Coaching Model: F-L-O-W

A Coaching Model Created by Petra Mayer-Dietrich
(Leadership Coach & Career Coach, SWITZERLAND)

Introduction

It is easier to steer a moving ship than one sitting in the docks.

This quote has resonated with me in many different ways throughout my personal and professional life. It is now the basis of my Coaching Model F-L-O-W.

Being in motion, knowing what are the key drivers to move forward can be an incredible source of energy. Can you think of a situation where you have been captured by something and this positive energy made you do things you didn’t think were possible? Coaching for me means mobilizing this energy to pursue what really matters to you and gives you that drive. To focus on the forward motion. Using the flow.

It wasn’t as if I got up one morning and had the realization of wanting to be a coach and talk about the F-L-O-W. I started to realize that something was missing when I no longer had it. In many stages of my professional career, I was experiencing an environment with talent and mentoring programs in place as well as an empowerment culture that allowed you to thrive for the bigger, more challenging jobs.

Today I am providing coaching service to professionals to support them to get the ship out of the docks and to steer it. In my Coaching Model, I use several tools depending on what suits the client. My favorite tool is StrengthsFinder to identify and work with the client’s natural strengths.

The Coaching Model F-L-O-W

The Wikipedia definition of the verb ´flow´ is the following.

• move steadily and continuously in a current or stream
• go from one place to another in a steady stream

The word flow describes the action or the fact that we are moving in a steady, continuous stream. In my coaching model, I work with the client to identify his/her personal flow. Not to be mistaken by the saying “going with the flow”. ‘Following others’ could be just one of the options which the client chooses to pursue and which provides positive energy for the client to move forward.

My coaching model focuses on the aspects that we have options and to learn to steer in the continuous stream according to what matters to the client. 

Besides the general meaning of FLOW, the Coaching Model F-L-O-W is the sum of four components. Each component represents a stand-alone module, at a minimum taking one dedicated Coaching Session (60-90min) each.

The F-L-O-W Coaching Model

F	Fluent	Create awareness and the ability to express what is important.
L	Lead	Deepen understanding and gaining momentum.
O	Own	Explore and discover ownership.
W	Withstand	Build sustainability in today’s VUCA[1] world.

Module 1: Fluent “Create awareness and ability to express what is important”

Specifically, while being in school, we often hear our parents saying “you need to get fluent in this…”. We are constantly reminded of how important it is to mastering certain study fields such as language, history, natural science, etc. Later in the career, we continue to look at mastering the work we are asked to do or the businesses we run. We stay fluent or in other words literate in our main field. Do we also stay fluent in our values, what motivates us, what fulfillment means?

In the first module, the focus is on creating awareness of our values, motivators, and strengths. We will do an analysis of how those fit into what we do on a day-to-day basis. The objective of this first module is to raise the self-awareness of the client and for the client to be clear and more ‘fluent’ on his/her own personal situation.

One of my favorite tools in this process is the use of the StrengthsFinder, yet depending on the client, other tools like the DISC or Wheel of Life can be useful. In other instances, purely active listening and the use of powerful questions work will take the coaching session forward.

There is no defined process on what works and what doesn’t. It is staying connected and in the flow to what is important for the coachee. 

Module 2: Lead – “Deepen the understanding and gaining momentum”

“Managers do things right, Leaders do the right things”. This module is building onto what has being accomplished in module 1. The focus lies on understanding what is giving the client fulfillment. Taking the example of the ship, the client may be about to leave the harbor or is already going. It doesn’t matter where the coachee is, in this module it is about defining or validating what matters to the coachee and what is required to move forward.

If not done already, having finished this module is a great opportunity for the coachee to celebrate what has been accomplished so far!

Module 3: Own – “Explore and discover ownership”

In this module the focus is to ensure the actions defined in the previous module actually can be accomplished and whether the actions are truly coming from ‘inside’ the client. “Only if a commitment to change comes from “inside” the person, there is an increase in the likelihood that clients will achieve their goals” (Goldsmith).

Discovering what the client owns and can directly influence is a critical part of ensuring actions can and will happen. Once this ownership and ‘circle of influence’(Cohen, 1989)is acknowledged and accepted, the client is also able to hold her-/himself accountable and actively taking charge of the life.

The coachee at this stage is likely to have already started to apply some of the actions defined and will benefit from reflecting on the experience. This is also the time to identify (or validate) support structures for the client to facilitate the success of the defined actions.

Module 4: Withstand – “Build sustainability in today’s VUCA world”

In today’s VUCA world where short-term tasks and deliverables matter, we are constantly challenged to stay true to our beliefs. It takes continuous reflection and practice to deal with that. This module focuses on techniques on how to cement the awareness, understanding, accountability and other learnings from the previous modules.

“Knowledge is not enough. If reading a book was all we had to do to achieve our full potential, then we would all be there. Part of the problem with just reading and understanding the information is that we do not have the embodied experience of the theory”(Palmer & Crawford, 2013, p. 15).

A study on “how long it actually takes to form a habit” (Lally, 2009) showed that it can take anywhere from two months to eight months to build a new behavior into your life.” The study also found that “missing one opportunity to perform the behavior did not materially affect the habit formation process.” In other words, it doesn’t matter if you mess up every now and then. Building better habits is not an all-or-nothing process.

That´s some good news, isn’t it?

Application of my coaching Model F-L-O-W

The Model F-L-O-W is defined to suit individual as well as in group coaching sessions.

Each model has defined tools that can be applied to the client’s needs. Depending on where the client’s focus is, a model can be worked through in one coaching session, or several coaching sessions can be invested to deepen a module´s objective. There is also flexibility in the sequence of the modules. If it supports the client, the coach and coachee can always return to a previous module and adapt the outcome reached before.

_[1]Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity