By Laura Royal
In our last issue we explored goals and milestones of all shapes and sizes and the fluid and flexible nature that they can take. Along with opening up the conversation with colleagues and employees returning to the workplace and how to overcome the challenges and anxieties that they may be struggling with.
Our aim throughout each ePublication is to empower leaders and businesses by offering insights, know-how and actionable tips for you to eNgage, develop and to have the tools and skillsets to apply our framework.
In this bumper May issue we are highlighting International Coaching Week 2022 (ICW) which runs globally from May 16th to May 22nd this year with the theme of, ‘Reimagine the Future,’ and celebrates the power and impact of professional coaching along with the willingness to continuously widen the depth of your knowledge and expertise.
International Coaching Week explores the value and big benefits of coaching and that shines a beaming light on the journey of progress made throughout the coaching process along with sharing the results gained.
At DNA Coach we always work with a framework of pillars that focuses towards; the future of work paying particular attention to meaning and purpose, coaching reflective growth, education to help us develop and grow, plus, they look at the future of inspiring interconnectivity and a vision for our living planet. This is why we are organisational members with the Association for Coaching and currently going through our ICF accreditation for Continuing Coach Education.
With over two decades of experience in the coaching and leadership space at DNA Coach we know that coaching is what happens in the everyday and at every level — it’s in building good relationships that offer a conversational style approach to spark the catalyst of change and to shift movement positively and progressively forwards.
Effective coaching can significantly improve the lives of you and your colleagues as well as your whole business. Through coaching you can enable people to be the best version of themselves whilst offering a safe space for goals to be accomplished and for problems to be solved.
Coaching is an impactful way to support business managers and leaders to be future focused as well as assisting in the increase of self-awareness and to strengthen mindset and capability. In this special coaching and leadership extended edition, we’ll look at:
- LEssentials for Forward Thinking Leadership: The Coaching Mindset
- LDebunking Coaching Myths to Propel Progression
- LKey Principles: The DNA of Impactful Coaching Explained
- LShifting Forwards: Coaching Questions to Inspire Action
Here at DNA Coach we want each and every person we work with to realise and develop their potential for success that takes the lessons of the past and navigates your focus towards a successful and fulfilled future for you, your employees and your colleagues.
Become a coach!
Sign up for our CMI level 5 or CMI level 7 Coaching courses
Essential for Forward Thinking Leadership
The Coaching Mindset
Mindset plays a hugely successful role in adopting the right culture and development for you and your organisation.
Adopting an everyday coaching mindset within leadership offers the clarity to look towards developing people through training and coaching which forms a positive and continuous habit to Develop, eNgage and Apply.
By doing so the motivation to achieve and a willingness to apply that knowledge within your workplace to learn and to think forwards becomes a way of thinking that’s habitual.
When you build the foundational blocks from the right toolkit of knowledge and techniques you can develop skillsets that not only encourage personal growth but also vast professional and business gains too.
The International Coaching Federation includes the Coaching Mindset within their own core competencies and states that it, ‘Develops and maintains a mindset that is open, curious, flexible and client-centred.’
Applying the Coaching Mindset promotes impactful leadership and a people centric approach.
At DNA Coach we coach mantra’s and bespoke learnings that support all great coaches to;
Promote awareness, responsibility and self-belief with every person that you coach.
Build trust and clarity of focus towards solutions.
Listen within a safe space that’s judgement and blame free.
Constructively challenge, eNgage, encourage, support and motivate.
Adopt a human approach that emboldens the coached individual to create change towards their goals.
To get into the Coaching Mindset why not try some self-awareness and intention setting questions such as:
- LWhat 3 things do you like about yourself and that make you a good leader?
- LHow can you best serve yourself, your business and your team today?
- LWhat will you accomplish today?
- LIf there was one thing you could do today that would make a difference — what would that be?
Keep your responses to hand to enable you to approach leadership coaching with the right mindset and plan active steps on how you can best achieve these not just today but every day.
Coaching is in unlocking the potential in others and offering supportive, future focused and action orientated feedback to facilitate change and movement that creates a climate of confidence and a freedom to express ideas.
MYTH BUSTING
Debunking Coaching Myths to Propel Progression
Coaching conversations should be front and centre to every business and organisation. It’s within building and crafting the right mindset within your company that you promote a positive culture and where the people within it are actively motivated and driven to not just unlocking their own potential but also in collectively driving the business forward to fulfil its own objectives, purpose and meaning.
Business leaders can operate from both positions as leader and coach. However, coaching myths have the real capacity to hold back and prevent coaching becoming commonplace within the workspace and can halt progression and the right mindset in its entirety if it’s not addressed. Let’s debunk some of them here;
MYTH #1
“I just don’t have time to coach”
Myth Debunked
It’s not always about blocking out 90 lengthy minutes to coach someone. You likely already coach daily and sessions can be achieved within the everyday, straightforward conversations that unlock potential or set within several short purposeful conversations that can provide the opportunity to make changes and to move forward. When you’re pressed for time even the smallest window of exchange can be enough for coaching conversations if they’re used with meaning and purpose. Done in the right way and with the right technique those smaller sessions can still have lasting and powerful impact – It could even be that you’re simply checking in with progress or discussing the next steps to help someone move in the right direction that aligns with furthering them towards their goals.
MYTH #2
“I don’t have the skills to coach”
Myth Debunked
The good news is that coaching skills can be learnt and gained. Our learning journey is forever evolving and growing and it’s all part of our own development path to acquire new skills and to maintain a growth mindset. It’s always worth looking out for coaching accredited programmes and award recognised certificate level courses that can offer you accessible and approachable ways of learning.
The first step is in connecting with the person you are looking to coach and to listen and observe if they are willing to be coached and to lead with coaching conversational openers. Asking questions about, “where they are,” and “where they’d like to be,” can be a great position to start from that can stretch a person’s thinking and closer towards unlocking further potential. It’s all about creating a safe environment where the person being coached feels supported and to help facilitate a step-based action plan that motions them forwards from their starting point towards where they want to be.
Coaching shouldn’t be used to only mark underperformance or to correct issues where the connotations become overwhelmingly negative – it should be used in a balanced, people-focused and respectful way that’s designed to bring about change and progression.
Key Principles:
The DNA of Impactful Coaching Explained
It doesn’t have to be a complicated model to be the most effective. Often a simple coaching framework works best that’s intentionally designed and positioned in a way that can be easily incorporated into your own business and leadership strategy for; the Development of you and your people, for the eNgagement of your colleagues and employees and with the means to Apply the framework that can be leveraged to boost the motivation and progression of your staff and that also benefits your business and culture overall. Asking the right questions at the right time serves as a coaching conversational tool to enable powerful change and forward focused steps.
DEVELOP & DEFINE
These types of questions are designed to be ‘intent focused’ and to develop an awareness for asking questions that promotes this way of thinking. Essentially these are asking what it is that you as a coach or the person being coached want to develop. Some example questions within Develop might be; The aim here is to encourage clarity of thought and focus towards movement that shifts you to where you’d like to be.
What is it that you would like to have or to be?
What do you want to strengthen, balance, improve or develop?
What areas do you wish to develop, enhance or grow?
What needs to happen in order for you to achieve that?
The aim here is to encourage clarity of thought and focus towards movement that shifts you to where you’d like to be.
NURTURE & ENGAGE
These types of questions aim to eNgage you with your goal and your sense of purpose so that you can commit to the direction you need to travel towards in order to attain it. This is what helps you to jump all in and to synchronise the values and thought processes that create and build engagement.
Example questions to promote engagement and to get you thinking towards your goals are;
What about this excites and inspires you?
How important is this to you and the people around you?
Imagine you’re 3 months from now and all obstacles are removed and you have achieved your goal
How do you feel and what is different?
Apply & AChieve
Being motivated for action and committing to action is where application comes in. Effort and a drive to achieve here is a big factor of successful goal attainment.
You can start by asking yourself;
If you did nothing how would you feel?
How could you change this?
What actions could you take to achieve this starting this week?
How motivated are you to take action on a scale of 1-10? If the answer is less than 10, how can you shift your answer to be more committed to action?
Now you have to decide what your first manageable steps will be in order to get to step 2 of your plan and so forth. Work out how you can hold yourself accountable and how you will track your milestones along the way.
Become a coach!
Sign up for our CMI level 5 or CMI level 7 Coaching courses