Week 2 Reflective Entry

by Noora Haraholma

I think that our first coaching session was a really interesting experience for all of us. It taught me that the coaching process requires input and active contribution from everybody. Conscious listening, asking questions and reflecting on what the others say really makes a difference. A good coach is able to empower the coachee and to make him feel validated and during the coaching session I noticed that this can be done easily for example by nodding and smiling. This also helps to build the relationship between the coach and the coachee and makes the communication more open and honest.

I was also able to learn a lot more about coaching during our session. Before the session I considered coaching as a development process for the coachee but my own coachee Muriel helped me to see the coaching session as learning process for the coach too. In an ideal coaching relationship both the coach and the coachee are able to get some kind of feedback from each other and therefore they both are also able to develop themselves. I think it was really useful to get feedback from Phuong while he was coaching me. He asked me many questions and made me to justify why I stated something which was a great thing for my learning process.

We were able to go through most of the steps during the role-play. While being coaches we were all listening, making notes and actually paying attention on what the coachee said. Based on this we were able to ask clarifying questions and to summarize the key points that the coachee mentioned.

I am really looking forward to our next coaching session. I feel that we can already express ourselves quite freely and I am interested in seeing how the coaching sessions evolve after we get to know each other even better. 

Week 2 Coaching Assignment - Part three: Reflective entry

by Muriel Guillod 

After my first coaching session, I took some time to reflect on this – for me – completely new experience. After some deep thoughts, I’d like to share my personal comments on it.

First of all, I liked how easy and straightforward the communication between each team member was. Even though we didn’t know each other a few days ago, when we started sharing our point of views and entered into the coaching process, it felt really natural and open. We didn’t have to work hard on building an environment where we would feel safe to talk. Of course, we still decided to isolate ourselves into a small room, where we wouldn’t be disturbed by other students or people passing by, and so that we would be able to fully engage into active listening throughout the whole experience.

One thing I was a bit surprised but very pleased about at the same time is that everyone really directly threw themselves into the role play wholeheartedly. The coaches were always listening carefully to their coachee, taking notes, nodding and encouraging the coachee to speak. No one interrupted the conversation curtly nor raised his voice to make his point. Furthermore, while every coachee talked about the essential elements in coaching, all of them were able to come up with new points that the others haven’t mentioned, which was really enriching. As coaches were engaging into active listening, they were all able to come up with very interesting questions, which aimed to truly deepen the conversation, while also helping the team members to get to know each other a bit better.

All in all, this first coaching session went really smoothly and was a very agreeable and enjoyable experience. I am looking forward to go a step further in this process.

Reflective entry after the first coaching activity of week 2 

Chi Phuong NGUYEN

Our first coaching was conducted in a meeting room in FSA building. The meeting room was ideal for conducting the coaching activity. Indeed, it allowed us to concentrate fully on coaching. We exchanged our roles of coach, coachee and observer within one hour. Even that it was the first time we met each other, we didn’t feel embarrassed with the coaching. It was a pleasant surprise for me. Each one knew about his/her role and managed to do the work. 

Noora started the session as a coachee and her knowledge about coaching was completed, giving us the whole overview of coaching from the purpose, environment, participants, key processes, to several factors of effective coaching. As a coach, I listened carefully and didn’t interrupt her until she finished. My questions concerned the benefits of the coach in the coaching session. Noora pointed several interesting points. Indeed, according to her, coachee can make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Otherwise, there is no place for the coach to help the coachee to improve. Another point concerned the changing environment, the coach should help the coachee to adapt to those changes. Emotion of the coach is important as it can make the coachee to feel the empathy from the coach. When it came to Muriel as the coach, she did her job well. Her questions were not easy to answer but they enabled me to deepen in my thoughts, making some efforts to explain and make understood my ideas. She was patient to listen to my explanation. We also eased the coaching environment by making some jokes, facilitating the exchange among the participants. Muriel and Noora used a lot of eye contact and hand gestures in their coaching activity; those nonverbal forms of communication were really helpful for exchanging the ideas and creating a relaxing and amicable environment. Muriel mentionned that the coach should help the coachee to realize his potential and believe in himself. A good strategy can be applied is small wins; the coach can showed to the coachee about his small will to develop his confidence. We applied the key processes of coaching such as listening, mirroring, questionning, summarizing and catalyzing.

Finally, we summarized all of our ideas about good coaching and realized some important elements for effective coaching: relationship, no judgment, trust, dynamic process (on-going process), empowering, emotions, empathy, allowance for failure, potential.

Week 2 Coaching Assignment #1

By Noora Haraholma

This post aims to define coaching based on the discussion during the first lecture of the course “Communication in group and organizations”, the article “Coaching from the inside out: Creating Exceptional Results” by Baastian Heemsbergen and my own thinking. Even though every coaching process is unique due to the different goals and participants I also try to outline some key characteristics that I consider important in order to succeed in coaching.

Coaching is a shared process between a coach and a coachee, which aims to help the coachee to reach his goals. These goals can be related for example to personal or professional growth. Besides reaching the goals the purpose of coaching is also to help the coachee to find their inner strengths and to come up with the solutions that are the most suitable for them. The role of the coach is to support the coachee and provide him necessary tools during the coaching process.

The relationship between the coach and the coachee is the most important part of the whole coaching process. Trust is vital to successful relationships and this also applies to coaching. At the beginning of the coaching process the coach and the coachee should aim to create an environment that is safe and allows an open discussion without judging. In this kind of environment the coachee is able to make mistakes that help him to learn and develop his skills. When the benefits of both the coach and the coachee are aligned and they have similar values and common ground this safe and open environment is easy to create. Coaching is a dynamic process and both the coach and the coachee are responsible for actively building their relationship and thus, helping the coaching process to move forward toward the goals.

The coach helps the coachee to define the goals, to draft an action plan and finally to implement this plan. However, a good coach does not give advice since the coachee has to come up with solutions by himself. This is because the coachee knows best what works for him and he is also more likely to engage in solutions that he has come up with himself. The coach is supposed to listen to the coachee and make him feel validated. It is important that the coach makes sure that he is actually paying attention and listening consciously. A good coach also asks questions in order to help the coachee with their thinking process. The world is uncertain nowadays and therefore advocating something is not enough. The coach should be curious and able to question the coachee in order to help him to explore his options and to adapt to the changing environment. The coach is supposed to concentrate on keywords and emotions while listening to the coachee. This allows them to summarize the discussion and therefore to help the coachee to understand what he is actually saying. Finally a good coach is also able to catalyze and empower the coachee by bringing in his energy and full attention.

Week 2 Coaching Assignment - Part one: Coaching Summary

By Muriel Guillod

After an introduction about coaching in the first week of the class “MNG-6060 Communication in Groups and Organisation”, having read the article by Bastiaan Heemsbergen “Coaching from the inside out: Creating Exceptional Results” and finally some personal research, I have now come up with my own definition of coaching and the key competences a good coach should be demonstrating.

In my opinion, coaching is a very useful way to help a person develop his own abilities and be aware of his yet untapped potential. For that purpose, the coach must be able to create a trustful environment, where communication is safe, where mistakes are allowed and where the coachee feels at ease to develop his skills by trial and errors. While he doesn’t give directions or advices, a good coach should demonstrate empathy and active listening skills in order to fully understand the coachee and be able to put himself in his shoes. The coach should accompany the coachee through his journey of self-development and self-discovery by giving him the right tools to go forward, and be by his side at all time. Whereas safety is always guaranteed, the environment should at the same time not be deprived from any risks, for the reason that too much safety creates the risk of making the coachee afraid of the unknown. On the contrary, by having a sphere where failures are allowed, the coachee should further develop his ability to handle new challenges and overcome unknown situations. In other words, he should then be able to see challenges as an opportunity rather than as a threat.

Whereas coaching doesn’t sound like a difficult task to be performed, it yet requires to be carefully trained. Even though some people might be born with predispositions for coaching, the essential skills might be learnt and need in any way to be improved and developed. A good coach should be adaptive, i.e. be able to adapt his coaching style to the person he is coaching, because every individual has a different personality and way to handle problems and see solutions. He should also be able to identify the potential in anyone and help that person realize its full abilities. Probably one of the most important skill for effective coaching is the active listening. The coach should let the individual speak without interrupting him, and only after reflect on what the coachee just said by asking reflective questions aimed at guiding him into a deeper level of understanding of his own personal thinking. By summarizing and mirroring, the coach will help his coachee keep the focus on what is essential, while also allowing him to get a better evaluation of his own strengths and weaknesses. As mentioned by Heemsbergen, “the coaching process affirms the person, seeks to clarify choices and acts as a catalyst for action” (p. 1). Thus, I couldn’t emphasize more that the goal of coaching is to provide the coachee with tools to overcome his problems, but not to give him ready-to-use solutions. What is more, there is never one good solution which fits everyone, but rather multiple possible solution, each suitable for one specific individual. And as the proverb says, “it is not the final end which matters, it is the journey”. Therefore, the coachee should figure out by himself how to cope with his challenges, as what matters most is to understand the process of how to overcome a problem, and not how the problem was dealt with eventually.

First entry for coaching

Chi Phuong NGUYEN

Coaching is a process that involves one coachee (or many coachees) and one coach (or several coaches). The goal of this process is to improve effectiveness, productivity of members of a group, an organization and also strengthen the relationship and culture of that organization.

Last semester, I took the Developing Management Skills course and coaching was an important activity in that course. We carried out several coaching sessions in different subjects throughout the whole course. Coaching was really a chance for me to discover myself, improve my self-esteem, knowing better my strengths and weaknesses. Indeed, through coaching, I had the opportunity to express myself, confess and to share ideas with the coach. We exchanged our roles of coach, coachee several times. Therefore, I could both listen to the coachee and to be listened. Coaching is also putting yourself in the step of someone else, to think and imagine the reactions and their consequences on behalf of himself. That experience is unforgettable for me. I’m happy to have the coaching activities again in this course of Communication in groups and organizations. Several factors affect the effectiveness of coaching: environment, relationship between coach and coachee, key processes. In the beginning, a quiet coaching environment can help the participants to concentrate on the coaching, being less disturbed by the others. When the participants are familiar with each other after several coaching sessions, they are less affected by the surroundings. The participation of coach and coachee is also very important in the contribution of an effective coaching session. Both the coach and coachee should be willing to participate in the coaching, sharing their own thoughts or ideas; trusting others. Self-disclosure helps to break the limits and strengthen the relationship in the coaching. The process of coaching contains five key processes: listening, mirrowing, summarizing, questionning and catalyzing.  Those key process are vital and involve the participation from both the coachee and the coach. These process also help to build the relationship between the coach and the coachee. The coach needs to listen to the coachee, and listen actively to make the coaching session effective. The coachee also needs to listen to the coach in order to see what he can improve or change in his way of approaching an issue or a problem. The coach should be able to mirror and summarize the events, actions of the coachee. The questions from the coach are really helpful for the coachee as he can describe the situation better or arrange his ideas. For the coach, it can help to clarify the situation and the coach can understand better the coachee. Summerazing the ideas from the situations of the coachee can enable the coach to make sure if he understands the situations or need to correct anything. During the coaching session, the coach should avoid make judgments about the coachee, about his personnality. Making judgments about coachee can trigger the self-defensiveness of the coachee, ruining or having bad consequences on the relationship between coach and coachee.