Coaching Inside Out
I recently completed facilitating a 360-degree exercise for senior leaders. This story captures the essential coaching process created and executed which received a ‘wow’ and transformative experience for their leaders. I am sharing here what I learnt through this coaching process that enriched my contribution to others.
We began with 360 Feedback Assimilation Coaching Conversation-The aim was to allow all the coaching clients to connect to their 360-degree report and have a coaching conversation around it. Time was given for initial reactions, responses and reflection. Later they brainstormed with the coach to clarify for oneself what a specific feedback could mean and what the leader wants to do with it. As a coach I played the role of asking powerful questions and focusing on the client accessing a space of inner resourcefulness throughout the whole process. As a coach I invited the leaders to play with two key agendas during the conversation:
- Recognizing and celebrating the resourcefulness that the leader had demonstrated over the last year, as recognized by themselves and others.
- Reflecting to identify what is the current inspiration present within them. What current resources and competencies did they want to enhance to the next level? What new resources and competencies did they want to add to their repertoire of strengths?
This coaching conversation left the leaders in an overall reflective space within. While the human tendency is to worry about the shortcomings, a successful coaching focus ensured that they began by focusing on their strengths. The coaching time also permitted them to begin to look at what could be three key developmental points for them to work on over the next six months to one year.
Next, we moved into Discovery of True Self -By dividing the leaders into small groups I took them through Triple Loop Alignment Model of Coaching and What’s my story combined into it . The following were the components of this process:
- We did an eyes closed visualization for leaders to discover / re-discover their Life Purpose, Core Values and Natural Gifts and Talents.
- Followed by an eyes open reflection as to what do you see now for leaders to identify and articulate which part of the organization’s purpose, core values and unique value proposition they resonate to at work.
- In the final stage, leaders had to evaluate on a scale of 1-10 how much they were honoring both their individual
as well as organization’s purpose, values and natural talents. At the end, they had to reflect whether they were experiencing individual fulfillment more or were they contributing more to the organization.
We then moved into enabling them to begin to craft their next role and goals in such a manner that:
- They can fulfill their purpose, honor their values and utilize their natural gifts and talents
- And at the same time they can forward the organization’s purpose, core values and unique value proposition they resonate with.
The result was amazing with the insights that emerged for the leaders, namely:
- They could clearly identify if they were experiencing both the satisfaction of individual fulfillment and the joy of organizational contribution.
- It was a great insight for leaders that they could actually craft their role and goals ahead to get dual benefit of individual fulfillment and the joy of participating in core organizational building. They then went on to make an individual action plan
As a coach my key focus was to ask deep questions that helped leaders to reflect if they were consciously crafting their actions to align to self and organization. All conversations were then centered on purpose, values and strengths. This brought in a good degree of responsibility and ownership to create a meaningful experience for themselves in the organization and positively contribute to the culture of the organization.
The key learning for me was to see in action the power of ‘inside out’ ie moving from ‘being/feeling to doing/action’ in reality. The power of focusing on the inner space and asking clients to design their actions in their outer space led them collectively in a manner congruent to their being, and for me it was a fulfilling experience to watch and get a validation that this approach works successfully. In conclusion, this coaching process also validated how to get clients to work on their inner self and organization level simultaneously, to ensure desired forward movement for both.
Parineeta Mehra, NLP and Deep Conversations Coach
