Let's give our company the reputation of best-in-class coaching. We have many (many) talented leaders, yet the "advice monster" runs rampant. This course will teach the coaching habits we need to build that reputation, and provide the space and community to develop those habits.
It'll be most valuable for mentors and leaders (managers, tech leads, etc.), although anyone who works with people could benefit.
Caveat: attendees must be committed to participating and must be there voluntarily. This course series will not work well if people are mandated to attend.
The course will last 8 weeks and will be based around reading and practicing the lessons from The Coaching Habit. Think of it like equal parts book club and group training/accountability.
There are three components:
- Weekly one-hour synchronous workshop with the cohort (see agenda below)
- Dedicated cohort-specific slack channel for async discussion and check-ins
- Daily practice of the habits during normal daily work, which will be discussed at the workshop
Each cohort should ideally include 4-6 people (including the facilitator) to keep engagement and psychological safety high.
Each week the cohort will meet for a 1-hour workshop with the following agenda:
- (~20 mins) How did it go? - Discuss how practicing last week's habit went throughout the week, when we used it, whether it was effective, and what was challenging about it.
- (~15 mins) Read the next section - Everyone goes to their book and reads the next planned section. This fixes the "I didn't have time to read" problem.
- One way to facilitate this is to have everyone turn off their camera while reading and turn it back on when they are done.
- (~15 mins) How will we practice over the next week? - Discuss how and when we plan to practice our new habits before the next workshop. Questions or concerns about the habit we just read about can come up here.
- (~5 mins) Us the new habit formula (below) to document habit changes we will try.
When _____, instead of _____, I will _____.
Each cohort should also have an asynchronous channel for discussion and shoutouts. Something along the lines of a slack channel works best. It is recommended to use tooling that the cohort is already using.
- Week 1: Introduction
- Master Class 1: Ask One Question at a Time
- Week 2: "What's on your mind?"
- Master Class 2: Cut the intro and Ask the Questions
- Week 3: "And what else?"
- Master Class 3: Don't Ask Rhetorical Questions
- Week 4: "What's the real challenge here for you?"
- Master Class 4: Stick to the questions: Starting with What
- Week 5: "What do you (really) want (from me)?"
- Master Class 5: Get Comfortable with Silence
- Week 6: "How can I help?"
- Master Class 6: Actually Listen to the Answer
- Week 7: "If you're saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?"
- Master Class 7: Acknowledge the Answer you get
- Week 8: "What was most useful for you?"
- Master Class 8: Use Every Channel to Ask a Question
We have found that people are comfortable discussing almost all coaching conversations with the group, as long as nobody is using names.
As long as the meeting has at least three participants, the format still works well. Also, as long as participants don't miss more than three total meetings, they are generally able to keep up.
- How do we measure success? The course won't be cheap (8 one-hour meetings per attendee, plus any non-meeting time), so how do we prove its worth?
- Is one week long enough to practice each new habit for everyone? Will that be long enough to generate discussion about how it went?
- Should the participants tell the people they are coaching that they are taking this course?