The Coaching Circle
Featured in the The Coaching Skills Activity Pack training manual
By Tony Gillen
Category: Mentoring and Coaching
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
For a coach to bring out the best in a performer, they must allow and enable them to review past performance. The purpose in this is to determine the best place to begin changing their actions with a to improving future performance. At work many reviews run along the lines of ‘Why did you do this? Why did you do that?’ followed by questions or suggestions from the supervisor which are aimed at drawing out the answer for which the supervisor is looking. This reinforces in the performer the idea that ‘The supervisor has the answer, but by paying attention I will find out what it is’. While such analysis and suggestion, or drawing out, might be useful, it is not coaching and it does not consider the performers experience of their own performance. It draws on the supervisor’s experience. To put this is a sporting context – if every athlete did only as the ‘coach’ wanted, then only coaches who had won gold medals could help others to do the same. Coaches who take others beyond what they, themselves, are capable of, produce the real world-class performers. This training activity uses a simple coaching process reliant upon the performers own experience to improve their actions – and, hence, their future results.
You introduce the idea of using a coaching technique to enable the participants to improve their own performance in a job-related issue. After a brief discussion about how sports coaches encourage players to go beyond the coaches own performance levels, you ask each participant to select a task they have done, and will do again, where they would like to improve. Next, you explain the coaching circle and demonstrate the process. The participants then hold their own coaching sessions with a partner. Finally, you review the sessions with the participants and reinforce both the process and the questioning method before closing the activity.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to help participants coach themselves and surpass existing performance levels.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 6 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 01:00:00 |
| No of Pages: | 18 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Additional resources: Tennis ball, Stopwatch
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers or line managers with staff or participants who must learn to trust their own experience as a basis for future, improved performance. The simple structure implicit in the process can be trusted by performers and supervisors alike.
Download the training activity, The Coaching Circle as featured in the Fenman training manual; The Coaching Skills Activity Pack