ED124 Developing & Supporting others

Student: Anh Quynh Nguyen (ID: 22425373)

PERSONAL REFLECTION ON COACHING AND MENTORING THEORIES

-------------------------------

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to reflect my coaching experience at my school, which links to
studied coaching and mentoring theories. The reflection will follow Gibb’s reflection process
(1988), which starts with providing a description of the background information and feelings
of those who were involved. Next, I will outline the coaching session that I had, then
evaluating the strengths and weaknesses, and analysing how it should be adjusted from a
coachee’s perspectives. The last part would be giving my final thoughts about the coaching
model and how I will conduct my own coaching sessions in the future.

Background information of the coaching session

A year ago, my school was applying for an internationally recognised accreditation in the
USA, where one of their criteria is to “continuously improve”. In the journey of continuous
improvement, staff and teachers’ self-development play a central role, as the principal
announced. With that mindset, a development plan was carried out for all staff and teachers
of the school, especially for those who are in the challenging phase for a promotion.

At that time, I was in the challenging phase to become the principal assistant, and instead of
hosting a training series for me, the principal himself asked me a list of questions to give
orientation and guidance. Although he didn’t explicitly say that the session was structured
based on the GROW coaching model of John Whitmore, and it didn’t necessarily follow the
Goals – Reality – Options – Will order all the time, I believe that this model can best describe
the coaching session. I also think that he employed and mixed multiple approaches, which I
will explain along with the GROW model.

1
 Feelings before the coaching session

Having graduated from an economics university, I didn’t have much expertise on education.
However, it turned out to be a good thing for me, as I was always motivated to learn as
much as possible from my colleagues and my superiors as to “compensate” for the missing
expertise I didn’t get to learn before. Being promoted to be a principal assistant came as a
surprise for me, I was absolutely overwhelmed with the task descriptions and responded to
the principal that I wasn’t sure if I could manage to complete all those responsibilities.
Although I was encouraged verbally, I still wasn’t ready to do it at all and it was a really tough
start for me.

The coaching session and evaluation

As I briefly outlined the coaching session, I would focus more on how I felt during each stage
and what I liked or did not like about it.

Stage 1: Goals

Before asking about or setting out my goals straightaway, the principal asked me some
questions about my educational background and specifically why I made the decision to
switch jobs from the economics to education field, which was quite comfortable to talk
about. Upon reflection, I think that he purposefully wanted me to talk about what I’m really
proud of, the motivation for my change of career, so I’d have grounds to believe that I can
do the job.

Next, I was asked about what I expected a principal assistant should accomplish regarding
different aspects of school leadership and management. The principal always encouraged
me to think from my personal perspectives and not from the given task description, so I had
to combine with my own understanding and individual target to set out my goals, which
include managing a team of under 10 people, assist the principal in the accreditation process
since he doesn’t speak English, and become his “eyes and ears” at school so I can report
issues and propose solutions to the Board of Management.

2
For this part, we discussed the OKRs model, which comprises of setting out strategic
Objectives and the according Key Results.

Stage 2: Reality

Next, we discussed about my strengths and weaknesses, then defined which of my strengths
might help me during the work and what difficulties might occur during the work. Since I
didn’t have much experience, it was quite vague for me to identify possible obstacles, so the
principal had to give out different scenarios and shared his experiences so I could imagine
what sorts of problems might arise. However, this part went by quite briefly and it was still
ambiguous for me regarding how far I was from the goals.

Stage 3: Options

One of the first step in achieving the goals is to set out precise objectives and key results
(OKRs). While deciding on the key results, I knew how I could measure my performance and
develop an outcome-based action plan accordingly. This is the most interesting part for me
as I learnt about the importance of a good back-up plan.

Stage 4: Will

Finally, we decided on the most recent weekly OKRs with detailed planning. What I liked
most about this part was that he not only asked me to commit to a plan, but he also involved
himself in my career development journey and committed to it as well.

Over the coaching session, the way he asked one single question at a time was really
inspiring and quietly powerful. I had to contemplate a lot during the session but he patiently
guided me through it.

Analysis of the coaching approach

Before the coaching, I appreciate the fact that coaching programs at my school really focus
on teachers as continuous learners, and only when they develop their full potential can they
help improve students’ outcomes. This feature was mentioned as one of seven key themes
for successful coaching programs (Hay Group, 2013). Most sessions of the coaching program
aim at encouraging the coachees to understand their positions and values in a broader
3
context, and how their contributions are meaningful and impactful to everyone around
them. The school leaders do not expect teachers to make tremendous improvements
overnight, rather, they try to integrate teachers in a long-term process of change. This
reminds me of the transformational leadership styles, defined as “a process that changes
and transforms people, the focus is on long-term goals, which in turn will improve
organizational practices” (Northouse, 2010).

Many people argue that the GROW model is too ideal and asking questions only will not
solve all the problems. During the coaching session, I realised that some of the questions
asked were too vague and general. Sometimes I felt like I was being asked leading questions,
which contained a hint or was trying to get me to a desired answer. This might suggest a
potential problem with GROW model, that is the questionning skills of the coach might
adversely affect the effectiveness of the model’s implementation. Even if the coach prepares
a list of questions before the session, the process of asking the same questions to different
people will not be an optimal option since the prepared questions will be impersonal and
might be irrelevant to certain cases. On the other hand, asking spontaneous follow-up
questions from the previous answer will make the conversation more meaningful but it
requires the coaches to be experts in the art of coaching (Hay Group, 2013).

As I learnt more coaching theories, I believe that the Personnel Decisions International (PDI)
development pipeline was also employed. The “pipeline” consists of insight, motivation,
capabilities, real-world possibilities and accountability (Olsen, 2010). The most noticeable
difference between PDI and GROW model would be PDI’s focus on ‘capabilities’ and
‘accountability’. My coaching session started off with the question about my educational
background, which then referred to my capabilities of accomplishing the job. The second
stage ‘Reality’ also emphasized and analysed my areas of strengths and how they would help
me reach my goals. At the end of the coaching session, the principal made himself a partner
in my process of change, where he also shared certain degree of accountability. Since my
first problem was about self-belief, his action of sharing responsibility was a massive
encouragement to me and boosted my confidence and motivation to take opportunities.

4
 Conclusion and action plan

The GROW model is a proven coaching tool that is being conducted by many organisations
and especially in the education sector and it has become the root for many other
approaches (Mukherjee, 2014). Overall, despite certain shortcomings of the goal-driven
GROW model, I believe that during my coaching session, they were mitigated to some
extents with the help of PDI development pipeline and the focus on bringing out the
coachee’s current and future capabilities.

In addition, setting out concrete, short-term goals with clear, manageable key results that
are based on shared common values also helps forging a stronger connection between the
leader and the staff, and according to Bachkirova, Clutterbuck and Cox (2014), this step “is of
critical importance”. If I were a coach, I would place more stress on the link between
individual goals and the organizational goals so that they are more aligned towards a shared
values.

Last but not least, since self-development is more of a process of change, which cannot take
place overnight with a one-off conversation, designing a series of consistent coaching
sessions is a must. It would even be better if the coachees are involved in this designing
stage (Hay group, 2013), so they always feel like a part of the community and develop more
trust in the coaching program.

5
REFERENCES

1. Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to a teaching and learning methods.

Oxford, Polytechnic: Further Education Unit.
2. Whitmore, J. (2009). Coaching for performance. 4th ed.
3. Parsloe, E. and Leedham, M. (2009). Coaching and mentoring : practical methods to
improve learning. 2nd ed. Kogan Page, pp.19-20.
4. Hay Group. (2013). Coaching environmental scan – Summary of selected literature,
models and current practies, p4-6.
5. Olsen, L. (2010). Edge Leadership: Using Senior Leadership Perceptions to Explore
Organizational Turnarounds, p.64.
Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228544204_Edge_Leadership_Using_Senio
r_Leadership_Perceptions_to_Explore_Organizational_Turnarounds
[Accessed: 10-11.08.2022].
6. Mukherjee, S. (2014). Corporate coaching: The essential guide. SAGE Publications.
7. Bachkirova, T., Clutterbuck, D.A., Cox, E. (2014). The complete handbook of coaching,
p.10. SAGE publications.
8. Northouse, P.G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice, 5th ed. SAGE publications.