Developing Coaching Skills

Training Session

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Learning objectives

 Understand what makes a team effective

 Develop motivational coaching skills
 Develop consulting coaching skills
 Develop an understanding of when and how
to intervene in student team performance
by using the team diagnostics instrument
and intervention process chart.
 Develop communication, performance
feedback and active listening skills

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Introductions and ice breaker

 Get into pairs and introduce

yourselves to each other
 Who was the best coach you ever had.
Why were they good?
 Have you had a negative coaching
experience? If so, what happened?
 Share your experiences with the
larger group

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What is coaching?

 Coaching is
 Direct, time-appropriate interaction with
a team that is intended to shape team
processes to produce good performance
(Wageman, 2001).
 It helps students perform more
effectively in team-based
assignments

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Where Does Coaching Fit in With
Team Effectiveness
Supportive Organizational Context

Student
Enabling Compelling
Team
Structure Direction
Effectiveness

Real Team

(Hackman, 2002)
Expert Coaching

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Two Types of Coaching
Motivational Coaching
 Coaching teams to form and set goals;
communicating in a motivating manner,
and encouraging commitment to their
project.
Consultative Coaching
 Coaching teams to develop more
effective ways of performing their work
together and giving feedback on their
performance.
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 Expert Coaching: Temporality

Team life cycle Beginning Midpoint End of Cycle

Focal Effort Performance Knowledge

Performance Strategy & Skill
Process

Coaching Motivational Consultative Educational/

intervention Reflective

(Hackman, 2002)
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Motivational Coaching
 Help students to form a team
 Learn how to debrief the
team contract
 http://www.managementmarketing.unimelb.e
du.au/ttr/pdf/team_contract.pdf

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Helping Students Form a Team
 During Team Formation Tutorial:
 Brief discussion about team work
 Encourage students to talk about positive and
negative experiences.
 Be honest about negatives
 Discuss the importance of working in a team:
 Employers want teamwork skills
 Our subject helps students develop team skills
and such skills can be added to their CV.
 We will provide students with support in working
in teams

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 Helping Students Form a Team
 Tutorial Exercises:
 All of those students who are keen to work
extremely hard and get a high grade move to
the right hand corner of the room.
 All of those who are looking forward to a
really easy semester and just getting by move
to the left hand corner of the room.
 All of those who wouldn’t have a clue what
they can accomplish and are prepared to work
hard and reap the rewards cluster in the
middle.
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 More Ideas for Forming Teams
 Move to the left/right of the room if:
 You spend more than 3 hours a day on SMS or MSN
 You have a Flickr/Myspace profile
 You can speak at least two languages
 You work (outside Uni) more than 25 hours a week
 You think that the subject is going to be really interesting
 You’ve lived in another country
 Give students the following directions:
 Find somebody in the room that is NOT in the same degree as you.
 Find somebody in the room that is NOT in the same degree as you
and NOT from the same country.
 Find somebody in the room that is NOT in the same degree as you
and NOT from the same country AND is in the same grade
expectation group.

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The Team Contract
 Teams must agree a team contract
before meeting with their coach
 Teams must bring the answers to the
five questions with them to the meeting
 All team members must attend the meeting
 Coaches work with teams about what they
want to achieve in order to establish goals
 Coaches work with teams about how they
will deal with problems in order to establish
norms and rules
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 Exercise: Managing the Team
Contract
 Compare the following videos
 http://www.managementmarketing.unimelb.edu.au/ttr
/coachingteams/negteamcontract_part1.cfm
 http://www.managementmarketing.unimelb.edu.au/ttr
/coachingteams/howteamcoach_part1.cfm
 Answer the following questions
 Who is the most effective coach? Why?
 What did you learn? Which of their
behaviours would you repeat/avoid?
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Consultative Coaching

Be able to identify team performance

problems and make recommendations
to manage them.
Resolve team conflict.
Learn how to use the team diagnostic
http://www.managementmarketing.unimelb.ed
u.au/ttr/pdf/student_team_diagnostic.pdf

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Improving Team Performance: The
Team Diagnostic

1. Problem Identification

2. Solution Generation

3. Action plan and follow-up

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Problem Identification

 Acknowledge a problem exists

 Maintain a neutral position
 Manage discussion to ensure
fairness

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Solution Generation
 Explore options by focusing on the
interests behind stated positions.
 Explore the ‘whys’ behind students’ claims.
 Help students see commonalities among
their goals, values and principles
 Use commonalities to generate multiple
alternatives
 Use brainstorming

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Action plan and follow-up

 Ensure that all members of the team

support the agreed upon plan
 Verify understanding of, and commitment
to, specific actions.
 Identify a short term goal that they
need to achieve.
 Establish a mechanism for follow-up
 Usually an e-mail verifying that the goal
has been reached.

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Exercise: Intervening to
Improve Team Performance
 Watch the first video: what should Christina
do now?
 http://www.managementmarketing.unimelb.edu.au/
ttr/coachingteams/dealmembercompl_part1.cfm
 Watch the second video: how does Christina
manage the intervention?
 http://www.managementmarketing.unimelb.edu.au/
ttr/coachingteams/dealmembercompl_part2.cfm
 What does Christina do well/not so well?

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Coaching On The Run Exercise
 Instructions
 Break into groups of three and collect your
scenarios
 Select an observer who will keep time and jot
down your “one liners”.
 Each person should read a scenario and has 60
seconds to come up with a “one-liner” to give
the student
 Read out the alternative one-liners
 In plenary, debrief your experiences
 Contribute new one-liners
 Warn of one-liners that haven’t worked
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Team Role Play

 This activity has been developed to

practice your observation, communication &
conflict resolution skills.
 Read the role play and follow the
instructions:
 http://www.managementmarketing.unimelb.edu.
au/ttr/pdf/role_play_and_observation.pdf

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Role Play Plenary Debrief
 Effective Coaching Behaviours
 What behaviours characterize
active listening?
 What behaviours characterize
supportive communication?
 Which behaviours are most difficult
for you? What can you do to try and
employ them?

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Effective Coaching Communication –
Active Listening
 Make eye contact
 Exhibit appropriate body language
 Avoid distracting actions and gestures that
suggest boredom
 Ask questions
 Paraphrase
 Avoid interrupting
 Make smooth transitions between the role of
speaker and listener
 Deflect, probe, reflect
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Effective Coaching Communication –
Supportive Communication
 Stay problem oriented
 Congruence between thinking and
feeling
 Avoid making judgments
 Do validate the student
 Keep Specific
 Smooth flow
 Take ownership
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“Buddying up”
 New tutors should find a “buddy” – a more
experienced tutor they can work with
during their first semester
 Arrange a meeting to discuss how to
prepare for team coaching meetings
 Arrange to meet after the meetings to
debrief how they went.

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Session evaluation

 This section includes the completion of

knowledge quiz and training evaluation
form.
 http://www.managementmarketing.unimelb.
edu.au/ttr/pdf/evaluation_for_coaching_t
raining.pdf

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