In the first of a series of road tests on technological tools, curated by Clare Norman, we look at me:my™coach
What is it?
Karen Dean, an ICF MCC level executive coach and coach supervisor, created me:my™coach as an online framework for purposeful self-reflection on a recent coaching conversation. The tool enables coaches to examine what was missed and what worked well so they can track their progress from one session to the next, testing their effectiveness with a particular client, raising awareness and increasing confidence.
Who might use it? It is valuable for new coaches, supporting them beyond the classroom, as they consolidate learning. Given that coaching ‘real’ clients in the early stages of becoming a coach can feel challenging, this tool offers a strong and stable feedback system supporting insight and action.
However, the tool is stimulating for coaches at all levels of competency. It has also been successfully applied with internal coaching teams. Team members have reflected individually and then also learnt as a group, by exploring their insights using the knowledge offered by the tool.
Where it came from Dean explains that it arose from her coaching in a specific client organisation, a cruise company, over an eight-year contract, during which period she worked with more than 750 clients over 3,500 hours.
“This became my ‘laboratory’ as I captured themes and consistent patterns. These insights embraced the diverse nationalities, cultures and religions within the hierarchy of the shipboard community,” says Dean, who leads coaching provider Diabolo Limited (www.diabololimited.com).
Dean explains,“The complex system which crystallised for me was distilled, revealing six dimensions, significant human and hard facets that are fully integrated. This thinking has been applied to the dynamic of the coach with their client and what is co-created in the moment. The system I developed accurately informs the language and structure of this coaching tool, allowing for the sharing of knowledge and cultivating insight.”
How it works
The six elements in me:my™coach resonate with the International Coach Federation (ICF) core competencies. Accessed online, the tool presents the coach with 30 statements, which refer to the coach:client dynamic during the coaching conversation. The output is a hexagonal diagram with six dimensions.
There are scores plus acknowledgment of what was at play in that interaction. The coach is then offered a comprehensive menu of supervision questions. The coach chooses the most valuable/provocative questions to explore. These stimulate insight, refreshing their approach with the client. The coach can capture their reflections.
Finally, the tool guides the coach to devise an action plan, testing commitment and bearing witness to the learning. These completed outputs can be securely stored for the coach within the system, enabling future reference, tracking and comparison. The coach might choose to send the outputs to a third party, such as a peer coach or to their supervisor.
The tool was trialled over a year, with 13 out of 120 coaches using it. Those using it scored between 95% and 99% satisfaction, compared with the mean average for the other coaches of 70%. Each coach had a large cohort of clients.
Using the tool
- For more information on this tool visit: www.memycoach.com
The client’s experience
This isn’t a tool for application on a coaching client. It is aimed at the coach. For the coach to have the greatest impact on the client, the coach must be fit for purpose. Reflective practice is a core requirement. The client of this particular technology is the coach.
The experience
What is me:my™coach? It’s definitely a simple yet sophisticated technology which I’ve used both as a coach and coach supervisor to prepare for my own supervision sessions. It’s easy to use and very thought provoking and has definitely advanced my coaching and supervision practice.
The application
me:my™coach is very helpful in my self-supervision, reflection and learning. It allows me to synthesise elements of my coaching session that I may still be sitting with or that I have questions about.
Without it, for myriad reasons, I may not have reflected so systematically or of course I may have entered into a sophisticated dance of collusion with myself. me:my™coach allows me to ‘put it out there’, privately, or indeed I can opt to share it with my supervisor.
One of me:my™coach’s real strengths is that once I have reflected, learnt and taken immediate action, I am confident I am growing as a coach. A further benefit of me:my™coach comes when I see what’s left over from my self-supervision.
There are new things I’m pondering, those things that require still deeper exploration, possibly the actual essence of what was my original enquiry. This is what I take to my supervision session. I am able to have a much more focused supervision session, at greater depth. Without the application of me:my™coach, I may have worked at a more superficial
level or taken much more time to settle on the more profound and significant issue.
The verdict
The nature of my coaching and my coach supervision relationship has grown exponentially as a result of me using me:my™coach. I find the coaching statements are simple yet relevant to my responses, and each of the six dimensions lead to new insights.
Lesley Cave PCC is an executive coach, coach supervisor, mentor coach and coach trainer
Upside
- The efficacy of me:my™coach
- Its cost-effectiveness
- It is available 24/7/365 on multiple platforms
- It’s like having your supervisor sat on your shoulder
- It explores six different dimensions of coaches’ practice, leading to new insights
- The coaching statements are simple yet relevant to the coach’s responses
- It encourages a commitment to action
- It brings clarity on what to take to supervision
Downside
- It might be easy to forget the technology is there
- Requires commitment and self-discipline to self-supervise. To get the best out of me:my™coach
we must be honest with ourselves and disciplined in the use of the technology