How does a coaching session work?
In a coaching session, I will use my experience as a technical leader, coach and mentor to ask questions, brainstorm and challenge your assumptions to help you gain insight into how reach your goals. As an example of how this works, I have created the following example of typical session.
In this case, Alice was a technical expert who was recently promoted to lead a team. She comes to the coaching session and says that she would like to discuss one team member with whom she is particularly struggling - Fred.
In coaching, we usually start by getting more clarity and so I asked her questions to pull out some details about what Fred was actually doing to cause concern. Alice said that he was coming across as being quite sullen - for example, when they had a team meeting he just looked at the table and he didn't speak up. In the lab she suspects that he’s complaining about her to the other team members. In order to get further clarity we will often go into more detail, and Alice described a further incident that had particularly annoyed her: Fred had come into her office to say that there was an issue with one of the instruments. Alice described how she went into the lab and diagnosed the problem by going through a list of what could possibly be wrong. She found that she was just getting abrupt, one word answers. She concluded that the issue was the seals and asked him to go and order some. She even offered to help install the seals if he needed it – but she got no word of thanks and, in fact, he seemed really grumpy.
The next stage in a coaching session is to look at this incident from different perspectives and challenge assumptions. The easiest perspective to get is always your own, and so I then asked questions to help Alice to understand her view. In this case, Alice said that she had done a good job by fixing the machine, she had demonstrated her competence and value to Fred and the team, she felt good about ‘saving the day’ and, when nudged, she confessed she had been itching to get her hands dirty again!
When we looked at Fred's perspective, this was a bit trickier because we couldn’t possibly be sure about his views. However, I asked Alice to think about facts that she already knew about Fred (how long had he been with the company, in his role, his level of technical experience). We then added anything she may have heard from his former line manager, or from reading his last few appraisals. Finally we expanded by thinking about what she had observed (does he take tea break with colleagues? How does he interact with colleagues in the lab, does he work long hours).
The outcome from looking at these perspectives was a real light bulb moment for Alice about how she may have misread the situation. She realised that Fred is actually an expert with this instrument himself. Within the team, he is clearly considered to be the technical guru as she had observed them going to him for help and had seen him fixing issues. Her insight was that by going into the lab and sorting out the problem, she might have unwittingly patronised him and threatened his status as technical lead within the team. I asked Alice ‘had this ever happened to her in the past?’ and she had actually experienced a similar situation herself and could recall how this had led to her feeling resentful and frustrated.
At the end of this coaching session I worked with Alice to brainstorm potential actions - what could she do differently in order to get him on board? She decided that she needs to make it plain to him that she sees him as the technical lead. She should ask his opinion more, or perhaps ask him to present his expertise at team meetings. Also, she decided that if the situation with an instrument came up again, she would kick off by asking him his recommendations rather than wading in and taking over! I asked if this new approach was just for Fred, which prompted some deeper thinking about how this approach could be generally motivating for all her team members.
Alice also found there was some other insights that she was gaining from this discussion. She realised that she had really enjoyed getting back out into the lab and getting her hands dirty again but that, in her new role as leader, she needed to think about stepping back and delivering through her team. There were now new priorities and tasks that needed her attention and that she had not yet started to tackle.
In summary, in a session we will often go from discussing a pressing issue (Fred is a problem) to a greater understanding about how to achieve a goal (I can adjust my approach to get Fred on board and maybe also motivate the team) to a deeper insight (my new role means I need to deliver through the team so I can take on new management tasks)!
In a coaching session, I will use my experience as a technical leader, coach and mentor to ask questions, brainstorm and challenge your assumptions to help you gain insight into how reach your goals. As an example of how this works, I have created the following example of typical session.
In this case, Alice was a technical expert who was recently promoted to lead a team. She comes to the coaching session and says that she would like to discuss one team member with whom she is particularly struggling - Fred.
In coaching, we usually start by getting more clarity and so I asked her questions to pull out some details about what Fred was actually doing to cause concern. Alice said that he was coming across as being quite sullen - for example, when they had a team meeting he just looked at the table and he didn't speak up. In the lab she suspects that he’s complaining about her to the other team members. In order to get further clarity we will often go into more detail, and Alice described a further incident that had particularly annoyed her: Fred had come into her office to say that there was an issue with one of the instruments. Alice described how she went into the lab and diagnosed the problem by going through a list of what could possibly be wrong. She found that she was just getting abrupt, one word answers. She concluded that the issue was the seals and asked him to go and order some. She even offered to help install the seals if he needed it – but she got no word of thanks and, in fact, he seemed really grumpy.
The next stage in a coaching session is to look at this incident from different perspectives and challenge assumptions. The easiest perspective to get is always your own, and so I then asked questions to help Alice to understand her view. In this case, Alice said that she had done a good job by fixing the machine, she had demonstrated her competence and value to Fred and the team, she felt good about ‘saving the day’ and, when nudged, she confessed she had been itching to get her hands dirty again!
When we looked at Fred's perspective, this was a bit trickier because we couldn’t possibly be sure about his views. However, I asked Alice to think about facts that she already knew about Fred (how long had he been with the company, in his role, his level of technical experience). We then added anything she may have heard from his former line manager, or from reading his last few appraisals. Finally we expanded by thinking about what she had observed (does he take tea break with colleagues? How does he interact with colleagues in the lab, does he work long hours).
The outcome from looking at these perspectives was a real light bulb moment for Alice about how she may have misread the situation. She realised that Fred is actually an expert with this instrument himself. Within the team, he is clearly considered to be the technical guru as she had observed them going to him for help and had seen him fixing issues. Her insight was that by going into the lab and sorting out the problem, she might have unwittingly patronised him and threatened his status as technical lead within the team. I asked Alice ‘had this ever happened to her in the past?’ and she had actually experienced a similar situation herself and could recall how this had led to her feeling resentful and frustrated.
At the end of this coaching session I worked with Alice to brainstorm potential actions - what could she do differently in order to get him on board? She decided that she needs to make it plain to him that she sees him as the technical lead. She should ask his opinion more, or perhaps ask him to present his expertise at team meetings. Also, she decided that if the situation with an instrument came up again, she would kick off by asking him his recommendations rather than wading in and taking over! I asked if this new approach was just for Fred, which prompted some deeper thinking about how this approach could be generally motivating for all her team members.
Alice also found there was some other insights that she was gaining from this discussion. She realised that she had really enjoyed getting back out into the lab and getting her hands dirty again but that, in her new role as leader, she needed to think about stepping back and delivering through her team. There were now new priorities and tasks that needed her attention and that she had not yet started to tackle.
In summary, in a session we will often go from discussing a pressing issue (Fred is a problem) to a greater understanding about how to achieve a goal (I can adjust my approach to get Fred on board and maybe also motivate the team) to a deeper insight (my new role means I need to deliver through the team so I can take on new management tasks)!