Coaching Model: C – L – E – A

A Coaching Model Created by Anant Sharma
(Executive Coach, INDIA)

My Coaching Model is derived from the popular model, CLEAR. Before I delve into describing my coaching model, just a recap on what the “original” CLEAR” coaching model is.

The reason I chose this model is that it resonates very well with what I as a coach bring to my clients and at the same time what my clients can expect from their coach. And this is – CLARITY.

Many times our clients are not clear on

What they actually want
What is bothering them?
What would be a good outcome
What would happen if the outcome is different

In short, they are not “CLEAR” what they want and this is where I as a Coach would step in to engage with my clients to get exactly this.

My CLEAR coaching model is

Based on the original CLEAR model, the model I have proposed revolves around the client. As it can be seen the client is central to all the steps of this model, after all, it is his/her journey which I am a coach will be facilitating. Hence in my model, I will

Collaborate with my clients, build trust and understand the issue in more detail. This step also entails creating awareness for the client
Building upon the trust I then get into the process of learning what is to be done to move forward towards the goal
Once this is done, the client needs to be Empowered to take steps for his/her forward movement
The client now with the knowledge and awareness from previous steps decides on the approach, the steps to be taken to achieve the goal
Finally, together with the client, we review the results achieved basis the approach taken

My Clients

The niche I am working on would be centered around my experience in the corporate world and hence I will be targetting clients in this space. My clients would be ranging from junior managers who are trying to find a place for themselves in the corporate jungle right up to senior managers and executives for whom it is equally important to survive, thrive and grow in a hostile environment.

The approach, therefore, needs to be tailored for each of the categories described above. Here is the approach I will use to each of this category of clients

Junior Managers

Young achievers as Individual Contributors (called ICs in the corporate jungle) are excited and wide-eyed when they step into the world of “management”. They also get a sense of entitlement as they now are stepping into the shoes of people they were reporting to either directly or indirectly and have been influenced by each of these senior folks in one way or the other.

However, very soon the realization sets in which every young manager goes through. And that it is far easier doing things yourself than getting it done by your team. Here is when the young manager starts feeling disillusioned and need is felt for a certain new set of competencies hitherto unknown to young managers. Some of these are

Managing conflicts both within the team and across teams
Having tough discussions with team members
Standing up for team members by overcoming intimidation
Improving soft skills like communication and socializing
Being a team player – a young manager needs to realize all battles are not for winning, especially with team members. One needs to learn to “lose to win”

Senior Managers/Executives

After having spent time as a junior manager, gradually people get into middle and then senior management. Here the set of challenges are entirely different. They have learned the art of managing teams, having tough conversations, etc. What they have also learned by now is categorizing teams as favorites, neutrals, or non-favorites. This in turn makes them biased and starts influencing their decision-making process which then makes further growth difficult.

For these folks, the avenues for growth are also limited as we can see in the below depiction

As the opportunities to grow further keep reducing, the challenges faced by individuals also change. They now need to develop an entirely new set of skills to maneuver themselves to survive and grow.

What senior managers look for can be summarized into

Someone who can be a trustworthy sounding board
Someone with whom they can discuss growth areas without prejudice
Identification of areas that are limiting growth
Awareness around limiting beliefs and
What needs to be done to address the limiting beliefs

Trust is key here as the decisions made by senior managers have a bearing on the direction of the organization as well as the careers of junior members in the organization. At the same time, since the corporate world is fiercely competitive no senior manager can afford to bear his feelings to colleagues.

Also as one grows, the number of friends you have in the office keeps on reducing which then leads to no “escape hatch” for pent-up feelings. The Coach steps in to help clients in this area as well.

The Coach

The Coach engages with the client and helps in the identification of areas for discussion, create action plans, remove any past hurdles for the client to achieve his/her set objectives.

The Coach helps the client to remain focused on the goal as well as holding the client accountable for the steps and the process. The Coach also will from time to time challenge the client helping his/her forward movement.

The CLEAR Process

The process here is centered entirely around the client and can be briefly summarized below

Collaborate with my clients, build trust and understand the issue in more detail. This step also entails creating awareness for the client. The starting point for this step is actually well before the coaching process actually starts – this begins at the Discovery session itself. As explained earlier on the nature of my clients, creating trust is of utmost importance in this model
Building upon the trust I then get into the process of learning what is to be done to move forward towards the goal. Depending on the nature of the client (as explained earlier) the learning will be different and so also will be the action items needed to address these
Once the client has an understanding, the important step of empowering comes into the picture. This is very important as it is in this step any limiting beliefs need to be addressed. It is in this step the client will get a feeling that he/she can go ahead and achieve what is required to be done
Then comes the step where the client formulates the approach to reach the desired goal. The client by now has awareness, is empowered, and uses this knowledge to decide on the approach
Finally, together with the client, we review the results achieved basis the approach taken

Coaching Tools

For my CLEAR model, the following coaching tools/competencies will be most useful.

Active Listening – As coaches, we need to spend close to 80% of the time listening and hence this is the first competency that needs to be used. This also helps in “reading between the lines” for things that are communicated without being said
Presence – any coaching session would be incomplete without a good presence and in this model too this has a big role to play. This helps establish trust with the clients as well
Visualization – usually clients in the corporate world have issues concerning growth or things they are planning to do for a very long time but are unable to do. A tool like Visualization will help in unlocking hidden thoughts and beliefs
Enneagram, Wheel of Life & Strengths Finder – depending on the situation any one of these can be very helpful to create awareness for the client as well as give directions to the Coach on ways to take the client forward
Accountability – of course, the Coach needs to hold the client accountable for the committed steps. This will help the client stay focused as well as ensure forward movement happens and is tracked

In short, the CLEAR Model will help my clients remove any confusion and get clarity on the way forward