The Growth and Development

A Coaching Model By Lutfi Bafagih, Development Coach, SAUDI ARABIA

The Growth and Development Process

The coaching model is the blueprint of the growth and development process that the client can embark on with the assistance of the coach. Growth and development are a function of two things: the client’s definition of growth and development, and the resources the client is willing to invest in them. This coaching model uses the metaphor of a tree which represents a symbol of growth and development. Equally important for the tree is the care and nourishment.

The Growth and Development Coaching Model

The growth and development coaching model consist of three pillars:

The Growth and Development Vision: The client must have a clear definition of what success looks like. The client must see the end picture, believe that growth is attainable, and live the picture.

A Roadmap: The client must have a map to guide her/him through the growth and development journey, and a means for measuring the progress of the plan.

Success Behaviors and Habits: The client will learn to live success through creating the behaviors and habits necessary for growth and development

Step 1: Defining Growth and Development

The first step is to clarify the growth and development vision. The client explores the meaning of growth and development. In the tree metaphor, the fruits of a tree represent the vision. The client explores the fruits she/he desires to acquire from the vision. The vision explains in simple terms the benefits the client wants from the growth. These benefits could be physical such as income, creating a company, or winning a race. They could also be emotional or social like status, love, inner satisfaction, or living a healthy life. As the fruits of a tree, the benefits are the end results the client seeks to achieve from the growth and development process.

Many clients have dreams of growth, but they don’t define these dreams in specific measurable terms. A growth statement such as “I want to grow my career” is different from “I want to become the head of the department”. Clients who are willing to develop a specific definition for growth are more likely to invest in their growth. In his book, the four disciplines of execution, Chris McChesney talks about the significance of having goals that are actionable, rather than statements that do not guide the client forward.

Coaches should work with their clients to evoke awareness and trigger insights into the vision the client seeks to achieve. Using the coaching competencies, for example, listening and powerful questions support the client to explore the vision’s link to the client’s values for example. Insist on the client to clarify the vision. Coaches should help their clients replace vague words with actionable words. Instead of “I want to become financially independent” ask them to think of statements that can provoke their activities such as“I want to have a savings account that holds xx”. Clarity of visions promotes actions and helps clients move forward. Coaches can ask powerful questions to help clients establish this clarity:

• What values connect you to your vision?
• What does the word career growth mean to you?
• What do you foresee when you have achieved your vision?
• What barriers do you see standing in the way of achieving your vision?

Step 2: Creating a Roadmap for Growth and Development

The second step of the growth and development journey is to identify the road the client will follow to reach his/her destination. In the tree metaphor, the tree trunk represents the roadmap that carries the fruits. The client explores ideas to achieve the growth and development vision. Many clients have a vision for growth and development and are willing to invest to attain that vision, but they don’t know where to start or how to go about achieving this vision. This is where the roadmap comes in.

A roadmap consists of two fundamental elements. The first is to identify the milestones the client will pass through to grow and develop. At this stage, the client does not need to get into the details. The roadmap describes only the main stations of the journey. The second fundamental element is to have clear measures that indicate the progress towards these milestones using numbers or dates.

The role of the coach is to evoke awareness of the client’s capabilities to achieve the vision. Help the client see the long-term vision in incremental actions. The coach should use coaching competencies to evoke awareness of the time it would take to achieve the vision and the investments the client would need to put into the project. Using the coaching competencies, the coach can help the client see the resources required for achieving the vision.

• What steps can you take now to get started?
• How long do you believe it would take you to achieve your vision?
• What barriers do you anticipate when implementing your plan?
• What resources do you need for your plan?
• What measure can you put in place to indicate progress?

Step 3: Adopting the Growth and Development Behaviours and Habits

In this stage, the client gives high attention to the details and ensures that the weekly and daily activities are synchronized with the growth and development vision goals. In the tree metaphor, the roots of a tree represent the behaviors and habits that hold the client on solid ground. The client explores the behaviors and habits that support him/her to consistently achieve the vision no matter the challenges. The coach guides the client to discover the available tools for executing the roadmap with effectiveness. Among the tools are the behaviors that the client adopts.

The last step of the model is where the actual progress occurs. The coach’s role in this step is to help the client explore areas of progress and gain insights into areas that cause delay. Powerful questions and flip-it tools can be good strategies to provoke the client’s thinking to look for areas of change and identify root causes of delays. Equally important, the coach must help create the client’s awareness of the progress made to motivate and empower the client to keep on traveling towards the vision.

• What progress have you achieved in the past month?
• How does this progress compare to your pre-set measures?
• Which areas are you ahead of your plan?
• How do you feel to know that you are making progress?
• What are the causes of delay in area X?
• What can you change in direction and catch up with your plan?

Coaches and use the tree model to help clients visualize their vision. The tree metaphor is a symbol of growth. It also indicates that growth requires investment and time to florist. When clients visualize this journey of growth, they are more likely to explore options and become more patient to see the fruits of their work

References

McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. London, England: Simon & Schuster.
Clear, J. Atomic habits: An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. New York, NY: Random Penguin House.
Covey, M. R. The speed of trust: the one thing that changes everything. New York, NY: Free Press.
Duhigg, C. The power of habits: Why we do what we do in life and business. New York, NY: Random House Trade.