Preparing for Coaching
Preparing for Coaching
Published: 26 Nov 2024
Podcast by Judith Barton (published on Linkedin)
Hello everyone and welcome. I just wanted to share sort of some of my experiences today about sort of preparing for coaching. And I’ve been coaching for way too long to actually calculate, but I’ve learnt so much about the preparation.
And that sort of is categorised in the preparation of myself, preparation of the space and preparation of the client. And those are three major components in your work and to really be a successful coach. So if I think about the first one, and I would say, think about the very practical aspects of where this coaching is going to take place.
Now, pre-pandemic, coaching almost was always face-to-face, so physical space. And I remember putting an awful lot of work into where that space was. So where it was, what it would look like, what was the environment, what were the distractions, how neutral it was.
And even to the point of if it was in an organisational space, who would know who was coming to coaching? And what has become very popular in office environments is sort of the transparent walls, glass walls or whatever. So you’re in a box in effect on show, which doesn’t help the feeling of psychological safety. So what is it you need for you to be safe as the coach in order to do your best work? And of course, the client to be safe.
So all of that needs to be thought through. Of course, now, much of our coaching is online. And that takes us into a different arena.
I still firmly believe that the rules apply. The rules of the glass box, and if we use that as a metaphor, apply. Is the client in their own glass box? Are they safe? And an example of that, and just a little, always sticks in my mind now is that during the pandemic, we were working with a number of people that were going to be face-to-face up to that point.
And there was a real great assumption from the organisation that this could be done online. And of course, we proved it could and proved it could be done very successfully. However, the assumption was that the person that we would be coaching or the people that we would be coaching would have the kit to be coached on, if you like.
So, and there was quite an assumption that everybody would have a tablet, iPad or an Android tablet or a PC or a laptop or whatever, which was a great assumption. And everybody would have a set of headphones because they may not want their conversation to be in. So, someone sat in their kitchen, having this confidential coaching, whilst the children are off school, being homeschooled, and their partner or whoever else in the family is working on another PC.
So, all of that really highlighted the importance of the environment. The environment is key, whether we are face-to-face and we can park and we can get the lift and we can find water, or we can be in our space on our technology and we can offer a confidential, psychological safe service. So, part of your set-up, and again, I would think about building your own checklist and what is your risk to do that, and really think about how that works.
And I can remember my supervisor introducing the concept of hospitality, and she said to me, Judith, you’re really good at hospitality. And my mind went to, oh, well, I always like to make sure someone feels welcome and make sure they have a bottle of water or a coffee or whatever. And she expanded that…the whole sense of welcome.
So, how welcome do you make someone feel, whether it’s physically or online? What is that welcome? What’s going on for you in your background as you are working online? And I like to have something that’s attractive to the eye, but isn’t so busy that there are distractions around you. So, you haven’t got your shopping list up or an interesting piece of art, which might well be interesting, but may well be more interesting than you as the coach. So, how do you maintain that space? That’s a key part for me.
Now, when I say the client, so all of that needs to be thought through so that you brief the client on what to expect. And I think what we’re trying to do is to get the client in to the setting as soon as possible. So, you’re trying to make them feel comfortable and at ease.
And the faster we can do that, the sooner we can get them to really partake in the session and be part of it and really go deeper. And we’re not worried. So, if you think about yourself, when you know you have things ticked off and you’re ready to coach, then you’re in the zone.
So, think about being very generous spirited to your client to do that you need to be in the zone as well. So, think about, what am I going to let the client know? How fast? What do they need from you to be confident in the space? And ask that question. Ask that question.
Now, the third part of this is yourself. How ready are you to coach? And if you’ve read any of my blogs and looked at the website, you’ll know that I’m very, very big on energy. And I really think about that you need to have a very disciplined approach to your coaching.
That each session is precious. Someone has entrusted you with some very important things. They’ve entrusted you with their most precious commodity themselves.
And you need to make sure that your self-care lives up to that honour. And that is very precious. So, how do you look after yourself? Are you ready? Did you sleep well the night before? Did you take into account certain things you can’t do before a coaching session? Because you need the physical and mental space to coach and leave that gap.
What are you going to wear? Are you going to be ready? I think it’s Mark Zuckerberg who talks about making life very easy and having the same shirts and the same trousers. And he might have 10 of those each items because he buys 10 at a time. And there’s no decision to make.
So, what decisions do you have child care to sort? Do you have colleagues to work with? Do you have people to lead? All need to be taken care of. But don’t interrupt and create and allow you to create your space to work and contain. You are taking your craft and skill.
So, are you ready? Are you on what I refer to as the coach’s diet? Are you full of potassium and energy to coach? And are you hydrated? So, really think about these elements. There’s many more and I’m sure you will create your own checklist. But I just wanted to bring now three components to your attention because they make your practice and allow you to be the best coach you can be.
Thank you.
