Coaching Model: Open Doors To The YOU, You Want To Be

A Coaching Model Created by Dorian L. Lennon
(Executive & Life Coach, JAMAICA)

THE OPEN DOOR CONCEPT

Preamble

Coaching is about the coachee and not the coach.  It is about improving the coachee’s effectiveness in personal awareness and choice selection to go through life. The ‘open door concept’ suggests the client’s freedom to choose the “YOU” that they want to be.

It gives the coachee the freedom to develop, select, examine, decide, and implement actions that form the basis of their decision to move towards the change they want for themselves.  The coachee will also seek assistance and support from family and friends to achieve what they want through a process of change.

The coach’s role is to: a) create a trusting environment in which the coachee feels free to discuss issues, b) be a great listener, c) ask powerful questions to better understand the coachee’s ideas and desires, d) challenge coachees to think and assess feelings, beliefs, and how these impact their behaviour, as well as how prepared they are to make the change that they want.

The state of the journey is dependent on the coachee: how supported they feel, and how accountable they will be in the process of making this change.  The ICF Core competencies will guide the coach’s action to support coachee through the life changes that they want to achieve.

As stated by Kotter, when changing behavior, both thinking and feeling are essential… and for successful change, people need to be able to both think and feel positively about what they need to do. Without addressing both, change is unlikely to occur.

THINKING differently can help change behavior and lead to better results.
FEELING differently can change behavior and lead to even better results.
(The Power of the Head and the Heart, Kotter International, February 2011).

Kotter’s  statement strengthens the fact that our underlying beliefs can help to change behaviour for better or worse.  Coaching seeks to unearth these underlying beliefs and work with coachees to support positive change in their behaviour.

Great Works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance
(William Arthur Ward)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5KYmjwQ2K8

The Substance: The “YOU”… that you want to be.

OPEN

O – OPTIONS  (Identify Options)

P – Plan. Plan the way forward

E – Explore – Explore Goals

N-New  New Possibilities; ‘think outside the box’ – Self Awareness 1

DOORS

D – Develop.   Develop SMARTER Objectives

O – Order.       Place in order of PRIORITY

O – Opportunities. Create opportunities  and implement Action Plan

R – Review. Review results

S – Self- Awareness 2 and Solutions in the making. Package for regular use with necessary changes

OPEN

Identify OPTIONS:

There are times that we begin to think of options even before we decide what our goals are.

This thought-process later transfers to feelings, which occur at a time when we experience discomfort and know that a change is imminent for our survival…

The next step: what change do we really need to make and what are some available options?

P – Plan. Plan the way forward

Having examined the options, the next step for the coachee is to plan the way forward.

During all phases of the coaching process, the client is assisted by the coach, through powerful listening and by asking powerful questions to:

• Stay future-focused
• Challenge assumptions
• Take action, and
• Be accountable