The final two stages of the Circle Coaching Model are Develop, and Implement. These phases are essential for encouraging growth through the creation of pathways, and facilitating follow-through. In this blog, I’ll share some tools that leaders can use to understand these stages a little better for an effective outcome.
Develop
In this phase, it’s all about designing the right development actions.
Forcefield Analysis
One useful approach is to see development as a force field consisting of inhibitory and stimulating forces.
The application of analysis schemes such as awareness/readiness/ability/daring, psychological levels provide insight into what these forces play for a particular coachee. For example, certain elements of the context can inhibit and stimulate, as well as certain beliefs or certain values, can stimulate a great awareness, can inhibit a not real awareness…
The next step is to look for activities that can increase and/or weaken an identified power.
Development Styles
3 more very useful tools are the essential development styles of Construction, Interaction and Reflection. (Source: the concepts of Manon Ruijters in love for learning).
This concept essentially indicates that someone develops fundamentally when you stimulate the least preferred style instead of always staying with the same one.
To be clear: When learning something completely new, it is no problem to use your own preferred style. However, at a certain moment this doesn’t add anything any more and it is too late to add another style…
For example: Reflection is good but in the long run it doesn’t add anything anymore, you can continue to reflect in circles, ask for feedback is good but at a certain moment…
Construction = To arrive at new insights and decisions, to proceed to application and action.
Interaction = Taking in new and different insights through books and other people.
Reflection = Thinking internally about yourself, how you do certain things, and what could be done differently and better.
The table below gives some possibilities on how to strengthen the styles in question.
Implement
In our opinion, development actions also need to be formulated smartly. In that sense, it’s about formulating what exactly you’re going to do with whom at what moment and how and to achieve/learn what.
This gives the best guarantee for an actual and follow-through implementation in practice.
Changing behavior or adopting a different and often new approach is not easy. Especially in the first phase, this is often difficult because the application of something new often reduces the effectiveness of the coachee instead of increasing it. In the end, of course, he or she will become more effective.
However, it is the practice and experimentation period when effectiveness decreases (until one or the other is mastered) that needs to be bridged. It is useful to turn on all kinds of tools here such as:
– Reminders that are sent regularly by the coach.
– Reminders (visual schemes or drawings often work best) that the coachee can think of and use for himself.
– Involving colleagues and supervisors to provide feedback and support.
– Organizing a regular measurement to measure progress or lack of progress.
The Circle Model of Coaching is a useful toolkit that can help you help others in their personal development journeys – and through development, others can use their autonomy more effectively. Hopefully the tools in this Coaching Model blog series will be useful in allowing you to coach others!