Today's Coach | Subscribe | Unsubscribe | 22,726 subscribers | published by coachville.com | past issues

Monday, March 4, 2002

• Free intro classes monthly (2 hours per month)
• New fee-based class bi-monthly (8 hours per month)
• Graduates from class join coaching team (8 hours per month)
• New coaching team formed when existing team full (8 hours per month per team)
• Individual coaching for clients who are not interested in the class, for class participants not interested in coaching team, or coaching team participants as needed

• Everyone coaches; participants love this. Coaching skills are effective relationship, leadership, and life skills, and we teach our participants how to listen, ask questions, reserve judgment, hold each other accountable, and most other coaching skills you can imagine. It is magic when the Team starts functioning smoothly, with the coach fading out as the leader/teacher and becoming more of a facilitator. Learning how to give support is equally valuable to participants as receiving support from the Team. Some coaches worry about working themselves out of a job- not a problem! Participants of a coaching team become a tight family and remain very loyal. If anything, retention seems to be increased.
  
  
• Support goes beyond the meeting; participants don't just interact during meeting times, the mark of a good Coaching Team is when members show up for each other outside of the Team meeting. The coach can facilitate this when a participant expresses a need or challenge by asking them what support they need, and facilitating the support coming from the team. For example, if a participant is nervous about a job interview, and when asked indicates that being able to practice with someone would be helpful, the facilitator will prompt him or her to make a request to the team and make sure the team finds a way to meet the request.

• The Whip – Each chooses a number, which is representative of their subjective units of need on a scale from 1 to 5 (the higher the number, the higher the need for support or air time), and an adjective or two describing their feelings, mood, or attitude in the room. The highest numbers check in first. (5 minutes total)
• Check-in - Each member checks in with the group about their activities, successes, failures, frustrations, and progress toward meeting their goals. (approx. 5 minutes per person)
• At the end of each report (or check-in), the team:
  -Asks questions
  -Provides feedback
  -Celebrates, acknowledges
  -Invites reporter to request support from the team
  (approx. 10 minutes per person)

• Confidentiality - privacy of team members is absolute, and participants agree not to share details of each others life outside the team meeting, especially in a manner that might identify the source. Discussion about other team members confined to team meetings
• Emotional Safety - all emotions and judgments must be owned; respect and compassion are expected and practiced
• Listening - participants agree and are coached to be fully present and listen with full attention and focus on the speaker
• Attitude - participants agree to bring a positive attitude to the group
• Group Focus - on future goals, problem solving, personal growth
• Support - participants agree to be supportive and supportable
• Everyone is a coach - participants learn to ask powerful questions, mirror, etc
• Confrontation - ask permission first, and remind receiver of the positive intent
• Storytelling - is kept to a minimum as time is precious
• Flexibility - Team is flexible and responsive to needs of team members
• Dating - no dating of team members
• Timeliness - meetings start and end on time
• Attendance - regular, timely attendance is required
• Commitment - initial 3 month commitment is required, followed by a minimum one month’s notice of termination to the team.
• Expulsion - team or coach may expel a member at any time for violation of these guidelines.
• Payment -due in advance on the 1st of every month.