Reflection on coaching week 9: Engaging our Conversational Leadership Skills

Chi Phuong NGUYEN

The study rooms in the FSA building becomes our familiar environment of coaching, allowing us not to waste any time to start our coaching session. As a coachee, I told Muriel about my discussion with teammates last week and my analysis with the use of the model of Advocacy and inquiry. Muriel listened carefully to my story and took notes of main ideas. She is always a good coach, putting right questions. Those questions require me to go deeper in my reflection, researching the root of my problem for the behaviour of low advocacy, low inquiry during that meeting with teammates. She made a conclusion that a safe environment plays an important role in creating an approach of combination of high advocacy and high inquiry to promote effective communication. Both Noora and Muriel applied the Kantor’s 4 models in their situations of teamwork. For Muriel, she challenged herself in several roles from mover to follower and bystander. Her teammates were really supportive, providing the chance for each member of the team to give his/her ideas and to contribute into the teamwork. Her conclusion from the situation is interesting: each role in the group is important and normally the balance comes naturally. But in some groups, it needs a little bit more work. Practicing the different roles to change our perspective, to broaden our mind and avoid sticking to one idea. For Noora, she isn’t familiar with taking the position of leader but she would do if necessary whenever the team is stuck and they have to make a decision.