Coaching Model: D3ARE to TRANSFORM

A Coaching Model Created by Emily Ann Lombos
(Transformational Coach, PHILIPPINES)

Coaching is about challenging and supporting people, giving them the gift of your presence.-  Robert Hargrove(1995) Masterful Coaching

Change is something inevitable. We are evolving human beings going through various life situations and life stages from birth to childhood to adulthood. The shift in life stages may not always be smooth sailing. Each stage may have high waves or challenges that one has to hurdle. The question is, are we ready to change? If not, why? What’s stopping us? If not now, when? How? For different reasons, one may not move or reach to the state they would like to be.

The word “DARE” is to “have the courage, confidence to do something” or to “challenge someone to do something”. As a coach, I encourage my clients and challenge them. The word Transform means “to change in the outward form or appearance, character or condition”.
The journey that one may go through may leave a marked change in one’s life. It could be a change in thought, belief, physical form, emotion, relationships, and habits. The journey itself can be transformational. There’s that wide spectrum of definitions and interpretation of transformation- linear, circular, ongoing, small, or large, expansive transformation and change like the “caterpillar to butterfly” effect (Sammut, K. 2014). The question is, will people be brave enough to transform their lives? Will they take the courage to transform? Thus, the creation of the coaching model D³ARE to Transform.

It is a cyclical model.  Further description of each phase follows below.

1. DESIRED STATE

The client clarifies and identifies one’s vision for oneself.   It may be a desired state or an ideal future self. It is finding out where one wants to be. For example one may want to be in a happy state, shift careers,  deal with loss, develop competencies, improve performance,  reach career goals, go thru life changes or be a better version of themselves.  It all depends on what the client wants.  Furthermore, this is also the stage that one will identify one’s coaching objective.

Some questions that may be asked at this phase are as follows:

• What is my vision, life mission, purpose, and values?
• What are my life goals?
• What is my goal (performance goal, desired competency, career goal, career/life transition)?
• What is it that I want to do? What is my personal calling? What kind of work do I find fascinating?
• What are my coaching objectives and areas of competence / skills and behaviors that I want to be developed or strengthened?
• What are the learning objectives and areas of competence / skills and behaviors that you want to be developed or strengthened?
• What will be necessary to make this a valuable learning experience? Focus on the type of information, resources and support that will be needed and their sources.  What are the potential barriers to learning?

The client may go back to this stage and identify where they are in reaching their Desired state and what takeaways they would like to have at the end of the coaching session.  The client may also go back to this stage if they have reached their coaching goal.

2. DISCOVER ONESELF

Nothing happens without personal transformation.  –W. Edwards Deming

It is at this phase that one increases self-awareness, using different frames and lenses.  In the process of expanding perspective, one may transform one’s point of view about oneself.

Discovering oneself can happen in various ways.

Thru the coaching conversation with the coach asking insightful and powerful questions, actively listening, giving feedback and observations, one may discover more about the self.

Some tools/practices may also help such as:

• Having a “learning from experience” mindset (planning learning experiences, acting on them, reflecting, sharing) and applying the Kolb’s Learning Cycle
• Practice of mindfulness- asking oneself, what’s happening? How am I responding? What does this say about me?
• Daily self-reflection. One may even have a daily time log, log-sheet of emotions, thoughts, actions taken.

Some questions that may help are the following:

• What is my current reality versus my desired state/future self? Where are am I now versus where I want to go (vision, mission, purpose, life)?
• What are challenges, possible obstacles, forces that will work for/against me (Forced Field Analysis, Root Cause) in reaching my desired self?
• What is happening? What are my patterns of behavior? What are my beliefs and mental models? Are they helping/not?
• What unintended results am I getting? How am I contributing to them? Where am I stuck in an old pattern? How could I look at the problem or solution in a different way? What’s missing that could make a difference?

Use of self-assessment tools or tests such as Enneagram, Conflict Management Style, Communication Style, Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Type A-B Personality, Learning Styles Inventory,  Competency Assessment Profile based on one’s Job/Role,  Positive Psychology, Customized Wheel of Life using work-life areas or job performance  or management-leadership competencies

In organizations, sources of data to know about oneself also increase awareness. These can be any of the following:

• performance feedback/appraisal data,
• 360 degree feedback from superior, peer, subordinate or customer
• Current performance/competency level vs required competency level of the job/role.
• Training needs analysis

Total Systems Approach by doing a systems map to see oneself and the total system they are a part of.

At this stage of discovering oneself, there may be areas in one’s life that one needs to unfreeze such as behaviors, beliefs that are no longer serving oneself.

3. DEVELOP ACTION PLANS

At this phase, one identifies options, activities, actions, new ways, new habits, new practices to learn, improve and reach one’s desired state. The client explores possible actions and consequences or may just choose to just go with the flow. The outcome of this phase is can be an Action Plan.

Some questions that may help are the following:

• Which path will I take to get to my desired future?
• What am I currently doing? What will I do more of, do better or differently? What will I do to learn something differently?
• What is the developmental experience?
• What will be necessary to make this a valuable learning experience? Focus on the type of information, resources and support that will be needed and their sources.
• What are the potential barriers to learning?
• How can I address these barriers?

4. ACT ON ACTION PLANS

You’ll never change a life until you change something you do daily. The secrete of your success or happiness is found in your daily routine.-  John Maxwell

Following the plan developed, the client takes action.  One may   engage in a challenging experience, experiments with innovative and new ideas.

Some helpful tips:

• Explore and take action. Change habits and try new ways of doing things, new skills, new practices, new ways of being.
• Daily visualization of the desired state and seeing oneself moving towards it.
• Practice being mindful one’s actions, feelings, thoughts, its effects on oneself and effects on others.
• See what works and what does not work. Ask yourself and others:
• How am I doing? Am I making progress?
• What am I doing well?
• What could I be doing better?

5. REFLECT

Reflection can happen during the coaching session. The coach may reflect back what one has       heard or observed.  The coach may also ask powerful questions that will make the client reflect.

The client on his/her own can practice self-reflection.  For one to learn from experiences and not repeat past mistakes, one must need to slow down and reflect both during and after each experience.  Reflection leads to insight.  Practices such as daily reflection, self-acknowledgement and gratitude can be helpful.  Begin or end the day with questions such as  What are 3 things I am grateful for? What are my blessings?

Some others questions can be:

• What happened? What work? What didn’t work? Why did it happen? What are the consequences?
• What went well? Compare results against the learning objectives and development needs or desired state.  Identify strengths and any new skills developed.
• What could have been better? Compare results against the learning objectives and development needs.  Identify any developmental needs coming from the experience?
• What is this experience teaching me? What do I need to learn from this experience?
• What are the 3 most important learnings as a result of this experience? What can be applied in the future?

6. EVALUATE

At this phase, one looks at the outcomes. Check if the outcomes met the client’s desired state. It is going back to the coaching objectives or goals.  This form of evaluation can be called “Return of Expectation”.   Return of Expectation can be testimonial stories of how the coaching process helped the client achieve their desired state.

Kirkpatrick’s 4 Levels of Evaluation (Kirkpatrick’s) may also be used. In most cases, this is often used by the organization’s Learning and Development or the Human Resources Department who want to measure the effectiveness of the coaching program.

• The Level 1 is Reaction- describes how the client felt about the coaching experience. What may be measured is Attitude, Perceptions, Opinions, Beliefs, Thoughts,   Some question to ask may be:  Did the client like and enjoy the experience? Do they find it relevant? Was it good use of their time? What did the like most/least about it? What are suggestions for improvement? Level 1 Reaction Evaluation may happen at the end of the coaching engagement or  after every session. The coach may check with the client if their objectives were met. Some may use a post-coaching session form.
• The Level 2 is Learning- Measures the increase in knowledge of the client to determine if they learned the  facts,  skills, and discoveries about oneself. This can be done thru self-reflection or through asking the client what their take away  learnings are from the session or at the end of the coaching program.
• The Level 3 is behavior- Determines the extent to which the client applied the learning and changed their behavior. Checking in on client on what changes in behavior happened and knowledge sustained.  Changes in behaviors can happen in between sessions and at the end of the whole program.  With corporate clients,  they may be get feedback from immediate superiors  if there are noticeable and measurable changes in performance of the client back on the job.  Data can be gathered through observation, feedback, interview and self-rating scale.
• The Level 4: Business Impact - Measures the effect on the business or work environment resulting from the improved performance of the client.  What is the business impact of coaching?  Measures are typically organizational key performance indicators.  Did the changes in behaviors, thoughts, feelings have an impact on the client’s performance on the job?  For example,  did the number of customer complaints about the employees drop? Did the rejection rate improve? Was attrition reduced?  Other measures can be number of promotions, comparison of before and after on performance, and productivity measures. These measures depend on what is important to the individual and corporate client.

Once the client has reached the desired state or objective, they may choose to end at this phase.  However, as evolving human beings  there may be additional learnings or a new goal which may lead the  client back to the first phase of the Desired State.

References

Hargrove, R. (1995). Masterful Coaching Extraordinary Results by Impacting People and the Way They Think and Work Together.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.
Kinsey-House, Henry, Kinsey-House, Karen, and Sandahl, Philip (2011). Co-Active Coaching Changing Business Transforming Lives (3^rd edition). Nicholas Brealey Publishing: London; Boston
McGurk, J. (2010).  Real-World Coaching A guide for Practitioners. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 151 The Broadway London SW19 1JQ. Website: cipd.co.uk
Merriam-Webster Dictionary   http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/
Sammut, K. (2014)  Transformative learning theory and coaching: Application in practice. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring. Special Issue, 8, June 2014, 39-52. http://ijebcm.brookes.ac.uk