Coaching Plan Part 2

Posted: August 26th, 2021

Unit 7 Assignment 1: Coaching Plan Part 2

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Unit 7 Assignment 1: Coaching Plan Part 2

The experience I encountered during my professional coaching sessions was challenging. After my graduate education, I never thought of coaching some of my peers. However, I admit I enjoyed the coaching sessions and the overall experience besides being an educative process. The focus and the goals for this coaching session were to ensure that my mentee or trainee attains the professional development goals. In this case, I endeavored to explore some of the best practices I have learned from my experience as a seasoned and professional teacher in the coaching program. These included first preparing the mentee and coaching sessions through the identification of the coaching purpose to ensure that it aligns with the requirements of the mentee. The second practice undertaken was establishing rapport with the mentee(Lofthouse & Hall, 2014). The practice involved initiating a comfortable environment that could facilitate free interactive sessions. Thirdly, I developed the appropriate coaching plan by coordinating with my supervisor to get suitable schedules and appropriate tools for enhancing the coaching process(Lofthouse & Hall, 2014). Subsequently, I endeavored to observe the trainee practices by assessing his respective performances before and after each coaching session. Therefore, my coaching plan focused on the outline of best practices to advance the objective of the coaching process.

While undertaking my coaching sessions, I embraced active listening and focused on understanding the issues raised by the trainee. In the same case, I focused on attracting the attention of the trainee by ensuring eye contact and sometimes leaning forward to show that I was taking note of his views. Further, to understand clearly about the concerns of my trainee, I could ask open-ended questions that provoked a discussion while creating insights on the issues. My trainee, as a working father, raised concerns on the challenges that he encounters with balancing family and work besides managing the relationships between his subordinates as well as among his extended family members. Based on these concerns, I was able to work on the existing options and possibilities to help obtain the optimal benefitss from the sessions without disruptions. Besides, the teacher assessment plan was useful in understanding my trainee history about his teaching experience and performance during his work(Lofthouse & Hall, 2014). The assessment framework model was also critical in finding the appropriate ways to add value to the professional development of my trainee while noting the challenges that he encounters on his line of duty. Hence, motivating and enhancing his commitment to the coaching session plan.

Subsequently, during the training sessions, I employed the GROW model of coaching to facilitate the development of my trainee. The GROW model means Goals, Reality, Options, and Will or the way forward. The coaching sessions were streamlined first to support the client to highlight his goals before working out on the available options(Lofthouse & Hall, 2014; McDonough, 2013). Equally, I employed the value-added model to estimate the contribution of my trainee to the academic scores of his students. Similarly, through a concerted teacher observation framework, I could engage in direct observation sessions with my trainee to assess his performance while attending to his students. Throughout the sessions, I took note of critical concerns that my trainee faced, including unrealistic beliefs. Here, I could challenge him to address the issues he preferred to improve on first, therefore, refocusing his issues with a clear perspective.

Although I managed to apply the three models, the implementation was not without challenges. First, despite being an easy tool for navigating around the coaching session, I realized that dully focusing on the GROW model could divert the coach from addressing actual issues being faced by the trainee. The model offered a direct and straightforward approach. However, there were tendencies to forgetting some of the real concerns raised by the trainee(Reinkeet al., 2014). Another challenge came in the application of the Value-Added Model. In this case, I realized that the model only allowed the trainer to differentiate between the worst and the best teachers. However, it is not possible to use the model in identifying the medium teacher. I endeavored to solve this problem by employing the teacher observation model to help establish the effectiveness of a teacher by directly observing how my trainee interacted with his students(Reinkeet al., 2014). However, there were some notable failures in the model. Although with minimal effect on the overall performance, the model is time-consuming. Irrespective of these challenges, I managed to collaborate the models to suit the coaching framework, thus exploiting all avenues to ensure that my trainee achieves his desired goals.

Before settling on the final model, I looked at several factors. These include the schedule for the trainer to establish whether it aligned with the coaching plans and the nature of coaching. By focusing on the appropriate coaching framework, results were inevitable. My trainee was improving daily and I was surprised at the rate he was grasping the concepts. By the third coaching session, my trainee was able to diversify on the ways of achieving his goals and making critical advances in exploring other information sources to develop his personality(Reinkeet al., 2014). It was encouraging because he had tremendously stepped out of his comfort and venture into new possibilities. The fears that were profound during the first two sessions were gradually waning, and the new face of confidence growingReinkeet al., 2014. Accordingly, I also encouraged my trainee to continue improving on the effort to build his personality. Further, to ensure that my trainee remains accountable to his plans, I encouraged him to develop on the following issues;

1. Undertake personnel development courses, for instance, by sourcing for short-term management courses that can be built on his management skills.
2. Develop interest in quality relationships by listing down the qualities he admired among his subordinates and family members. At the same time, he should explore new perspectives and possibilities in achieving his goals.

Moreover, the coaching session did not end without challenges. In this case, significant challenges included keeping an open mind and maintaining active listening of the trainee. Being openly minded implies listening to a person’s ideas without jumping to unnecessary conclusions or making a judgment(Reinkeet al., 2014). However, I realized that there were times when I could easily assume having understood the needs or concerns of my trainee. In the end, I found myself generalizing on responses, which failed to address the real issues besides incorrectly postulating them. As such, in the future coaching sessions, I will need to ensure that I am conscious of reducing cases of misinterpretation. Equally, I need to improve my listening skills. At some point during the session, I could drift in my concentration and eventually miss crucial points and words from my trainee. As such, I should become curious about conversations in the future as they present an opportunity to discover information. Overall, my client depicted significant improvements that he began exercising the lessons and exploring ways to achieve personal development skills. Thus, he was able to focus both on short and long-term goals to advance his professional career.

            Finally, I received positive feedback from my colleague. He appreciated my coaching methods and praised the efforts I made in helping him achieve his desired goals. Notably, the state was encouraged by the training framework that we managed to draw together, which allowed him to balance his social and work life. Currently, my colleague is striving to achieve his goals and planning for his next move in advancing his career. His relationship with subordinates and family members has improved. He has managed to motivate his subordinates to appreciate his efforts. In his working environment, my colleague has created an interactive environment that appreciates interaction. After accomplishing the coaching sessions, my next steps in the coaching process is to strive and establish contacts that could be helpful to my trainee’s future professional development. The process would include recognizing his presence whenever he is in special meetings especially those involving members within the professional circle.  In addition, I would endeavor to evaluate his performance at least once in two years to understand his progress. I believe this would work a long way in enriching my future programs through introductions of post-evaluation issues that are critically being addressed in the early stages of coaching.

References

Lofthouse, R., & Hall, E. (2014). Developing practices in teachers’ professional dialogue in England: using Coaching Dimensions as an epistemic tool. Professional development in education, 40(5), 758-778.

McDonough, D. (2013). Similarities and differences between adult and child learners as participants in the natural learning process. Psychology, 4(03), 345.

Reinke, W. M., Stormont, M., Herman, K. C., & Newcomer, L. (2014). Using coaching to support teacher implementation of classroom-based interventions. Journal of Behavioral Education, 23(1), 150-167.