Effective structuring of coaching: using five questions

摘要

When working with a coachee, whom I will refer to as the learner, the coach can stimulate thinking and turn ideas into actions by using five questions. These questions are designed to help the learner to work out a structured plan for their learning. They are based on the notion that most people think of their life as a journey. The questions are as shown in Figure 1. We can start by asking the learner to think of their journey to the present (where they have been) so that they can understand what they have learned from the past. After all we are today 100 per cent as a result of the past - so understanding the process to the present helps us to address the second question - where am I now. The great value of tackling questions in this order is that the coach may discover that the person is perhaps poor at time management or leadership because they have never had the chance to learn to be effective. Instead of the learner beating themselves up about their lack of particular skills the coach can help them to see that they may not be at fault because they did not, for instance, have good role models to learn from or they were never coached properly. Having explored where the person sees themselves now, the next question is to consider goals for learning. The learner needs to consider where they want to get to. Only when they are clear about such goals can any learning programme be created. And this the learner does by answering the fourth question - how will I get to where I want to be. On a training course this would be a syllabus or curriculum. In coaching it becomes a personally owned learning programme. The last question - how will I know if I have arrived - demands of the learner to consider how they would measure their learning. Have they achieved the learning goals that they set for themselves?