Coaching for Success
Setting goals
It is important to remember that an execution strategy for the issue or problem discussed in a coaching conversation is essentially setting a goal for self-development. As such it is appropriate to ensure the goal is:
- specific enough to allow clearly defined actions to be created to achieve the goal
- reasonable to the skills and resources available
- appropriate to the context of the WIL experience
There also need to be a level of accountability and feedback in attaining the goal.
Are the goals ISMART?
The SMART framework for goal setting has been used since the 1960s (i.e. Hannaford, 1967) to enhance the effectiveness of goals. Half a century on, and not a lot has changed, other than the relatively recent addition of 'Important' to the framework (Reed, et al., 2016).
| Important: | You should identify why achieving the goal is important/relevant. |
| Specific: |
The goal needs to be described in enough detail to understand what success looks like. |
| Measurable: | You should understand what performance indicator will tell you when you’ve progressed closer towards reaching your goal. |
| Achievable: | Achieving your goal requires access to the resources and skills necessary to complete the task, so it’s important that this is factored in to your defining of the goal. |
| Realistic: | The goal should stretch your capabilities but not be impossible to achieve within the existing time, resource and capability constraints. |
| Timely: | It’s easy to put off important work to another day if you’re not going to be held accountable for your progress. Giving your goal a time limit will help to keep you focused on your goal. |
Taking Cialdini’s (2009) advice, it’s important to write down the goal(s) and action plan as 'people live up to what they write down'.
Student check point
The purpose of coaching is to help you develop skills in navigating uncertainty by allowing you to think critically about the situation you find yourself in, and finding a pathway to improve your situation. It’s easy to rush the final stages of a coaching conversation as you begin to see a pathway that will help you, but it is important that you remain patient and spend the time required to write out a well-constructed
WIL partner check point
The eFIRE model is not a linear model, so it’s important to become comfortable with the idea of shifting conversations iteratively through the different phases of the model depending on the focus and insights developing in the coaching conversation. The key to successful coaching conversations is to remain part of the conversation, and also to keep an eye on the overall picture of the conversation. That is, listen carefully to the messages and sub-text in the student’s discussion to identify appropriate questions to keep the exploration and energy going, and at the same time, keep track of how much energy has been invested into each of the phases of the eFIRE model to ensure all aspects of the eFIRE model are addressed across the duration of the conversation.