Coaching and Post Graduates

Coaching and Post-graduates
1. What is coaching?
Professional Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce

extraordinary results in their lives, careers, businesses or organizations1. Everyone can
benefit from receiving coaching.
I know the most impressive changes created by people I have coached were because they
felt empowered, supported and motivated to make a difference in their lives. And the results
include external and obvious changes, like choosing to get fit again, making significant
progress in a new job role or with a new team, treating their children and families significantly
better, making great decisions about their projects, jobs, and relationships that yielded
wonderfully supportive feedback from people who matter to them. Beyond external changes
there are those who make amazing internal changes in such domains as self-belief, self-
confidence, identity, adaptability, and action orientation. And realising their own personally
held values and bringing those forward as key frameworks for better living and working.
These people learn to harness their own strengths and apply them in directions most of us
wouldn’t believe we could do unless we had tried it or seen it for ourselves. I am pleased to
say there is a growing literature emerging that is evidence based, including case examples
like these I mention here.
And these are positive normal people like you and me, whom for whatever reasons have
chosen to be coached or coaching have been offered to them by their employer. Normal
people.
Let’s expand our discussion of what coaching is and isn’t.
Coaching is a tool for facilitating personal change, for developing ourselves, our thoughts,
feelings and behaviors, and setting and accomplishing goals. Coaching can focus on
developing our role or business strategies to become more strategic, it can help to develop
our character or specific characteristics and work on specific skills such as developing our
EQ. Coaching can assist us to harness our discontent with the present and create a better
future for ourselves and those we interact with.
Coaching can and typically does involve us describing the present, identifying what is working
and what can be improved. Harnessing our strengths to leverage what is working and
changing what isn’t. This simple process can be applied to complex situations, indeed is most
suited to them, since small positive changes will have a ripple effect that can be grown to
foster larger scale changes.
For example, a willingness to try something that worked before in this new situation, can lead
to development in self-confidence. This can create the platform for better decision-making,
which can lead to more positive changes for that individual and those touched by their
decisions. Just having someone listen to you and your perspective can be very relieving,
especially if you are in a leadership role. It may help you to focus better. You may find yourself
better able to listen to others again, as a result of shedding what is on your mind. These
examples demonstrate some of the threads that coaching can address.
Coaching is a process, a set of competencies that can be learned, an experience that can
help you to change and be a better performer in whatever role you may wish to focus upon.
Coaching has grown up alongside the field of positive psychology developed by Martin
Seligman. It has developed within domains as wide as sports performance, executive
coaching, and life coaching. It is the fastest growing domain of psychology. I suspect this is
because it has recast the emphasis of psychology from it’s roots in attending to abnormal or
psychopathology to a growing attention to normal people, and their needs and interests in
1. http://www.coachfederation.org/eweb/docs/ICF_regulatory_brochure_1004.pdf
2. http://www.coachfederation.org/eweb/docs/ICF_Core_Competencies.pdf
3. http://www.clutterbuckassociates.com/
4. Case Study on the Return on Investment of Executive Coaching, Prepared by: Merrill C. Anderson, Ph.D., MetrixGlobal,
LLC, November 2, 2001
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_coaching
well-being, happiness and good health. Beyond these general health parameters, positive
psychology and coaching focus on facilitating development, performance and personal
growth.
Coaching isn’t the same as counseling, or mentoring, instructing, teaching or training, or

consulting either. So counseling isn’t therapy, although there are many parallels in terms of
core processes. Therapy generally has its focus on helping the client to feel better about
themselves and/or their situation so that they may function better within their context. It
doesn’t necessarily focus on moving into the domain of active enhancement of the current
situation, based for example o developing and applying the underlying values held by the
person outside of their immediate remedial focus. And yes there is a fine line here…indeed it
is a soft overlapping boundary where ‘remedial coaching’ (if there is such a thing) may look
and feel like counseling, at least initially. But coaching can and will continue to push
proactively into spaces and places where normal functioning can be enhanced, not just
treated.
Mentoring is an interesting one. In Australia right now, everyone seems to be catching on to

mentoring. And of course many will say, ‘Oh I’ve been mentoring (and coaching) for many
years now.’ I wonder if what they mean is typical mentoring i.e. sharing your greater
experience with someone less experienced, creating a hierarchical relationship, where the
mentor will guide you about “how things are done around this place” and “the path to success
in this company or organisation (that I trod…)”.
Sharing my wisdom gained through many years of experience, taking you under my wing and
other benevolent and guiding behaviors are a part of typical mentoring relationships. So the
goals of mentoring may not be yours they may arise either from the mentor or indeed from the
company or sponsoring organisation. And you may be empowered through the power of your
mentor, and you may grow through mentoring but in directions and along paths that are
already well trodden. So mentoring and coaching diverge around goals, empowerment, and
resources where coaching places emphasis upon your sources and development of these,
where mentoring may supply many of these for you.
But as a coach, I also mentor…I share what has worked for me, my experiences in similar
situations as illustrations and sometimes I even mentor too! So in a coaching relationship we
can find ourselves mentoring when it is appropriate.
Consulting is another useful ‘development’ activity that differs widely from coaching.
Consulting is (usually) about a process of analysis, definition of issues, development of
solutions, and making recommendations. Thus we come, we find, we sort, we solve, we leave
(if your lucky!). In coaching we may analyse, do testing, and interpret results. Especially at the
commencement of a coaching engagement to assist in planning our focus and determine
needs as well as strengths that can be leveraged. And we may suggest ideas for ‘solutions’
but only if the coachee has exhausted all of their ideas and resources; or if they are looking
for some other perspectives to consider to expand their thought-basket.
The role of a coachee is to own their issues, develop their own solutions and build their own
future with facilitation provided by their coach. A coach will help them to keep track of their
needs, check their priorities against their values, goals and needs, and make progress with
their plans. But not solve anything for them as a consultant specialist might. But then if I know
something that I can share with my coachee, that may solve some part of their puzzle and
they ask me, I may share with them…indeed I share and brainstorm many resources, ideas,
and suggestions with all of my coaches, but only when we have reached a strong relationship
based on their contributions over a number of sessions and a moment in that session that is
appropriate to do so.
As you can see coaching involves a unique process that allows it to overlap with other
interventions and developmental relationships that we are perhaps more familiar with. And
coaching maintains its unique positive focus on developing the person, their own goals,
resources and accomplishments and carries its own processes, assumptions and theory.
And those key elements of coaching will vary depending on the coaching domain: personal,
life, sports, business, leadership or executive coaching. Here is a summary of the most
common steps of coaching in non-sports situations, developed by the International Coaching
Federation:
A. SETTING THE FOUNDATION
1. MEETING ETHICAL GUIDELINES AND PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

2. ESTABLISHING THE COACHING AGREEMENT
B. CO-CREATING THE RELATIONSHIP
3. ESTABLISHING TRUST AND INTIMACY WITH THE CLIENT

4. COACHING PRESENCE
C. COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY
5. ACTIVE LISTENING
6. POWERFUL QUESTIONING
7. DIRECT COMMUNICATION
D. FACILITATING LEARNING AND RESULTS
8. CREATING AWARENESS
9. DESIGNING ACTIONS
10. PLANNING AND GOAL SETTING
11. MANAGING PROGRESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY 2.
A growing number of companies and organisations are adopting coaching as a learning tool
that has special emphasis on individual growth and development. This allows specific groups
to be targeted, such as leadership, certain strata of management, or occupational groups -
sales managers for example. Imagine if Monash adopted coaching for example? It might
choose to target developing high performance researchers who take on managerial roles, or
develop academic staff who become responsible for larger staff groups, or as part of its
succession plan to develop its leadership pipelines across the organisation. These are just
some of the many ways that coaching could be found useful and powerful in developing
organisations such as Monash University. Let’s address how coaching might benefit you, our
readers…
2. Who can benefit and how can you benefit?
Most directly you could benefit from coaching in two domains: coaching from your PhD
supervisor(s) and on a much wider basis, life coaching.
The benefits of being coached well by your supervisor could include:
 Facilitate personal change, development and growth

 Enhance self direction and self regulation
 Helps to clarify (project, individual and task) purpose and values
 Tailored to individual needs
 Help develop and implement action plans
 Give focus and teach how to maintain that focus
 Ask the right questions to help the coachee develop their own answers, build
self-sufficiency
 Develop productivity and capability
 Action oriented, helps coachee to develop their own solutions
 Provide a framework for relating to your supervisor that is positive, places you
in the heart and center of responsible self development, and structures your
passage from your ideas to results
 Identify your needs, develop your own solutions and your skills through
coaching conversation
 Motivate your energies and help you to direct those well
 Complete your thesis on time, within budget and according to your
aspirations and agreed goals and outcome measures
This long list assumes that your supervisor is fully trained and able to coach. This assumption
calls for some explanation. A renowned coach theorist in the UK, David Clutterbuck 3, states
that supervisors who wish to coach should have or need to develop the following ten
competencies and attributes to enable them to coach effectively:
The 10 core coaching competencies are:
• Self-awareness, including understanding of self and interest in self-knowledge

• Behavioural awareness, including understanding others
• Communication and listening skills
• Conceptualising and intellectual ability
• Business and professional savvy, business knowledge; ethics, integrity
• Sense of proportion and humour
• Interest in developing others and a desire to coach
• Committed to their own learning
• Goal setting skills, and relationship management, empathy, personal boundary
management
Most of these can be built or learned through suitable training and development interventions
including coaching support.
But I wonder how many PhD supervisors have these fully developed and are ready to coach?
My guess is not all would be so well prepared. Nor should they be…we don’t all come form
the same place. And what about us as PhD students, how do we rate against these
competencies. How ready are we to coach? And if we were ready, and so skilled, could we
consider coaching upward, say, our supervisor? My answer is yes, if we know how to do it
effectively.
I’d like to see all PhD supervisors provided with opportunity to develop these ten core-
coaching competencies as part of their required development in their role as a supervisor. The
benefits to research, project management and student productivity, and results would provide
ample return on such investment. Research4 has shown that coaching has an ROI of approx.
six times the cost of investment. And the benefits extend well beyond that…
Among the benefits to executives who received coaching were improved:
 Working relationships with direct reports (reported by 77% of executives)

 Working relationships with immediate supervisors (71%)
 Teamwork (67%)
 Working relationships with peers (63%)
 Job satisfaction (61%)
 Conflict reduction (52%)
 Organizational commitment (44%)
 Working relationships with clients (37%)
And the Benefits to organisations that provided coaching to executives were improvements
in:
 Productivity (reported by 53% of executives)
 Quality (48%)
 Organizational strength (48%)
 Customer service (39%)
 Reducing customer complaints (34%)
 Retaining executives who received coaching (32%)
 Cost reductions (23%)
 Bottom-line profitability (22%)
3. How can I:
a. Find a coach?
b. Help someone I know get coached?
c. Learn more about coaching?
d. Recommend to my supervisor they learn coaching skills?
e. Become a coach?
We’ll tackle these great questions in our next articles on coaching.
Some potential inserts:
Strategies4 for getting the best out of coaching:
• Manage the entire coaching process to ensure consistency and quality.

• Prepare clients in advance for coaching and don't force coaching on anyone.
• Offer clients the ability to select their coaches.
• Provide coaching strong organizational support.
• Ensure coaches are grounded in the company’s business and culture.
• Allow each coaching relationship to follow its own path.
• Build performance measurement into the coaching process.
Life coaching5 is used by a growing number of psychologists to aid clients with transitions in
their personal life, and in the process of self-actualization. Life coaching draws from a number
of disciplines, including sociology, psychology, career counseling, and numerous other types
of counseling. The coach, or counselor, applies mentoring, values assessment, behavior
modification, behavior modeling, goal-setting, and other techniques in assisting clients.
supervisor(s) and on a much wider basis, life coaching.
The benefits of being coached well by your supervisor could include:
4. What are the different types of coaching?

5. How can I:
a. Find a coach?
b. Help someone I know get coached?
c. Recommend to my supervisor they learn coaching skills?
d. Become a coach?
e. Learn more about coaching?
9. Case Study on the Return on Investment of Executive Coaching, Prepared by: Merrill C. Anderson, Ph.D., MetrixGlobal, LLC,
November 2, 2001

Coaching and Post Graduates

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Coaching and Post-graduates

Professional Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce

Let’s expand our discussion of what coaching is and isn’t.

Coaching isn’t the same as counseling, or mentoring, instructing, teaching or training, or

Mentoring is an interesting one. In Australia right now, everyone seems to be catching on to

A. SETTING THE FOUNDATION

1. MEETING ETHICAL GUIDELINES AND PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

B. CO-CREATING THE RELATIONSHIP

3. ESTABLISHING TRUST AND INTIMACY WITH THE CLIENT

D. FACILITATING LEARNING AND RESULTS

2. Who can benefit and how can you benefit?

The benefits of being coached well by your supervisor could include:

 Facilitate personal change, development and growth

The 10 core coaching competencies are:

• Self-awareness, including understanding of self and interest in self-knowledge

Among the benefits to executives who received coaching were improved:

 Working relationships with direct reports (reported by 77% of executives)

We’ll tackle these great questions in our next articles on coaching.

Some potential inserts:

Strategies4 for getting the best out of coaching:

• Manage the entire coaching process to ensure consistency and quality.

The benefits of being coached well by your supervisor could include:

4. What are the different types of coaching?

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