Coaching Model: Five-Step Coaching Process

A Coaching Model Created by Raymond Lefort
(Executive Coach, CANADA)

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. -Albert Einstein

At times, as leaders, managers, or executives we often find ourselves standing at an opportunity crossroad; the excitement, uncertainty, and the challenge of selecting a path most appropriate to us can be daunting. When opportunity knocks, a professional coach can be of tremendous help to explore opportunities and help move down the path you choose.

As a professional coach, I would like to share my coaching approach to support your decision process in selecting a coach.  What follows is intended to provide you with an understanding of the structure and approach that I use during our coaching sessions.

Coaching is first and foremost about you and so you may wonder,

How do I, as your coach, work with you and what will our roles be?

Your Role

You are in the drivers’ seat and the world of opportunities is yours to explore.  Bring curiosity, an inquisitive point of view and a mind open to all the possibilities around you. You set the course and determine how to reach your goals.

My Role

First, my role is to partner with you to create an environment where trust and confidentiality comes first. This is the foundation upon which our coaching sessions are built.

My role is to partner with you to explore possibilities, explore how your values are supporting your progress, and examine what roadblocks may lie in your path through listening, questioning and fostering curiosity in our discussions. During the course of our session I will hold you accountable to your commitments to support you in achieving your goal.

Five-Step Coaching Process

This simple five-step process is aimed at determining the direction you wish to set for yourself and creating a structure to guide you as you progress towards reaching your goal.  It invites you to consider all the possibilities that are open to you. It is my belief that coaching gives you a unique chance to explore your dreams and your aspirations, and to look at your strengths as a leader. In a environment free of judgement, you can explore all the choices and possibilities that your future holds.  An open and inquisitive perspective, on both our parts, is key to a successful coaching engagement.

Assess where you are

The first step in the process is taking stock of where you are. Some of the questions we may explore together include:

1. What is bringing you satisfaction in your professional and personal life?
2. What do you want to continue or enhance in your life?  What would you like to change?
3. To reach your full potential what do you need to do? When you pause and reflect on your future, what is it you dream about? What does your future hold?

Through these questions and a number of different tools, I will partner with you to help you gain clarity of purpose.  This could include completing a life wheel exercise, examining your values and how aligned your purpose in life is right now. Visualization exercises can also be a powerful tool to allow you to imagine and see the best possible future for yourself.  These will be used selectively depending on circumstances at the time and your preferences.

Set your goal

Once you have clarity around what you would like to change, it is time to establish the goal for yourself.

1. What is your vision for a new future?
2. How can you move from your current reality to a new and more satisfying future?

See all the possibilities that your future holds. Imagine the satisfaction and pleasure as you reach your goal!

Creating a clear vision of what the future holds for you requires articulating a goal that will allow you to determine

When will I be there?

Setting a measurable, achievable, timely goal is the key here. Enthusiasm, passion and energy around your goal are elements that will help support and sustain your efforts towards achieving your goals.

In this step I will support you in reaching high, breaking through real and imagined barriers or limitations that you may be experiencing.

Create the plan and set your course of action

Through this step you will map your route to your goal.  Now that the destination is established, how will you get there?

1. What do you need to plan in order to be successful?
2. What might help you accelerate and sustain your progress?
3. How will you celebrate the wins along the way?

These are some of the questions that will be examined at this stage.  As you map out the steps that take you to your goal, examine what support and resources you will need to get there.   How will you reach your goal?  Capture and document your plan and keep it visible to help you stay focused on your end in mind.

In this step we also seek to use the momentum from your successes.  As you achieve milestones, celebrate your success!  What will you do?  What special gift to yourself might you plan?  Don’t be shy… after all you deserve it!  Build this into your plan.

Stay accountable and gauge your progress

Accountability is a key ingredient to your success. In short, this means you own the outcomes.  My role in this will be to review with you your commitments and the results you achieve.

1. How are you progressing? Are you on track?
2. What obstacles did you encounter?  How can these be overcome? What can you learn from these obstacles?
3. What did you learn about yourself?
4. Do you need to take to re-focus your energy?  Does your plan need to be adjusted?

In this step we partner to gauge progress, and sometimes, if necessary, adjust your plan based on new facts and factor these into your plan.

Celebrate!

Congratulation you’ve reached your goal! Now is the time to reflect on your journey and celebrate your success.  This is the time to ask yourself what have you learned about yourself along the way? How did you reach your destination? What are you particularly proud of in terms of your accomplishment!  How can you use the “Lessons Learned” along the way to further your growth?