About Coaching

Posted on January 04, 2023 by Chelsea Seid, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.

Praxis is the gap between theory and practice. Talent Praxis focuses on helping leaders turn their ideas into actions ultimately developing an ongoing practice to achieve their goals.

With Talent Praxis, coaching is a partnership, where the coach partners with the coachee through a question-based creative process to find inspired solutions. The coach respects and believes in the coachee’s expertise and acts as a partner to help unlock potential.

Talent Praxis utilizes coaching for people-to-people skills in leadership and management where there is no clear solution. In these situations, options are endless for any challenge or opportunity based on the manager or leader’s skills and needs, the skills and needs of the audience, and the unique needs of the organization.

Coaching topics may be around defining your leadership style and values, applying situational leadership, developing a culture of feedback, listening and being present with your team, or aligning on expectations and defining motivating goals.

Leadership and management should not be a solo endeavor. Find a knowledgeable partner in Talent Praxis.

The Coaching Process

Introductory call to align on expectations for coaching and build the relationship.

Partner with your coach to build a custom coaching focus and plan based on your goals and needs.

Regular coaching calls directed by your goals and needs:

Conversations are designed to evoke awareness through powerful questioning, silence, metaphor, or analogy.

Cultivate learning and growth by designing goals, actions, and accountability.

Utilize Talent Praxis resources, worksheets and coaching frameworks based on key management and leadership tools.

Reflect on progress and observe results, consider:

What awareness have you gained from coaching?

What changes have you made or what actions have you taken?

What have been the results of those changes?

How has this allowed you to make progress toward your goals?

The Coaching Structure
The coaching structure includes establishing an overall coaching plan and goals for the coaching relationship as a whole and desired outcomes or takeaways for each individual coaching session.

This is directed by the coachee’s goals and needs from coaching. Some coachees may prefer to create a detailed agreement that outlines a specific duration, goal, success criteria for the goal, and topics for each call.

Other coachees may discuss more of a coaching focus or high-level goal they are working towards and discuss focuses for individual calls in real time depending on their present context or needs.

On either end of the spectrum as the coachee, you can always adjust direction, needs, or success metrics for a given call as needed. You can also pause to reflect on your goals for coaching and the value of coaching. Your coach is there to partner with you and customizes the experience to your needs.

Whether you have partnered with your coach to follow a specific structure and plan or are moving more fluidly towards your goal for coaching each call is an opportunity to reflect and focus on what is important to you.

Your coach will act as your partner and guide you through these general areas:

General check-in

Reflection on the previous actions or takeaways

Setting a topic for the current call

Partnering through the creative coaching process: powerful questions, active listening, observations, silence, metaphor, analogy, and collaboration

Discussing learning and takeaways

Designing goals, actions, and accountability

A coaching call is a unique experience. Expect reflective and introspective questions designed to evoke awareness and allow you to tap into your own expertise, creativity, and insights.

Examples of partnership questions:

“What would you like to discuss on our call today?”

“What would a successful outcome look like?”

“Where’s the best place to start?”

“What has been most impactful so far?”

“Where should we go from here?”

“What are your options?”

“What do you want to take away from this?”

“What do you want to do differently?”

“How will you hold yourself accountable?”

“How will you know if you are successful?”

Examples of questions to increase awareness:

“How is this important to you?”

“Imagine as if you had everything you needed, what happens next?”

“How would you advise yourself in this situation?”

“Where have you made up your mind and where are you still exploring?”

“What becomes possible?”

“Who do you become?”

“What do you observe in reflecting on what you shared?”

“Imagine you are in the future, what would you tell yourself now?”

“Think as if you are your biggest fan, what would you want yourself to know?”

“What are you trying to achieve?”

The Coach’s Role
Your coach is there as a partner. Your coach believes in your capability and expertise and works with you to set goals for coaching calls, evoke awareness, and create next steps and accountability.

Your coach is certified and committed to following the International Coaching Federation’s ethics and core competencies. The Talent Praxis coaching definition, process, and structure are also founded in the ICF coaching ethics and core competencies.

Your coach works to stay present, open, and flexible on calls. Practicing curiosity, the power of silence, and seeking to understand you and your needs.

Your coach is also there to challenge you, present observations, and ask questions that allow you to expand your thinking.

Your Role in Coaching
Similar to your coach your main role is to act as a partner. As a partner, you share information with your coach to help them customize the coaching process and ensure it is value-adding. You openly share your observations, needs, what is helpful, and what may be even more helpful.

To get the most out of coaching practice self-reflection by approaching coaching questions with curiosity, honesty, and flexibility.

The format of coaching may be new and unfamiliar. Give yourself time and space to learn a new format for learning and growth.

Challenge yourself to spend time in between calls to practice any takeaways you committed to, reflect on the conversation and awareness, and brainstorm potential topics that are important to you for the following call.

You are committing to showing up prepared and present during calls. Prep for a coaching call may only take 5-10 minutes. Ideally, the time commitment or “homework” in between calls does not take any extra time; instead, you are committing to practicing your day-to-day work differently by applying your new awareness and drawing awareness to the results.

Originally posted on my Talent Praxis website.