How to Perform On-the-job Training - Dean Amory

2. Professional Coaching
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/traindev.htm
2.1 General Framework of a Professional Coaching Program
http://managementhelp.org/leadingpeople/coaching.htm#anchor2522691
Coaching for skills helps the executive learn specific skills, abilities and perspectives over a period
of several weeks or months. The skills to be learned are usually clear at the outset and are typically
related to skills associated with an executive assuming new or different responsibilities.
There is no standardized approach to a coaching program that all practitioners agree on, much like
there is in medicine where standardized procedures are used for certain maladies. Rather, each
coach focuses on a particular type of, and approach to, coaching that suits his/her nature and
interests, and applies that approach to the types of trainees that most closely matches the coach's
passions, interests and capabilities. However, the reader can get an impression of a general
framework that seems common to the approaches of many coaches.
How the framework is implemented depends on the coach's training and any particular model or
school followed by the coach. Also, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of coaches
and, consequently, increasing competition among them. One of the ways that coaches can
differentiate each other is by how they customize their coach process to seem even more powerful
and unique.
The framework seems to be:
1. Forming a relationship with the trainee, including assessing if they are really ready for
coaching.
2. Establishing a mutual agreement or coaching contract, including about the roles of the
coach and the trainee, ground rules for working together, frequency of meetings,
confidentiality, etc.
3. Developing job-centered goals to be achieved during the coaching project.
4. A series of face-to-face meetings with the coach and trainee, including ongoing questions,
affirmations, accountabilities, etc., to identify relevant and realistic actions the trainee can
take to achieve the goals.
5. Evaluating the coaching, both during and shortly after the project.
2.2 Coaching Conversations and Laser Coaching
Coaching Conversations
In contrast to a coaching program, which includes the above framework, coaching can be done in a
one-time conversation. The conversation might include a small sampling of the type of support that
a coach would give in each of the meetings in a coaching program.
Learning Coaching – Example of Effective Coaching Conversation
In personal and professional coaching, the coach works to guide and support the trainee to solve a
problem or achieve a goal. The coach might use a variety of tools, but good questions is one of the
most powerful tools the coach can use to help the trainee to:
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