Coaching Case Study By Gabriel Chua
(Career Coach, SINGAPORE)
Coaching through G.O.A.L.S.
My coaching model with my clients includes all the 5 steps as indicated above. Let me explore each of these steps as follows;
G- Generate Goals
Goals have a power to keep us focused on a purpose. As a result, I must encourage my client to generate value-based goals. By generating goals based on my client’s values will ensure that my client receives an optimal return based his/her investment of time and energy because his/her success is based on the areas that matter most to him/her.
In addition, I must focus completely on what my client is saying and is not saying through active listening so that the goals are real and relevant. At the same time, I must ask open-ended powerful questions to my client so that he/her goals are meaningful. Moreover, I must share and provide effective feedback to my client so that his/her goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely (SMART). Not only that, I must support my clients to identify milestones to make his/her goals SMART. I am also required to assist my client to discover new thoughts, emotions, moods, etc. to achieve his/her SMART goals.
My client must be reminded that his/her SMART goals are a marathon, not a sprint. Setting a combination of short and long term SMART goals is important. The long term SMART goals provide a vision whereas the short term SMART goals help my client to remain focused and to feel a sense of achievement.
O – Options
Once my client has explored his/her current situation, I will engage my client to explore alternative ideas and solutions to evaluate options to achieve his/her SMART goals. I will help my client to generate as many options as possible through a creative brainstorming process without censure or conditionality and then evaluate each option with my client based on the pros and cons of each option. In addition, I work out with my client to establish the criteria for the evaluation of these options. After that, I will assist my client to shape and develop these options so as to arrive a relevant range of options.
The following are some of the questions to generate options:
- What else could you do?
- What would you do if [obstacle] didn’t stop you?
- Imagine you already reached your goal. How did you do it?
- What if this obstacle wasn’t there anymore?
- What else do you need to reach your goal?
- Where can you get it?
- What are the pros and cons of this option?
A – Actions
As a coach, I will spend a significant percentage of my time supporting my clients to take actions. If the clients do not take actions, there is no satisfaction, even a subtraction. Movement created by taking action creates a momentum and this in turn shifts my client out of his/her current situation. This movement, shifts the energy in his/her body and helps to even change his/her perspective to achieve his/her desired outcome or goal. Moreover, I will support my client to stay committed to take actions with concrete time lines and clarify on support needed while he/she is integrating all the action items. The more consistent and bold the action, the faster my client will move towards his/her desired outcome or goal.
I have to be mindful that taking action by my client can be fearful as there is uncertainty around taking action and he/she does not know where he/she is moving or to what the ‘other side’ of taking action will bring to him/her. Therefore, I will encourage my client to take small steps of actions to achieve his/her desired outcome. In addition, I support the client in his/her accountability of his/her own actions.
L – Learn to create Awareness
Awareness is knowing the patterns in our everyday life, understanding our beliefs, our mind, our spirit and our body. As a coach, I will learn to support my client to become aware of his/her behaviour. One of the reasons why clients work with a coach is to encourage more positive things in their lives and rid themselves of unhelpful behaviours that lead to negative effects. To do this, I will learn to provide some help for my clients to actually see such behaviours in action and to be able to articulate their awareness.
In order for my client to create his/her awareness, I must learn to utilize the powerful questioning technique to support my client to know more about him/her and what he/she needs to do. In addition, I will also learn to create awareness of my client by using the effective feedback which will create a kind of awareness that makes a difference in how my client sees things. By stating what is or what is not from another perspective, may just help my client get insight he/she can use. To give feedback is simple mirror back to my client the way I see it. For example, I may say to the client, “I see you are really angry about that, do you want to talk more about it?” There is no judgement about this emotion of my client but simple for my client to evaluate his/her feeling and move forward.
S – Success & Summary
This step is to celebrate success with my client for his/her action plan as well as to recap of what my client has worked out his/her actions to achieve his/her desired outcome or goal during the coaching session and it is the most important step of all the 5 steps. If my clients do not anchor their actions, they will likely forget these actions as soon as they step out of the door and therefore, he/she cannot achieve his/her desired outcome or goal. Hence, I must ensure my client write down these actions, not just saying them, so that he/she can achieve his/her desired outcome or goal. In fact, I must ensure my client is accountable for these actions to achieve his/her desired outcome or goal as accountability plays a key role in the process of coaching and as a result, I must assist greatly in that capacity for my client to achieve his/her desired outcome or goal.
In conclusion, my coaching model of G.O.A.L.S. will help my clients to work out a list of actions to achieve their desired outcomes or goals.