If you want to train someone successfully, you must be clear about why you are training them. Once a person has established a reasonable level of trust in their relationship with you as a coach, you can begin to push them to consider other learning style channels. The coach must direct this process and carefully observe and listen to the clues that the other person is ready. Receiving information is an important part of the process, as it allows the coach to gain a different perspective or have someone look at a problem, challenge or issue with fresh eyes.
Through a systematic reformulation process, the individual can be helped to see things in a new way fairly quickly. Recording is another important step in the coaching process. While it may initially seem that the coach is taking copious and detailed notes when talking to the coach, it is more accurate to suggest that, in long-term training, in particular, a summary record of what was agreed upon in each conversation can be very useful for both parties. This includes the initial stages of the relationship, when they establish ground rules, when they hold each conversation separately and, finally, when you think you have reached a reasonable conclusion between you. The last two stages of our effective training model are reviewing your own performance as a coach and watching and training a little more. Reflecting on the general circumstances in which the training took place, how good the experience was for both parties and what you can learn to do even better as a coach is essential for evolving or progressing in the future.
Watching team members in action after they have been trained is also important for ensuring that they are able to put into practice the 6 basic principles of leadership coaching effectively. Whether you're an external executive coach or a leadership coach working in the trenches of your organization, many of the same general rules apply in terms of what it takes to train your staff. This means that it is the coach who must invest time in reading the other person and then applying the information collected to build “relationship bridges”. Receiving effectively is actually a very active process in which the coach invests considerable effort both to concentrate and to listen carefully. In point four, the coach works with the coach to deliberately try to replace limiting thoughts with new and much more positive ones, and then asks the individual to consider the implications and develop an action plan based on the new mental experience. If this is done honestly, your skills as a coach will continue to deepen and your ability to achieve more in your own work and in life in general will increase substantially.
