Decoding ‘THE SPRINT’ : Lean In Network Bangalore’s pro bono Coaching Initiative for women
In Collaboration with Navgati’s Coaching Collective
“Coaching is an art and it’s far easier said than done. It takes courage to ask a question rather than offer up advice, provide an answer, or unleash a solution. giving another person the opportunity to find their own way, make their own mistakes, and create their own wisdom is both brave and vulnerable” — Brené Brown, author of Rising Strong and Daring Greatly
When different people come together with the great intent of paying it forward and making a difference, it’s a win-win-win situation and magic happens! That’s exactly how we would like to describe our experience with ‘THE SPRINT’ — A collaboration between Lean In Network Bangalore and Navgati’s Coaching Collective to bring the expertise of ICF trained coaches to impact our community of fabulous women.
The Sprint is our flagship pro bono coaching program, spread over 3 months, where a coach works one on one with the women in our community helping them find ways to move forward and create growth for themselves.
Kickstarted, in Dec 2021, We had over 100 women embark on this journey and make a bigger mark.
What is it?
It is a pro-bono coaching initiative designed for the Lean In Bangalore community of women to experience coaching from coaches who are professionally trained and/or certified to be coaches. This is a collaboration between LeanIn Bangalore network and Coaching Collective which is an initiative by Navgati, a unique leadership development organization.
Who are the players?
Coach — A professionally trained/certified coach who has completed a minimum of 60 hours of ICF coach training by Navgati and has at least 40+ practice hours.
Coachee — Anyone from the LeanIn Bangalore community who is interested in developing herself and registers for the program by completing all the steps.
Facilitators — LeanIn Bangalore Core Team and Navgati
Structure, Expectations and outcomes:
The 8 things you need to know about ‘The Sprint’
- ‘The Spr‘The Sprint’ is designed to be a coaching journey spanning across 3 months.
- The core team will help in assigning a coach to every registered member
- The coachee signs a coaching contract which clearly outlines the expectations from the coaching journey to confirm her participation and commitment to the program.
- The coaching journey will have four 1 on 1 pro bono coaching sessions of one hour each which can be scheduled between the coach and the coachee at a mutually agreed schedule.
- The first conversation is a chemistry conversation where we recommend the coach and the coachee spends time to understand each other, get clarity on the coaching goal and agree on next steps
- The next 3 conversations will be to discuss the goal and the milestones to achieve the desired outcome.
- The timings of the coaching conversations are flexible and can be mutually agreed between the coach and the coachee.
- The coaching journey is led by the coachee and supported by the coach. The scheduling of the meetings will be coachee’s responsibility.
How would the coaches be matched to be potential coachee?
- It is done by random allocation of the registered members and the available coaches
- All coaches who are assigned are professionally trained/certified/in the process of being certified by the International Coach Federation. They would completed a minimum of 60 hours of ICF coach training by Navgati and have at least 40 hours of coaching of practice
- They come from diverse backgrounds spanning from Human Resources, Marketing, Business, Engineering etc
How will the coachees know if the chemistry is working?
Our recommendation is to TRUST the process. Remember the chemistry conversation is NOT an evaluation. It is to build a common ground to kick start your coaching journey. Having said that, here are some indicators to look for to know when it is not working and bring it to the attention of the core team.
- If the coaching is talking down to you
- If the coach is always coming across as knowing more and discounting you
Now you are all caught up about everything you need to know about ‘The Sprint’. We have 75 women who have just begun their coaching journey in the cohort #3 and the waiting list is already growing for cohort #4. So, if you are keen on developing yourself and partnering with a coach, wait no more.
Here are some testimonials from the recent cohort members.
How do I register?
We have just started the cohort 3 coaching journey which will span from July to September 2022. The next cohort will begin in October 2022 and we already have a few waitlisted members. Stay tuned for the announcement for the next SPRINT cohort and register by stating your interest in the form.
If you want to read about the highlights from the COHORT 3 launch panel discussion, click here.
