RTTC W6D1 Wald
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RTTCW6D1Wald6660.docxWeek 6 Discussion:
The Varied Settings in Which Coaching Occurs
You have read about a variety of situations that coaches may encounter when coaching. There are positive and negative aspects to coaching in each of those situations. The coaching skills we’ve discuss thus far can be tailored to meet the needs of individuals and teams in a variety of settings.
To prepare for this Discussion,
Review this week’s Learning Resources, especially:
· Coaching in Specific Situations – “See Word doc”
· Confrontation model – “See pdf.”
· Staff Coaching: Using Active – “See pdf”
· VALUES SENSITIVE COACHING – “See pdf”
Assignment:
Respond to at least two of your peers’ postings in one or more of the following ways:
· Choose one of the specific situations described by your colleague and consider how the situation may have affected the outcome.
· How does your discussion of each situation align with your colleague’s discussion? What differences would you add?
· APA citing
· No plagiarism
1st Colleague – Natasha Mills
The Varied Settings in Which Coaching Occurs
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Coaching varies from one situation to another, and it is the responsibility of the coach to know how and when to introduce the concept and carry it on successfully. Hunt & Weintraub (2017) suggest looking out for coachable moments, which is an approach that I believe applies to all coaching situations. Coaching situations include individual, team, diverse group, and virtual. The uniqueness in the compositions of these situations poses unique challenges when it comes to coaching.
Coaching individuals can be termed as the easiest. This is because the coach and coachee focus on a few specific goals and mutually devise strategies for arriving at those goals. At the same time, it is simpler for the coach to observe the coachee individually and formulate constructive feedback that can help improve the coachee’s performance. However, coaches still experience several challenges when coaching individuals. The first challenge concerns observations. Coaches are required to have comparable data to support their observations and ensure that the feedback they provide coachees is accurate and high-quality. This is because the observations of a coach are not enough since they comprise snapshots of the coachee’s behavior. Coaches also have to ensure that they have established good communication and positive relationships with the coachees for effectiveness. Lastly, the feedback they provide the coachee must be solicited for it to have a good impact (Hunt & Weintraub, 2017). For example, I have told an employee before that he wears a frown that comes across as unfriendly to customers. Since the feedback was unsolicited and negative, he interpreted my comments as me saying that he was not good at his job. As a result, the employee did not attempt to make any changes.
Coaching an individual has its challenges but coaching a team is more complicated. Team leaders have the responsibility of bringing the best out of the team members. Coaching is the best approach to achieve this. According to Hills (2018), coaches support the short and long-term goals of employees, anticipate and clear obstacles, and guide staff performance. Therefore, coaches have to be constantly on the lookout for these elements. This can be very challenging because each of the team members has unique personality traits that influence their performance and goals. As a result, observing all of them and providing constructive feedback can be challenging in terms of time and resources. Nonetheless, successful team coaching has high returns on investment for coaches. I have never had to coach a whole team. However, having worked with teams, it is often difficult to identify and address issues each individual team member is facing, which makes it impossible to anticipate and clear all the obstacles. Developing shared goals, working collaboratively, and open communication are a good start. These strategies can also be applied in coaching.
The challenges experienced when coaching teams increase significantly when the team or some of its members work in a virtual environment. The major challenge with virtual coaching also concerns the ability of the coach to observe. In-person observations and feedback are more valuable than virtual ones. Coaches’ observations are considered as snapshots (Hunt & Weintraub, 2017). In virtual coaching, the snapshots become even smaller, making it difficult for coaches to observe effectively and provide more constructive feedback. For instance, I have tried to mentor an employee virtually, and in the end, we did not achieve the goals we had committed to. The employee was giving me the impression that she was comfortable with the methods we were using when she was struggling. After some time, she lost interest, and it became hard for me to follow through because I was also struggling as the mentor to commit virtually.
With globalization, as well as organizations’ expanding adoption of diversity and inclusivity, workgroups have become significantly diverse. Coaching homogeneous teams is easier because the members are likely to share interests, communicate effectively, and agree on issues. Diverse groups, on the other hand, find collaboration a challenge since they are less likely to share resources, help one another complete tasks, flexibly shift workloads, learn from one another, and share knowledge (Gratton & Erickson, 2007). The coaching process is severely affected by these factors, which is uncommon in coaching homogeneous groups. I was once a member of a team where a female employee refused to be coached by our manager, a man, due to cultural reasons. The employee was not also as open, which hindered the overall progress of the group.
Gratton, L., & Erickson, T. J. (2007). Eight ways to build collaborative teams. Harvard business review, 85(11), 100.
Hills, L. (2018). Staff Coaching: Using Active Listening and Powerful Questions to Unleash Your Staff's Potential. The Journal of Medical Practice Management: MPM, 33(5), 302-308.
Hunt, J. M., & Weintraub, J. R. (2017). The coaching manager: Developing top talent in business (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Bottom of Form
2nd Colleague – Ty Westbrook
Differences in coaching within a variety of settings
Approaching coaching depends on a specific setting or situation because each setting is different from the other one. Therefore, different coaching approaches need to be adjusted. Coaching and individual is different from coaching a team and so on.
Coaching individual versus team
Coaching an individual is different from team coaching because the two have different characteristics. When it comes to team coaching, there is a lack of clarity due to the discovery process, with teams being designed to uncover and find alignment around (Veljkovic et al.,2016). To uncover what is in for the teams is different in individual coaching because there is nothing much to cover since the person being coached is only and it is easier. The coaching focus between the two is also different. In individual coaching, the focus is on the vision for the future, and the coachee has something they want to accomplish; the coachee has many goals they want to reach, and these goals are personal. The focus is much stronger in team coaching on the team's current state, and the concern takes general form. The focus is also present-oriented because there is something that needs fixing. In a team setting, there is a need for a shared purpose, while the purpose is personal in an individual. For example, in the team, the members in the process see themselves as a team and think as a team; they see it as 'we' or 'us.'
Virtual environment and physical coaching
The difference between the two is that the coaching is taking place online in a virtual environment. In-person, the coach and coachee are in direct contact as they can physically see each other and sit together to discuss the issue; no internet is needed. Virtual coaching has been common since the pandemic period; for example, the coach does not need to come over, all that is needed is either a smartphone or a laptop, and both the team members and coach will zoom in. there isn’t much difference only that virtual coaching saves people the trouble of moving from one place to another and it saves a lot of time.
Diverse groups and homogeneous group
The difference between the two is that diverse groups have different ethnicities, races, and cultures, while homogeneous groups are similar in culture or race. Another difference is that there might be many miscommunications in diverse groups due to the language barrier or the different cultures. In contrast, there is less miscommunication in inhomogeneous groups because the people in the group have many similarities. For example, in the case of diverse groups, the coach and the group members might fail to understand each other due to cultural differences; the coach might be from a different culture from the coaches.
