Coaching for Success With Passion Coaching

Passion Coaching is perhaps the most effective method of increasing performance available, because passion is the best fuel for a high performing life! This article defines coaching and outlines a process for effective passion coaching

Passion Coaching Defined

Passion is inspiration, will to act and complete satisfaction all in one.

If you wish to improve your  life, your performance and happines, passion coaching is the way to go. If you don’t know what your passion is you have to digg deep into yourself to find it. But it is worth it!

Passion Coaching is designed to help you do just that!

The coaching is all about asking you the right questions to unlock your hidden desires and passion. You probably forgot all about them, but a part of you still remembers!

Passion Coaching Principals

1. There are two primary goals to coaching:

• To improve performance.

• To give the ability to self-assess.

2. It is important that the coaching sessions follow a predictable process. This will help the coachees feel more comfortable and relaxed, which will help to ensure they actively participate in these sessions. It is for this reason that we suggest that coachees get familiar with the process prior to the first session.

3. Coaching is a planned development process and should not be a surprise.

4. The way you open the conversation sets the tone for what will follow.

5. After we open the conversation using our initial probe, we discuss positives first and areas for improvement last. Beginning with positives first is motivational and accomplishes the following:

• The goal is to have coachee find the hidden passions. If s/he is not in a positive frame of mind, they will not be open to this process.

• Reinforces good behavior and ease into the coaching session.

• Builds self-esteem and awareness.

6. Ending the coaching session with a discussion of areas for development ensures that they are focusing on those areas.

7. Always give the coachee a chance to self-assess before you offer your insights. Encouraging self-assessment is positive for several reasons:

• It encourages improvement even when you are not coaching.

• It allows you to determine why the coachee may not be performing as desired; they may not know that they’re doing something incorrectly.

• It builds self-esteem.

• It increases the chances that behavior will change.

8. Reinforce correct self-assessment.

9. Defer or redirect inappropriate or incorrect self-assessment.

10. We focus passion coaching on how to implement passion in all areas of life.

• Increases the coachee’s ability to reach proficiency.

• Focuses on the most important issues.

• Other issues can be addressed after some progress has been made on the most important issues first.

Passion Coaching at Work

Let’s see how it woorks in practice.

Step 1: Open the Conversation

Always open the conversation with a general question; this helps the coach get a sense for the accuracy of the coachee’s self-assessment. If the coachee responds with, “that was the best call ever” and you thought that the call was poor, you know that you’ll have to adjust your coaching conversation.

Step 2: Probe for What Went Well

The coach asks the coachee what went particularly well and listens for the responses. By identifying what went well first, a positive tone for the coaching session is set. We want to make sure that the coachee continues doing these things. This also forces the coachee — NOT THE COACH — to identify superior performance.

Step 2a: Redirect or Defer

Sometimes the coachee will bring up a negative when you’re discussing positives. You will want to defer that discussion until later in the coaching conversation by saying, “I’d like to talk about that more later. What else went particularly well?”

Other times, the coachee will claim something as a positive that — in your opinion — was an area that needs development. You will want to redirect their perception by pointing out what you saw that helped you conclude that it was less than desirable. “Oh, really? Did you happen to see John’s face when you discussed the product’s features? That’s right, he seemed to lose interest when you started talking about us rather than about him….”

Step 2b: Support and Build

When the coachee correctly assesses his performance — both strengths and areas for development — support the assessment by saying, “I agree.” Build from their conclusions to reinforce the accuracy of their self-assessment. In this way, you are reinforcing one of the most valuable skills anyone can acquire: the ability to assess and improve their own performance.

Step 3: Probe for Areas for Development

The third step is to ask the coachee what he would change if he could do it again. Obviously, if the coachee knows what could be improved and knows how to improve it, he won’t benefit from YOU telling him! And by mentally rehearsing what he will do differently, the likelihood of him actually carrying out the improvement is increased.

Most experts agree that two or three areas for development are enough for anyone to work on. Working on a laundry list of things to change is frustrating and futile. Focus on the areas of greatest need.

When finding areas for development, the coachee may not have identified the one that you thought was most important. Again, you can redirect their perception by identifying what you saw that they might not have that allowed you to come to your conclusion.

Step 4: Summarize and Support

Even though you may have limited the coaching to a few strengths and a couple areas for development, you will want to briefly summarize the discussion, especially what the coachee will do differently the next time. This recap will cause the most important things to remain fresh in memory. You will also want to support the changes by saying something like, “I think those changes willcreate more passion in your life.”

Also remember to give great feedback during session!