So what is coaching with Richard like?

Well, each of my coaching relationships is different because each of my clients is a unique individual operating in a distinctive context.  Here’s a sketch to give you a feel for what working together might look like.

We start out by setting an overall direction for our coaching, often in the form of some explicit coaching objectives (which often evolve over time as our work progresses). Examples might include

• Navigate a period of turbulence

• Accelerate team development

• Shape your work so that it is more meaningful for you

• Develop a vision for your future that you find exciting and inspiring

We meet regularly, typically 1-2 times per month by audio or video.  If logistics allow, we may also choose to meet in person sometimes. 

Our discussion typically feels quite organic, which is deliberate, as a more relaxed and flowing conversation gives us better access to our capacity.  We incorporate any topics that are on your mind that you wish to bring into the discussion, exploring in and around them to uncover hidden dynamics, and look at how these topics relate to your overall coaching objectives.  We will often design some actions or experiments that help you to engage differently with your environment, perhaps by testing assumptions, deepening awareness, or generating movement. 

I follow up after each coaching session with the key points we discussed and a reminder of the actions we designed.  This helps us to keep a record that we can refer back to in future sessions.

We might correspond between coaching sessions by email, slack or WhatsApp, to stay in touch as a particular situation unfolds, or to share your progress on your actions or experiments. 

And I will encourage you to actively shape our work by reflecting on our progress and choosing where you would like to focus our work together each time we meet.

As each discussion and experiment builds on the previous ones in ways that support your movement towards your coaching objectives, you will start to notice more changes and increased awareness outside our discussions.  And when this happens, we might choose to re-visit and re-design our objectives to reflect these changes.

My clients often request that I have some dialogue with one or more people involved in their work to help bring a deeper understanding of their context into the coaching.  This might be board members (or trustees / governors), colleagues (line manager, team members, peers etc.) or their HR partner.  We agree how this would work in practice, and I only agree to this if I’m confident that I can respect the confidentiality of our work together.