blocks for all of the international and national professional coaching competencies to be met, as well as the best way for you to ensure your practicing ethically.
I usually like to set a general theme or category for each coaching objective (often taken from a PERMA+ME Wheel or other coaching assessment wheel), and then establish a clear objective with the client for that category. Below are some examples from a few of my 2021 coaching clients:
Leadership Development (wants to be someone worth listening to): Will craft message and support web in the next 6 months. In three months, will be speaking once a month to 10-25 year olds.
Relationships: In 3 months, managers will be acknowledging progress. Over the next 6 months, will practice and grow in new behaviors like listening, acknowledgement, emotional intelligence, and tailoring communication.
Meaning - Will have 4 clear, viable options for purposeful direction in 6 months. (Metaphor = moving from disorienting, black void where we can't find bearings to mapping the territory)
Engagement - Will feel more confidence (solid 7 - 9 on a scale of 1-10), this looks like walking into a room like I know what I’m doing, being trustworthy to show up as myself
Positive Emotion - On a scale of 1-10, will move from a 2 to 10 on “Joy” and 8 to 1 on “Guarded” in the next 6 months.
Reflection Questions:
What would be gutsy for you in your coaching relationships this month?
Do you find that you err more on hyper-focusing on insight or on habit creation in your coaching practice? What practices and accountability might you need to balance become more balanced?
What skills and competencies do you avoid and which ones do you default to?
How can you stretch your range in service of your clients?
Affirmation: I courageously move toward insight and action to embody and increase flourishing in and all around me.