#010 (May 2022): Coaching (questions, no whistles)

Hello friends

This time we’re focused on coaching. Coaching offers individuals, teams and groups focused and purposeful spaces for reflection, learning and making commitment to change. (And yes, you’re right, it might have been better to send this last week during International Coaching Week…)

OSCAR: our favourite coaching model

A coaching model we love to use in coaching conversations is OSCAR. This is also great to use in conversations with your manager or people you manage.

Outcome: The destination

• What is the issue, situation or area to be discussed?
• What do you need to achieve from today’s coaching conversation? (What’s your short term goals?)
• What is your long term outcome?
• What would success look like? What would be different?

Situation: The starting point

• What is the current situation?
• What’s actually happening?
• Who is involved?
• What makes it an issue now?

Choices and consequences: The route options

• What have you already tried?
• What choices do you have?
• What options can you choose from?
• What are the consequences of each choice?
• Which choices have the best consequences?

Actions: The detailed plan

• What actions will you take?
• What will you do next?
• How will you do it?
• When will you do it, with whom?
• On a scale of 1 to 10 how willing are you to take those actions?

Review: Making sure you are on track

• What steps will you take to review your progress?
• When are we going to get together to review progress?
• What action are you actually taking?
• How far are the actions moving you towards your outcome?

We hope this is a useful tool. Let us know how you get on.

Find a coach

We know people in leadership roles working or volunteering to support those most in need in our region can feel lonely, overstretched and burnt out, and can find it hard to make time for their own development. Coaching is a great tool to help you grow, learn more about yourself, work out what you want to do, help you solve problems and think through a tricky situation. Coaching can also help you when you’re in a good place to plan your next steps, achieve a goal and become even better in your role.

If you’re looking for a coach, have a look at the North East Coaching Collective coaches. We are 15 coaches passionate about coaching for social change in our region. North East Coaching Collective is an initiative of North East Together, the network for social change leadership. It is hosted and supported by us (Yes We Can).

Try out coaching

Keep a look out for another free coaching offer from North East Coaching Collective for small VCSE organisations and people working independently for social change. This is based on the Supporting people through Covid-19 free coaching programme we offered in summer 2020, which worked so well. We’ll again be harnessing the power of collaboration — a little bit (of time) from a few people — to coach for social change. We have pencilled in 12 July for the launch event so save the date to learn more about the offer, about coaching and how local organisations have benefited from coaching.

Things we like

01 Event: Young Trustees Movement peer learning action group

A peer-learning space hosted by Young Trustees Movement for trustees and charities working towards diversifying their boards. The three free events are a supportive space for trustees to take meaningful steps in making your governance more inclusive, diverse and accessible.

02 Listen: Why big feelings belong in organisations

The past two-plus years have been defined by uncertainty, worry and upheaval. This Brave New Work conversation with Mollie West Duffyabout feelings and emotions at work examines this. Mollie suggests the following helps: organisations assigning reasonable workloads, separating what you can control from what you can’t, and make space to discuss emotions at work.

What’s in our diaries

• NET x HLS pop up event series event 1 of 3 An introduction to Human Learning Systems and short stories from those who are working this way, 7 June, 15:00–17:00, online
• NET x HLS pop up event series event 2 of 3 Deeper exploration and rummaging — hearing detailed case studies organisations to learn what they did and how, ask questions, get in to the detail, 21 June, 15:00–17:00, online
• Leading Together: Growing and developing collaborative leadership practice, 22 June, 09:30–16:30, in person, £125 with some reduced price tickets
• NET x HLS pop up event series event 3 of 3 Having a go — moving from theory to practice with a new learning cycles toolkit, 5 July, 13:00 for 13:30–17:30, in person (venue TBC)
• NET Connect: bringing together North East Together members and network friends to connect, grow and nurture our relationships, 14 September, 16:00–17:15, online
• Leader and manager as coach one day training, 19 October, 09:30–16:30, venue TBC, and follow up community of practice events, £150

And finally…

…103 bits of advice I wish I had known from Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired magazine, on his 70th birthday.

Here’s one I (Stephanie) liked: When you are stuck, explain your problem to others. Often simply laying out a problem will present a solution. Make “explaining the problem” part of your troubleshooting process.Cheerio for now.

Stephanie, Robert, Cath, Duncan and Marie

PS If you’d like to get this by email, join the Sowing Seeds mailing list.