SHARING EXPERIENCE ENRICHES COACHES
Supervision is looming on the coaching horizon. I agree we need to look beyond simply lifting practice from the therapy world, we need to focus on what worked in that therapy world and adapt it to organisations’ different coaching and supervision needs. Organisations are investing time and money in various coaching initiatives and must see the benefits, which they must be able to be measure.
The ultimate goal of supervision is to enhance coaching practice. Reflecting on organisational coaching practice makes better coaches, better coaches make better leaders, and better leaders deliver targets and motivate staff. One effective group supervision practice is an initiative my organisation has adopted, where we invite our internal and external coaches, including “buddy coaches” in our organisation, to meet three days a year at a masterclass.
The sharing of practice is a living performance-needs analysis, we can capture emerging themes and respond. This generates a return on investment and a listening, learning culture. And the sharing of group coaching experience and expertise will enrich our coaches. The jury is still out regarding a name, but I like “reflective coaching sessions”.
Jackie Keddy
Lead consultant, coaching and action learning, Leadership Academy, Metropolitan Police
jackie.keddy@met.police.uk
SILENCE IS GOLDEN
In response to two articles in the last issue, “DSGi finds home for street kids’ ideas” and “Core competencies” by Lisa Wynn, I found the idea of coaching homeless people interesting and I think it would be quite successful. This tied in with Wynn’s article, which discussed the importance of listening. Listening is so undervalued and yet it is one of the most powerful things we can do for anyone.
People are too busy or wanting to voice their own opinion or experience. Listening with an “intent to reply”, rather than “listening to understand”, is so common. I can remember feeling truly listened to, I felt pretty important! Before jumping in with the next question, allow silence. Often it’s these silences that bring about the most revealing insights, which can then be followed up by the powerful question. A client of mine described this as “the killer silence”.
On a recent trip abroad, I was shocked by the amount of homeless people, and even more shocked when the friend I was with said “They should get off their backsides and get a job!” Well, well done to DSGi for helping homeless people to get off the streets and into jobs. By actively listening to those less fortunate than ourselves, rather than judging or passing by, we can start the change process simply by making someone feel important.
Wendy Glassock
Personal development coach and mentor, Aiming Higher
wendy@aiming-higher.co.uk
ISRAEL TEACHES SUCCESS
The recent article on coaching in education (“Educating teacher”, vol 3, issue 1) gave us an idea of the extent to which coaching is widespread in the UK, much more so than in Israel. KATOM Institute has led the struggle for a shift in the Ministry of Education’s policy towards quality and excellence for more than 15 years. This has now materialised and is slowly changing the way education is being managed in Israel.
Traditionally, the educational system worked on the basis that education is not a tangible commodity and that its results are to be evaluated “in the long run”. This prevented educators from focusing and measuring educational outcomes in terms of quality and excellence. Paradoxically, the policy change was brought on by the politics of failure. The continuing deterioration of national as well as international test achievements needed to be publicly explained.
As a first step, mentoring was made available mainly for new heads coping with poor results. Learning communities were encouraged as a platform for staff development. Peer learning took root in leading departments. Coaching in the school system was a relative latecomer since it required strategic decisions, the allocation of training budgets and the re-engineering of the school cultural infrastructure. But above all it required the awareness that excellence in educational outcomes needs a structured and sustained process supported by a coaching culture.
KATOM Institute developed a diagnostic tool, the Diagnostic Inventory of School Culture, which guides its coaches as they fine-tune a school’s coaching culture. Coaches work with school leaders to identify and celebrate success. Teachers invest resources so that no one is left behind.
Gilli Beskin, senior coach at KATOM Institute and PhD student at the University of Derby
Michael L Kreindler, senior coach at KATOM Institute, tutor on the University of Derby’s doctorate programme and staff member at the Gordon College for Teachers, Haifa, Israel
karmel-college@bezeqint.net
Volume 3, Issue 2