Adrian Underhill: Coaching in practice: supporting the self-directed development of others

Adrian first defined the central construct of his talk - coaching as commitment to take out the best one possibly can from the person they are working with. The new paradigm of leadership was going to be used – that of the coach not only leading but also being prepared to be led. The main task of the coach, in this sense, would not be to explicitly advise but to elicit a self-discovery talk from the coachee, such in which the solution will be generated by the solution-seeker him/herself.

The workshop was structured around the GROW model, which outlines the four main steps in a coaching session:

- Goal (identifying the main purpose of the coach-coachee meeting)
- Reality (establishing the main parameters of the current problematic teaching situation)
- Options (eliciting solutions to the problem)
- Will/Wrap up (stating commitment to action which needs to be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timebound).

With this structure of the coaching session in mind and having followed an improvised coaching session that Adrian conducted with the help of a volunteer, we were invited to experience the coaching process ourselves by taking turns to be the coach and the coachee in an improvised coaching session. It made it possible for us to experience this informal professional encounter, which once again highlighted the importance of structured and non-judgemental listening to help our colleague start a self-discovery reflective talk leading to the generation of solutions. Such discussion, based on sincerity and embedded in a sheltered environment, is expected to provide the conditions for successful eliciting of solutions.

Adrian rounded off his workshops by sharing some of his undoubtedly vast experience with us summarised in the following don’t-s:
 

Don’t get psychological.
Don’t overcoach/overadvise.
Don’t parade your helpfulness.
Don’t try to solve the coachee’s problems – coaching is all about helping colleagues develop the liberating capacity of self-direction, not about offering people ready-made solutions.