Why Coach Training Is Awesome
I recently completed the first leg of executive-coach training. I’m surprised by how much I liked it!
I signed up on a whim, literally the day before the course started. I booked a last-minute flight to Chicago, and then spent the next two and a half days immersed in a la-la-land of coaching at a hotel downtown. My friend and former coach Jeff Ward had recommended the training company, CTI. I took their Fundamentals Course, which is the first of a series of five to get certified.
Why on Earth would I do coach training, you might be wondering? Having sold my latest business in August, I’ve decided to spend a few months “sharpening my saw” before diving into the next venture. Coaching is something I’ve always wanted to explore. Having benefited from coaching as an entrepreneur, I recognize the value of it (though admittedly, it was a long time before I took it seriously). I’m also at a point in life when I’m recalibrating my priorities and purpose, and looking for greater meaning. I figured an intro coaching class might help me be a better, more intentional leader of my own life. Finally, I really connect with the underlying mission of coaching, to help people advance.
About twenty people were in the course. Most were from the Chicago area. Two-thirds were female. The age range was broad, averaging in the mid-40s. The room was evenly split between practicing HR types and semi-retired Baby Boomers looking to reinvent themselves. I was the only entrepreneur. Everyone was super-nice.
The class was co-led by two women in their 50s who were amazing instructors. They alternated between conversational lectures, retreat-like group activities, and practice coaching sessions. The content was touchy-feeling, as Jeff had warned, but the pace was brisk. From an educational standpoint, it was first-rate.
The practice coaching sessions and critiques were the heart of our training. These gave me new respect for coaching as a craft. Good coaching is hard! We saw huge differences in impact based on the quality of coaching.
What I like about coaching is that you can actually see the impact. In our practice sessions, our classmate became our “clients” and chose topics from their own lives. It wasn’t uncommon to see tears, learning breakthroughs, or new levels of confidence — all leading to a concrete action the client had to take.
On the second day, we all got name tags with some type of characteristic. These were assigned based on what qualities we needed to show more of in our coaching in order to increase our “range.” The diffident types were assigned qualities like “fang” or “slasher” or “roar” to encourage them to bring out a tougher edge and greater confidence. Two women got “pole dancer,” which cracked me up. I got assigned “warm & gooey.” I had to practice being extra warm & fuzzy all day long. Yuck! Yet, showing more heart and empathy made made me more effective. Being tough and analytical comes easy for me; warm and fuzzy and connected, more challenging.
So what types of skills and tactics do you actually learn? A lot that are broadly applicable, it turns out.
One big take-away for coach-like conversations is not to jump into problem-solving mode so quickly. It’s so easy to get into the mode of giving advice. Instead, we learned to “deepen the learning” before “forwarding the action.” In coaching, 10% of the time should go to selecting a topic, 80% to exploring it, and only 10% to next steps. The impact is so much greater when a person comes to a conclusion their own.
Improving listening skills was a big part of the training. For me, one habit that gets in the way of good listening is when I think of my next question or comment while the other person is talking. My ego wants it to be so good. Instead, I learned to hang more on the other person’s words and formulate my questions or comments in the present moment.
Other tricks of the trade include asking “what” questions instead of “how” or “why” questions. Crisp questions taking the format, “what is ______ ?” are particularly effective at getting a person to explore a topic. Same with present-moment questions like, “How do you feel as you’re talking about this?”
To help someone develop an action plan, we found that giving people a very specific “ask,” even if it’s ridiculously off-track, is better than putting forth something general. Specific tasks, however good or bad, give the person something to react to. Overly general ones are too easy to blithely accept, and they’re typically not measurable. Setting a deadline and requesting an update are also key to establishing accountability.
For me, coach training was spiritually grounding as well as practical. There’s something special about helping people become better versions of themselves, and exploring how I can do the same. Through coaching sessions, you really get to know someone. It’s intimate and cuts to the core. From our in-class sessions, I’ve already bonded with people I never would’ve expected to.
I have no intention of becoming a full-time coach. But as the course came to a close and we said our goodbyes, a simple equation popped into my mind:
Purpose + Performance #
The intersection of purpose and performance is an awesome place to be. Uniting purpose and performance is the core of leadership. It’s also the focus of coaching. The opportunity to explore this, for me, is what makes coach training awesome. I highly recommend it.
By the way, I’ve signed up for the next four courses. Who knows where I’m going with it, but I look forward to sharing my journey with you.
For more info on coaching
- The course I took, CTI’s Fundamentals
- HBR article, “What can coaches do for you?”
- HBR study of executive coaching - summary slides
- Stanford GSB executive coaching survey results
- A good summary of ROI stats
Sign up to receive these posts by email.