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Becoming a Coach

Coaching Information

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The coaching program is designed to develop and train coaches in a methodology that can be used consistently throughout the organization. Building relationships is a cornerstone of this "appreciative" approach to coaching.

A consistent approach to coaching starts the organization on the road to changing mindsets and organizational culture at the primary level of where the interaction between people occurs – face to face. Change at this level is where coaches can influence and demonstrate how relationships are formed and maintained with your colleague, as well as help your colleague work with others to construct meaningful and helpful relationships.

Developing a critical mass of coaching skills will help the organization ensure a consistency in approach to relationship building. As a coach you are in a position to be an ambassador for developing and promoting coaching skills and behaviours that can be used by other government employees in their daily interactions with others.

Executive Coaching – An Appreciative Approach [Bergquist et. al. available from Staff Development Library number HD 38.2 B47 1995 c.5 ] is the resource text that the government’s coaching program is based on.

This book and the coaching program both advocate that coaches establish trusting relationships by exchanging ideas, discussing issues and helping a colleague examine those issues. Specifically, as a coach, you will be taught how to use reflective questioning and listening techniques that help you help your colleague become clear about what it is they are having issues with. In essence, the coach facilitates a journey of discovery for the colleague.

The coaching program also includes coaching colleagues using a variety of instruments. Participants in the program will be exposed to a variety of tools that can be used in a coaching relationship, receiving instruction in the use and interpretation of the results from these tools.

As a coach, exposure to such tools provides you with some understanding from which you can dialogue with your colleague. These tools include, but are not limited to, the following: Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), 360 Degree Leadership Effectiveness Analysis (LEA) and Organizational Cultural Inventories.

As a coach-in-training, working through your own Myers-Briggs Typology and a 360 degree leadership effectiveness analysis process helps you build an understanding of these assessment tools themselves. Using these tools will also help foster your own personal learning as a coach. You will be exposed to and build an awareness of how personality types influence relationships and diversity in the workplace. You will also be exposed to what behaviours the Government of Yukon focuses its own leadership development programs on and you will experience receiving leadership feedback from your peers.

Lastly, as a coach, you will be trained in observational coaching which is more behavioural in nature. This form of coaching takes two forms: 1) observing your colleague’s behaviour in their workplace; and 2) facilitating learning labs where as a coach you can help your colleague(s) by managing a process that involves the person you coach and others who play certain roles that your colleague defines. The first approach is about observing your colleague’s behaviour in their workplace with a view to providing them feedback on particular workplace behaviours that they have identified they want to focus on. The second approach is more behavioural in nature and focuses the colleague’s learning by having them experience learning in a lab situation they define and that you facilitate.

Also as a coach, you will role play scenarios in order to help a colleague understand and experience the various facets of a decision, , and using a variety of instruments and data as the basis for starting insightful dialogue with a colleague about exploring, understanding and changing work behaviours.

Creating supportive and effective working relationships can shift organizational cultures by creating the conditions that sustain individual and organizational learning. Creating this environment starts with steps like developing you as a coach to:

• learn the listening and questioning skills required to effect change at the level of communications and inquiry interactions between people;

• use and familiarize yourself with the various diagnostic tools that you can use to help frame the work your do with your colleague while you coach them;

• apply and experience observational coaching techniques; and

• work as a partner with your colleague to help them identify and mobilize your colleague’s strengths.

As a coach, you will learn to understand and value another person’s point of view and recognize the contributions of others. As a coach-in-training you will also learn and experience how to work with a colleague to craft a vision or compelling image of the future and help them to recognize and uncover their distinctive strengths and competencies. The foundation for working in this appreciative manner is learning how to value what others have to offer and construct those provocative propositions that help promote cooperation in relationships.

As a coach working with other coaches-in-training, you will have the opportunity to build a network of relationships with the people within the Government of Yukon and with others from outside the government. Coaching in general is reaching out into the Yukon community so the chances, through coaching, to build relationships with others in First Nations, in municipal administrations, in not-for-profit organizations and in private sector organizations are distinct possibilities. Employees from all of these sectors are invited to participate in this coaching program.

All coaches-in-training are required to complete a coaching practicum. This practicum involves selecting someone you as a coach-in-training can coach. The practicum is about encouraging learning by doing as a follow-up to the theory learned during in-class course work. Each coach-in-training is required to find someone to coach in order to practice the theory they learn. As a coach you will learn first-hand what it is like to use reflective, instrumented and observational coaching in an actual coaching relationship.

Coaching practicums can include colleagues from all sectors of private and public organizations. Practicums are one means that the territorial government uses to build relationships with people in the larger community of the Yukon.

As a part of the training regimen, coaches-in-training will work together in “helping trios.” A helping trio is a peer support and development tool designed to support coaches so they can be the best that they can be when coaching. Through this process of support, you can assist each other by providing guidance, clarity, and consulting each other about your coaching experiences and relationships. Coaches participating in the trios will include yourself as a coach-in-training and may also include coaches who have graduated from the previous coaching program.

The intent behind the coaching trio is twofold. It represents a continuation of your learning process where the trios becomes a reflective process through which your coaching relationship can be examined and strengthened; and post training and development where the trios are used as a “coaching of the coach” process to provide ongoing support and feedback to you as a coach.

You will have the option to choose to certify as an executive coach. Coaches who elect to pursue this option are required to submit a case study to the Professional School of Psychology. The school will grant you coaching certification after your case study is approved by the school’s executive. The cost for you to certify is built into this coaching program that Staff Development organizes and therefore is of no cost to you. A coaching certification is not mandatory, it is an option available to you as a coach.

After you have graduated as a coach from the coaching program, you may be asked to coach a colleague in the Government of Yukon. This expectation can take two forms:

• You may be asked to coach a leadership participant in the Yukon Government Leadership Forum (YGLF); or
• You may be asked to coach someone at large in the Government of Yukon.

A coaching relationship with a colleague from the YGLF generally lasts the length of this leadership development program. As a general rule, coach meetings occur on a monthly, bimonthly or as required basis over a period of 14 –16 months. Some YGLF participants jointly agree with their coach to continue their coaching relationship after their graduation from the leadership development program.

A coaching relationship with a colleague who is not in YGLF can be variable in length. This type of coaching relationship is based on need and the complexity of what the colleague is asking for. Timelines for such coaching relationships may range from several meetings over a short period of time to longer periods of time. Coach and colleague negotiate the duration of the relationship.

You may also be asked to coach someone from outside the Government of Yukon, such as a non-profit organization, a First Nation government or someone in the private sector. This coaching relationship is based on need and the complexity of what the colleague is asking for. Coach and colleague negotiate the duration of the relationship.

• Last Updated: 5/7/2009 |
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