In-role Practical Activities

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Skill/Will Practical Activity
Purpose
This practical activity aims to help you apply the Skill/Will tool to address a real life
situation you have with an individual that you currently manage. It will help you identify an
appropriate coaching style to manage others.

Materials
Skill/Will Tool (see below)

Using the Skill /Will Tool

Having identified both the individual and task/issue, follow the steps below applying the
Skill / Will tool

Step 1
Reflect on the individual that you currently manage and assess where they are in the
Skill/Will tool for this particular task or issue. How do you see them? How and what do
they contribute to the team? What strengths do you think they have? How does your view
help / hinder their success?

How does this view help or block when you coach / manage them?

Be open to a different way of seeing things, practice inquiry and show your genuine
interest in the individual.

Step 2
Define your perception of the individual’s skill and will to accomplish the specific
task/issue. Is their skill level for the task (i.e. their experience, training, and
understanding) high or low? Is their will to accomplish the task (i.e. their desire to achieve,
their confidence and motivation) high or low?

Remember that it is related to the specific task and not to overall experience. You may
have a team member who you think is High Will / High Skill overall because of their past
performance, but where are they on the matrix if you give them a new task where their
capabilities may not be evident?

Step 3
Use the Skill / Will tool to identify an appropriate coaching / management style that will
best achieve results given the specific task /issue. For example, “guide” those with high
will and low skill, or “delegate” for those high in both skill and will.

Step 4
Discuss and agree your intended approach, and your reasoning, with the individual
assigned to complete the task. Balance the use of questioning and listening (Advocacy &
Inquiry) to clarify and confirm your own perceptions of their skill/will, and, if necessary,

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adapt and modify your intended style. It also helps with building the relationship as it
demonstrates your willingness to adapt your style to help their effectiveness and your
investment in their development and success.

Follow up and get feedback from the individual on the success of the agreed actions and
to establish how effective the coaching style is.

Skill/Will Tool

Low Skill High Skill

Guide
 Invest time early on to
ensure inclusion and understand
training requirements - Coach
and Train - Answer
High questions/explain
Will  Create a risk-free
environment to allow early
‘mistakes/learning’
 Monitor progress regularly
and ensure feedback and praise
 Relax control as progress is
shown
Delegate
 Provide freedom to do the
job - Set objectives, not method
- Praise, don’t ignore
 Encourage coachee to take
responsibility - Involve in
decision-making - Use ‘You tell
me what you think’
 Take appropriate risks - Give
more challenging tasks ensuring
support in place. - Don’t over-
manage

Direct Excite
 First build the will / motivation  Identify reasons for low will –
- Provide clear and concise e.g., task/management
briefings - Identify motivators style/personal factors
and de-motivators - Develop a  Motivate appropriately
vision of future performance  Monitor, feed back
 Ensure understanding of  Ensure scope for regular
Low requirements progress checks.
Will  Build the skill - Structure
tasks for ‘quick wins’
 Identify training
requirements. - coach and train
 Sustain the will - Provide
frequent feedback against
progress - Praise and nurture
 Supervise closely with tight
control and clear expectations

Low Skill High Skill

3
GROW Practical Activity
The purpose
This activity is designed to give you an opportunity to practice asking open questions in a
structured way to help an individual work through their own solutions to an identified issue
or topic. It helps you practice Inquiry, and the individual gets to practice articulating their
views through Advocacy whilst applying the GROW process to a coaching conversation.

The materials that you need

The GROW question sheet (see below)

Process
Step 1 - Identify a situation
Identify a situation with an individual where it would be beneficial for them to work through
an issue themselves, rather than you direct them or tell them what to do. This may be a
situation where they are accountable for the delivery of a piece of work on a project or are
responsible for following up on an issue raised or action from a meeting. It could be that it
is a past event or situation that may re-occur that can be handled more efficiently or
finding a way to leverage current skills and experiences.

Step 2 - Use the GROW tool

Identify an opportunity to coach applying the GROW tool with this individual. Agree the
meeting and plan how you will introduce both the goal of the meeting and GROW
approach to be used.

Step 3 – The Coaching Conversation

Have the coaching conversation and apply the GROW process using the following
structure:

Establish the Goal:

With individual, define and agree the goal to be achieved in the coaching session. Help
them define a goal that is specific, measurable and realistic. Ensure you check the validity
of the reasons behind the agreed goal and that you both have an understanding of the
Performance Gap between the present situation and the desired outcome.

In doing this, it is useful to ask questions like:

"How will you know that you have achieved that goal?"
"How will you know the problem is solved?"

Examine Current Reality:

Establish a shared understanding of the Current Reality. Ask them to describe this first
and then provide your view on the situation. Balance your use of Advocacy and Inquiry.
Do not jump to providing the solution at this step and ensure that the Goal remains valid.

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Useful coaching questions include:
"What is happening now?"
"What, who, when, how often"
"What is the effect or result of that?"

Explore the Options:

Generate as many good options as possible, and discuss these. Encourage them to offer
theirs first, and then offer your expert knowledge and help them in selecting options which
are best for them and the business.

Typical questions used to establish the options are:

"What else could you do?"
"What if this or that constraint were removed?
"What are the benefits and downsides of each option?"
"What factors will you use to weigh up the options?

Establish the Way Forward:

The above steps of the coaching conversation provides the information that enables the
individual to see how they can achieve their Goal. The next step is for you to ensure they
commits to specific action. Provide guidance and help them identify the next steps.
Ensure that you check their motivation to move the actions forward and how you are
going to support them.

Useful questions:
"So what are your next steps?
"What could stop you moving forward?"
"And how will you overcome it?"
"How will this address your goal?"
"How likely is this option to succeed?"
"What else will you do?"

Step 4 - Reflection
Ask for the individual’s feedback on the meeting. Focus on how (the) open questions
helped them, asking what worked well, what was difficult and what could be done
differently next time.

Reflect your views on what you did well, what was difficult and what you would do
differently next time.

Step 5 - Next conversation

Identify the next conversation - within a week! - where you will practice GROW again and
follow-up with the individual.

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Useful Questions when using GROW
Goal
What would you like to achieve this
session?
What do you need to know or understand?
What would you like to be different after this
session?
What would you like to happen that is not
happening now?
What would be your evidence of success?
Can we do that in the time available?
Options
What could you do to change the situation?
What alternatives are there to that
approach?
What possibilities for action do you see?
What approach / actions have you seen
used, or used yourself, in similar
circumstances?
Would you like my thoughts on the subject?
Who might be able to help?
Which options do you like the most?
Reality
What is happening at the moment?
What is your perception of the situation?
How do you know this is accurate?
What effect does this have?
What other factors are relevant?
Who else is relevant?
What is their perception of the situation?
What have you tried so far? What obstacles
would need to be overcome on the way?
What resources do you already have?
What other resources will you need?
Way Forward
What are the next steps?
Precisely when will you take them?
What might get in the way?
What personal resistance do you have, if
any, to these steps?
What support do you need?
How and when will you enlist the support?
How committed are you on a scale of 1-10
to these steps actions?
What prevents this from being a 10?
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SEED Practical Activity
Purpose
This practical activity aims to help you practice giving feedback using the SEED tool. It
will help you plan and deliver valuable and meaningful feedback.

Materials
SEED model and Behaviour Impact and Consequences (BIC) definitions

Process
Step 1
Identify an individual with whom you would like to give feedback. Write down something
they do well. Create a headings B, I and C (one line for each) and, using the guide below,
record a Behaviour, its Impact and the Consequences in relation to something you have
observed them doing recently.

B- write the actual observable, specific, behaviour

I - write the impact of that behaviour, i.e. what happened as a result of it

C- write down the consequence, why it matters (to the team, individual, organization etc)

Step 2
Imagine how you would give the feedback to this person. If you have not already shared
with your team that you plan to take more time to support their development and
performance by giving more regular feedback then find an opportunity to do this before
you launch into a ‘coachable moment’!

Identify a suitable and timely moment when you can actually give the feedback message.
Give the individual the feedback using the SEED framework with the BIC example within
it. Reflect on how you felt about doing this and what, if anything, you would do differently
next time.

Establish a routine for giving regular feedback (e.g. at a specific time in every 1:1 telecon,
client engagement, team meeting etc) to keep practicing and keep improving.