Corporate Contextual Coaching©
Personal Contextual Coaching©
 

Corporate Contextual Coaching©

A corporate coach sits down with an executive. Together they clarify the leader's perception of current reality (what is happening now) and vision (the desired outcome). Having identified this gap, they begin to explore possibilities for bridging the gap, for meeting those goals. They collaboratively determine action plans, identify potential obstacles, and then work together to ensure positive forward momentum.

This is what often happens, and it sounds great. However there is one key problem: they are working off the leader's perception of current reality, and the leader's best guess of what outcomes are most needed. What if these are inaccurate or limited?

We all have blind spots, for a variety of reasons. Leaders are often out of touch with how they are being perceived, and what issues are seen as most significant by others in their organization. People may not be fully honest with a leader due to his/her position. The result is often "fiddling while Rome burns," executive coaching that is tangential to more pressing concerns. The executive's blind spots become blind spots for the coaching relationship as well.

Out of this awareness came Contextual Coaching©. When desired by the client I can conduct a series of confidential interviews with key people within the organization. I can then feed back overall patterns and themes to the executive, being careful to not reveal anything that identifies any particular individuals. This provides a basis for ensuring that our coaching starts with as much clarity as possible, and thus is optimally impactful. Having built those connections, I then also have a potential source of ongoing information to assist the potency of the coaching relationship. The result is executive coaching with a CLEAR IMPACT.

This is a value added to the coaching relationship, and may not be appropriate or advisable in all situations. For example, some executives choose to keep their coaching relationship confidential. It is of course always up to the client whether to include this contextual component.
 

Personal Contextual Coaching©

While Contextual Coaching© is more common in a corporate context, it can have relevance to personal coaching as well.

When a coach meets with a coaching client, they work together to clarify the client's perception of current reality (what is happening now) and vision (the desired outcome). Having identified this gap, they begin to explore possibilities for bridging the gap, for meeting those goals. They collaboratively determine action plans, identify potential obstacles, and then work together to ensure positive forward momentum.

It is important to note, however, that they are working off the client's perceptions. What if these are inaccurate, distorted or limited? What if the client has blind spots?

In some coaching situations (but not all) it might be useful to gather information from people in the client's immediate environment (spouse, friends, family). Patterns from these confidential interviews are then fed back to the client to ensure that our coaching starts with as much clarity as possible, and thus is optimally impactful. The result is coaching with a Clear Impact.