PROFESSIONAL COACHING DOJOBased on principles of Co-Active Coaching

Offered by: Georg(e) Fasching - @geofas

Real Listening & Powerful Questions

DEFINITION

The International Coach Federation defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential, which is particularly important in today’s uncertain and complex environment. Coaches honor the client as the expert in his or her life and work and believe every client is creative, resourceful and whole. Standing on this foundation, the coach's responsibility is to:

• Discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve• Encourage client self-discovery• Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies• Hold the client responsible and accountable

This process helps clients dramatically improve their outlook on work and life, while improving their leadership skills and unlocking their potential.

Source: www.coachfederation.org

COACHING CONVERSATION ARC

Environment

Agenda

Explore

Explore Explore

Actions

Commit

COACHING SKILLS

• Listening

• Powerful Questions

• Measured intrusion

• Time-boxing

• Acknowledgment/Empathy

• Self-Management

• Playing back

• Measured challenging

• …

In this Dojo

3 LEVELS OF LISTENING

• Level 3: I’m here for you, and aware of our surroundings.

• Level 2: I’m here for you, and just you.

• Level 1: It’s all about me. Me, me, me.

Focus

The Coach’s Zone

TIPS FOR LISTENING

• RELAX! Clear your mind for the coaching conversation.

• When you notice you’re in level 1, simply let go and focus back on the coachee. Practice, practice, practice.

• Noticing your own voice in your head? You’re in level 1.

• Feeling disconnected from the coachee? You’re in level 1.

• To return to level 2 try: focussing on the coachee’s voice, words, eyes, energy, or a combination. These hooks are quite personal.

WHAT ARE POWERFUL QUESTIONS?

• Open

• Non-leading

• Short

• Make you think

• Not looking for “the” answer

• Come from curiosity

POWERFUL QUESTIONS AREN’T:

• Yes or No Questions

• Questions that have people prove or explain (e.g. most Why Qs)

• Questions that come with a coaching agenda or strategy (those are a sign of level 1 listening)

• Information gathering

SOME POWERFUL QUESTIONS:• What do you want?

• If I were to give you an extra hour a day, what would you do with it?

• How is that aligned with your values?

• How come?

• What will that get you?

• What do you think is the moral of that story?

• What am I not asking you that you really want me to ask?

• What would happen if you could?

• What would your biggest role model do?

• How will you know that you’ve got it?

• What holds you back?

• What would a safe version look like?

• What would a crazy version look like?

• If I was in your shoes, what advice would you give me?

• What’s the first step?

SOME MORE:• What other angles can you think of?

• What would you try now if you knew you couldn’t fail?

• How might it work?

• Is what you’re doing helping you follow your joy?

• What would that look like?

• Could you tell me more about that?

• What is the opportunity here?

• How would your ideal self create a solution?

• What do you think?

• If your money could talk, what would it say to you?

• What is the essence of that?

• What are you waiting for?

• What else?

• What part of this could be an assumption?

PRACTICE TIME

PAIR - 2 PEOPLE VERSION• Coach coaches coachee

• Environment: confidentiality, permission to coach

• Agree a topic

• Coach: practice listening in level 2 (when you catch yourself in level 1, just let go and go back to level 2), ask powerful questions, skip ‘Actions’ and ‘Commit’ in the beginning

• Coachee gives feedback to coach (“When you asked …, the impact on me was …”, similarly for facial expressions, body language, etc.)

• Rotate if wanted, so everyone gets a turn.Coach

Coachee

TRIAD - 3 PEOPLE VERSION

• Coach coaches coachee

• Environment: confidentiality, permission to coach

• Agree a topic

• Coach: practice listening in level 2 (when you catch yourself in level 1, just let go and go back to level 2), ask powerful questions, skip ‘Actions’ and ‘Commit’ in the beginning

• Coachee gives feedback to coach (“When you asked …, the impact on me was …”)

• Observer gives feedback to coach (“When you asked …, the impact on me was …”, similarly for facial expressions, body language, etc.)

• Rotate twice, so everyone gets a turn.

Coach

CoacheeObserver

BONUS PRACTICE - FOR 1 PERSON

Practice level 2 listening with anyone you speak with.

People really like being listened to. :)

• Agile Coach with product focus, learning, practicing, coaching, and training Lean & Agile since 2010

• Converted to Lean & Agile in 2010 after 10 years of traditional Product Management

• Here are the tokens I collected on my journey so far :

THIS IS ME.

Send any comments, questions or suggestions to:george@geofas.com or @geofas

Connect at http://linkedin.com/in/geofas/ by referencing this deck.

THANKS!!

www.geofas.com

Fancy a read? Public reading list at: http://geofas.com/library

My thanks go to my mentor coach Geoff Watts (learned about coaching from him in June 2014), and the great folks at Agile Coaching Institute.