What is coaching? Coaching types and audiences The 3 phased coaching model setting out the main steps in a coaching approach

What is coaching?

Ronald Meijers, of the Executive Board of Krauthammer, is a board-level coach.
He says:
“’Coaching’ is awash with terminology.
We define it – and we speak of observable behaviour - as personalised guidance, which usually takes place in a face-to-face meeting.
The objective is to simultaneously boost personal performance and personal growth.
The coachee has a ‘no escape’ and confidential relationship with a guide who diligently confronts, stimulates, irritates and instructs. Change may take us out of our comfort zone – beyond, even - into the ‘panic zone’. So trust is a pre-requisite.
The coach must have absolute integrity and positivity, toughness and compassion. The priority is to build on strengths and create meaningful results.”

Philippe Bazin, a Senior Consultant at Krauthammer and author of ‘Le Petit Manuel d’Auto-Coaching’ adds:
“In the most important steps in our growth process, we can imagine we have no choice, that circumstances dictate our actions.
The coach’s role is to help the coachee to re-acquire his or her sense of responsibility, to show and open up the possible options.
The transformational power of coaching lies in a vital notion intimately linked to our humanity – responsible freedom.”

Coaching types and audiences

The Coaching and Mentoring Network in the UK helpfully synthesises common coaching types: business, executive, performance, skills and finally, personal coaching), with clear descriptions.

Krauthammer expresses its practice as follows:

• Boardroom coaching for top managers and partners;
  senior sparring partners bring strategic and behavioural strengths to the table
• Top team coaching for a team of top managers/partners
  simultaneously coached as part of a culture change or strategic re-orientation programme
• Executive coaching for senior managers and professionals
  to raise an individual’s performance
• Implementation coaching for senior managers/professionals
  training and facilitation as part of a crucial organisational initiative.

The 3 phased coaching model

The Krauthammer coaching faculty, part of Krauthammer University, has developed a ‘3 phased coaching model’ setting out the main steps in a coaching approach relative to the maturity of the coachee and his or her needs.
By maturity, we mean ‘competence’, rather than age or hierarchical position - although the two should correlate. <
Here we map the maturity levels of coachees, to correctly pitch the coaching process, achieving maximum impact (with minimum frustration and wastage).

Example
Angela is a senior financial manager whose new role extends to human resources management.
Transactional coaching will help her acquire the skills related to her new specialism.
She has hands-on line management experience, but now manages a remote international team. Here, she needs transformational coaching in some communication skills, (her empathy over the telephone needs development).
Her ability to assimilate and contribute to strategic complexity is high, however. Autogenic coaching – learning how to coach herself to the next level – will liberate her potential.

How to ensure impact coaching?

The top 8...

1. Know - and act upon - the fact that there is a business case for coaching even at boardroom level and that employees expect to see it
2. Ensure that coaching matches maturity – we define 3 levels...
3. Ensure the training of your coach or coaches has included live observation of their ability
4. Ensure that your coach or coaches possess the self-discipline to honour their role of guide and facilitator (rather than ‘director’)
5. Ensure your coach is fit for the role by receiving regular coaching
6. Ask and answer vital questions with regard to meaning, willingness and ability
7. Ensure that the ‘problem’ rather than merely its ‘symptoms’ has been correctly - and compassionately - framed
8. Install the concept of the ‘manager-coach’ in your organisation - identify what can be delegated, to whom, and why.

Choosing an external coach

Whatever your objectives in seeking a coach, or your choice of partner, we propose the following pre-requisites:

• Self-discipline. The coach is a guide – a facilitator.
• ‘Being’. Integrity and exemplarity are cornerstones of a coach’s credibility.
• ‘Thinking’. How the coach gathers and processes information.
• ‘Acting’. Coachees demand from a coach that he or she listens actively...

Some of these elements may seem contradictory – providing a clue as to why a talented coach is such a rare species and why rigorous training and ongoing perfection and feedback are essential. So the coach, whose fi rst task is to ‘know him or herself’ has the responsibility to be fit for the role, seeking and taking on board the feedback of coachees, peers, and his or her own coach.

The output

Thanks to this rich tapestry of attributes the coachee will experience the following 6 forms of output from his or her coach.
In what ways could you, your coach or coaching potentials, apply these perspectives?

The coach/coachee relationship

“Trust means making yourself vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action that is important to you”
Dr Fréderique Six, quoted in ‘Trust and Trouble’ Krauthammer, November 2003

Trust is the cornerstone of coaching. As well as all the aforementioned qualities, trust is built upon good chemistry, the commitment of both parties to process and outcome, a clear sense of mutual benevolence - being valued as an individual – (‘seeing the individual behind the behaviour’) and sincerity.

Pre-requisites

Self-discipline. The coach is a guide – a facilitator. 
Guiding, (as opposed to directing), demands high self-discipline – impulse control. So the coach seeks the feedback of the coachee, taking it into account, encourages the coachee to express him or herself fully, spontaneously self-questions and admits mistakes, responding to objections with well-put questions. New research by Krauthammer indicates that employees seek such behaviour from their managers – and by association, from coaches. Obvious? The research highlights serious gaps between the behaviour employees seek, and what they actually experience. Self-discipline is difficult.

‘Being’ In terms of core attributes, integrity and exemplarity are cornerstones of a coach’s credibility.
Compassion is essential, too, blended with the courage to face and communicate tough observations using ‘positive confrontation’. Useful too is a certain charisma. Finally the coach must be available. This means installing - and respecting – the space for coaching sessions and ongoing contact – and that during these, the coach is engaged and alert.

‘Thinking’ How the coach gathers and processes information.
We propose a blend of analytical skill, the ability to install structure, with an ever-present focus on the goal. The coach must be perceptive - detecting what is hidden, and creative, thinking laterally, uniting contradictory information, recognising patterns, hypothesising with the coachee in a compelling way, transforming insights into pragmatic solutions. Furthermore the coach must contextualise and interconnect – taking into account the environmental factors of the coachee – (mapping his or her stakeholders, linking the coaching to organisational or departmental strategy, taking, for example, a systemic approach). A gift for self-expression is vital, handling language with sense and meaning, resonating with the coachee.

‘Acting’ As we see, coachees demand from a coach that he or she listens actively, taking verbal and physical signals into account, detecting hidden messages, probing with relevant open-ended questions.
Acknowledgement of a coachee’s message, act, or progress, is vital – as is praise. A pragmatic approach translates into the act of making actions and resolutions concrete. Finally, the coach is a motivator – helping the coachee to recall the big benefit at hand and to resource him or herself, especially in the face of difficult feedback, or slow results.

如何制订一个最佳的辅导计划？

辅导计划启动的3个必要条件：

1. 公司要认识到企业与员工是利害相关的。
2. 个人要意识到自己面临的挑战。
3. 教练的选择。

明确问题
找出真正的问题所在需要独具匠心——透过表象探求原因，质疑假设，将有冲突的见解综合分析，从而准确定义“问题”或“诊断”，这便是一流教练的过人之处。

每个人对现实的理解都是独一无二的，并支配着我们的行为（我们的“滤镜”）。辅导要取得成功有众多先决条件，其中有三个“滤镜”非常重要，那就是关于“意义”“意愿”和“能力”的。

意义
教练和辅导对象都要自问：“我清楚辅导的目的吗？”

意愿
教练要自问：“我真的希望辅导对象成功吗？” 并问辅导对象：“你真的决定了吗？”“有意愿去做”的背后是“乐于这样做”。

能力
教练要考虑：“辅导对象具备所有条件吗？” 对现状了解清楚吗足以做出好的计划吗？有时间吗？（例如：制定月度计划了吗？）接着，教练再问辅导对象：“你能做到吗？”

从这三个问题引申到其它：
关于面临的挑战，我们的共识是……？
在“确诊”的基础上，我们现在找到了解决方案。

运用 “你有什么建议？”的方法，教练和辅导对象找到关于意义、意愿和能力的答案。

关于意义——确定辅导对象所面临的挑战。

关于意愿——明确辅导对象所期望达到的程度、收获和感觉。

关于能力——教练和辅导对象都必须清楚认识到自己的职责。

回答这三个问题有两个好处——使辅导对象有一个积极的心态——“我能行” 的信念，还能创造激发辅导对象自身优势的所需条件。

最后，有了“行动的具体动力”，在其推动下开动。定期举行的“进展会议”能够使双方回顾取得的成果并不断进取，在分析自身优点和不足的基础上重新审视目标。双方都要努力确保计划安全有序进行，并一直坚持下去。

Coaching tools

Tools such as 361° analysis are recommended and offered by Krauthammer in the initial phase of the intervention, and after.

• The ‘Self-Piloting Dialogue Approach’ comprises a list of self-created questions (we provide a toolbox of 40 examples), a list of minimum 8 trusted advisors from 3 different categories (N+1, N and N-1). The coachee invites and interviews. Then after having answered the questions him or herself, s/he creates a synthesis for the trusted advisors and the coach.

• Our ‘4LS evaluation’ benchmarks the observable behaviour of training participants through the window of 64 management and leadership competencies. Each competency is declined into four 4 observable descriptions - organised according to 4 levels of functionality – ‘disqualifying’, ‘penalising’, ‘operable’ and ‘exemplary’.

• Finally the Krauthammer assessment centre, in English, French and Dutch, is a live observation platform conducted at Krauthammer premises, using situational scenarios to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the coachee.