How To Be A Master Coach

As many entrepreneurs in the industry become leaders, we must all become master coaches and teachers.  My favorite role is a teacher which in turns becomes to truly be a master coach.  You will help your team if you can help solve problems, make better decisions, learn new skills, and progress in new roles.

Many coaches develop their skills in different ways, either formal training, or experience in the field training.  When you arm yourself with proven techniques, find opportunities to practice you learn to trust more of your instincts.  This will help you become a better coach and enhance your team’s performance.

Use this proven approach to improve your coaching skills and enhance your team members skills.

Follow the GROW model:

G – Goal

R-Reality

O-Options

W-Will

This model can be a powerful framework for structuring your coaching.

1.  Decide where they are going.  Their goal should be established and where they currently are, their current reality.  Helping them with their best options and not offering advice or direction will allow as an objective facilitator.  Help them define a goal that is specific, measurable and realistic.  Ask questions to help focus on their goal:

-How will you know you have achieved that goal?

-How will you know the problem is solved?

2. Examine your reality.  This can be a critical step.  People try to solve a problem without fully considering the starting point.  They are often missing much of the information that is needed to solve the problem effectively.

Useful questions to help find these emerging reality it:

-What is happening now?

-What, who, when, how often?

-What is the effect or result of that?

3. Explore various ways with the OPTIONS.  Once you have explored the current reality.  It’s time to explore exactly what is possible.  All the possible options to solve the problem.  Help them generate many good options as possible and discuss these.  Let them find and offer their own suggestions first.  Here are more questions to establish options:

– What else could you do?

-What if this or that constraint were removed?

-What are the benefits and downsides of each option?

-What factors will you use to weigh up the options?

4. Will, an action that is committed from evaluating the options.  This is where you find the motivation and commitment to take action in solving the problems.  Great questions to put in place:

-So, what will you do now and when?

-What could stop you from moving forward?

-And how will you overcome it?

-Will this address your goal?

-How likely is this option to help you succeed?

Use this GROW  model to coach yourself.  A great practice to use in your own challenges and issues first.  When you practice on yourself first, you learn how to overcome your own challenges and issues along with asking the most helpful questions.

The most important skills for a coach to develop is to ask good questions for effective listening.  Don’t ask closed questions like, did that cause a problem?  Ask open ones like, what affect did that have?

Always let them do most of the talking.  We always seem to talk out our problems.  Silence in being a master coach is valuable thinking time.  Don’t always fill it with the next question.  Take your coaching to the next level by applying for master coaching here.