Coaching for Success

When to use coaching

Coaching is not the most appropriate form of interaction at all times. For example, consistent with the advice of Hersey and Blanchard’s enduring Situational Leadership Theory (1977), in the context of a student completing a technical process for the first time, it would be most appropriate for a WIL partner to engage the student through training to provide clear directive instructions for completing the process. However, as the student begins demonstrating self-directed behaviour in completing the process, it would be more appropriate for the WIL partner to shift to a coaching model for managing the student. Understanding the limitations and strengths of coaching is an important balance to the practicality of implementing coaching conversations into your WIL partnerships.

So, what does a coaching conversation look like?

Every type of WIL partnership is slightly different - be it students taking an internship or placement in a WIL partner’s organisation, through to a team-based project where the WIL partner provides a problem for students to solve, or more passive forms of WIL where partners support students’ learning of particular processes or activities in the classroom (and more). It is important to identify moments that coaching make sense for your interactions with students, and times when it might be more pragmatic to take a different approach.

 Scenario: How do you respond?

The following interactive activity places you in the middle of a WIL scenario, where you must choose between giving directive advice or coaching. At the end of the scenario you will be provided feedback on the approach you’ve taken. Feel free to run through the scenario as many times as you like to see how the different decisions you make lead to different outcomes.

ScenarioHow do you respond?

The following scenario is a ‘branching’ scenario which means that the feedback after each response is tailored to the choice you have made. The summary feedback at the end explains where you chose to implement coaching techniques over other methods.

You have recently taken on a student as part of a Work Integrated Learning placement agreement with your local university. The student is competent in the tasks you've assigned them so far, and you're beginning to feel confident in their abilities to take on more responsibilities.

In the two weeks they've been on placement, you've shown the student how to complete the administrative tasks associated with their role, and this morning, you gave them a brand new task.

As you try to encourage your WIL-placement students to think for themselves, you left the student to complete the task largely unsupervised - trusting that if there is any difficulty you can step in to provide support.

The student knocks on your door and asks for a minute of your time. You invite them in to take a seat, and are surprised that the their normally open and confident demeanour is now closed and shy.

You ask, “is there something I can help you with?” The student looks worried. “I know you’ve told me so many times how to make the admin system work, and I’ve been good at it all last week, but with this new task this morning I just can’t figure out where to start. I feel like I’ve wasted the most of this morning on trying to figure it out, and I’m letting your team down.”

You pause for a moment in consideration before you respond. Should you:

It is typically efficient in the short-term to show someone how to do something and provide hands-on support when they are completely new to a process (consistent with Path-Goal Theory of Leadership). This is pragmatic when short-term performance outcomes are a core consideration for your actions. However, in the context of learning, helping the student to navigate their way through the problem is far more powerful and empowering than providing the answer up front.

It is typically efficient in the short-term to show someone how to do something and provide hands-on support when they are completely new to a process (consistent with Path-Goal Theory of Leadership). This is pragmatic when short-term performance outcomes are a core consideration for your actions. However, in the context of learning, helping the student to navigate their way through the problem is far more powerful and empowering than providing the answer up-front.

The student walks with you back to their workstation and explains, “I’ve tried over and over and can’t make it work. Can you please show me?”

What should you do?

This course of action is efficient, but doesn’t help you as a supervisor understand the thought processes underpinning the student’s actions. It is important to provide feedback on the student’s approach to understanding the situation and its resolution. This feedback helps to build greater confidence in the reliability of your training to produce improved behaviours and outcomes within the student’s assigned role.

It is important to provide feedback on the student’s approach to understanding the situation and its resolution. This feedback helps to build greater confidence in the reliability of your training to produce improved behaviours and outcomes within the student’s assigned role. Asking for these sorts of explanations also allows the student to frame the problem in their own mind and shift from an emotional focus (i.e. frustrated or embarrassed) to a rational focus (i.e. process or factual).

The student gives you a step-by-step description of the process they have taken to complete the task and the error messages they see when trying to work with the administration system.

You identify that something about the process doesn’t sound right to you.

Which approach should you use to unpack the problem further?

Keeping conversations on track is an important skill to develop. While the student provided good insight to their process, they hadn’t provided detail of their thought process for unpacking the task in the first place. This question keeps your conversation neutral (you’re not leading towards an obvious answer) while also providing space for reflection and critical thinking about the task.

Providing some background to explain your thinking for what’s going wrong provides clear feedback to the student while hinting at what you think the problem might be (and in turn, a likely solution). This is a good approach for mentoring or training conversations, but for coaching is a little too leading. Allowing the student to explore the issues a little deeper first would provide a more complete learning experience in this instance.

You demonstrate the correct workflow explaining your thought process at each step. You are confident that the student has kept up with you.

You point to the next task on the student’s priority list for today and ask if the student is confident in completing it while you work through some emails in your office.

The student is a little hesitant, and asks you to show the first couple of steps to help them get started.

What do you tell the student?

Having the student demonstrate they understood your instruction is quick and effective. By showing the student the first steps you’ve provided them with confidence in seeing your workflow in action, but it is also difficult to understand if they are seeing the same things in the workflow that you see. Any work that requires judgement or interpretation is prone to subjective thinking and perceptual errors, so it is important to also hear how the student understands the task to ensure you both have a shared understanding of the situation and required workflow.

Any work that requires judgement or interpretation is prone to subjective thinking and perceptual errors, so it is important to also hear how the student understands the task to ensure you both have a shared understanding of the situation and required workflow. Having the student explain their thought process to you before you leave them to complete the remainder of the task is important for developing your confidence and the confidence of the student in completing the task successfully.

You listen to the student explain their thinking about how this new task compares to the previous task.

You quickly realise that the student understands what the correct outcome for the task should be, and that it’s just a rudimentary error for classifying the task correctly in the administration system that’s stopping the student from progressing through the task.

Which approach should you take to help the student learn from this experience and complete the task?

Any work that requires judgement or interpretation is prone to subjective thinking and perceptual errors, so it is important to also hear how the student understands the task to ensure you both have a shared understanding of the situation and required workflow. Having the student explain their thought process to you before you leave them to complete the remainder of the task is important for developing your confidence and the confidence of the student in completing the task successfully.

By showing the student the first steps, you’ve provided them with confidence in seeing your workflow in action once again, but it is also difficult to understand if they are seeing the same things in the workflow that you see. Any work that requires judgement or interpretation is prone to subjective thinking and perceptual errors, so it is important to also hear how the student understands the task to ensure you both have a shared understanding of the situation and required workflow.

The student discusses the attributes of the task that make it substantially different to the tasks undertaken previously, and how this has shaped their approach to processing the task within your organisation’s administration system.

In doing so, the student pauses on multiple occasions as you see sparks of insight emerge from the student’s discussions and reflections.

After a few moments of silence, the student's body language shifts to a more confident pose. The student asks you, “I’m classifying the task under the wrong heading in the system, aren’t I?”

What do you tell the student?

By withholding feedback for a potentially correct answer, you allow the student to remain in a state of uncertainty but provide enough encouragement to boost their motivation into returning to the task and working through it on their own. The approach you’ve taken provides a rich and powerful learning experience that demonstrates you place value on learning and exploration, and that uncertainty is a challenge to be tolerated and overcome in everyday work environments. Should the student remain unable to complete the task on their own, a more directive approach may be warranted.

By showing the student the first steps, you’ve provided yourself and the student with confidence in seeing the workflow in action, and removed any remaining uncertainty about the task at hand. Providing direct validation to the student’s critical thinking is useful for affirming desired outcomes, and on balance is a good middle-ground between providing a valuable learning experience and maintaining efficient outcomes in the organisation.

After a few moments of silent thought, the student asks with some hesitation, “am I classifying the task under the wrong heading in the system?”

What do you tell the student?

By withholding feedback for a potentially correct answer, you allow the student to remain in a state of uncertainty but provide enough encouragement to boost their motivation into returning to the task and working through it on their own. The approach you’ve taken provides an important learning experience that demonstrates you place value on learning and exploration, and that uncertainty is a challenge to be tolerated and overcome in everyday work environments. Should the student remain unable to complete the task on their own, a more directive approach may be warranted.

By showing the student the first steps, you’ve provided yourself and the student with confidence in seeing the workflow in action, and removed any remaining uncertainty. Providing direct validation to the student’s critical thinking is useful for affirming desired outcomes, and maintains efficient outcomes in the organisation.

Your responses to the student suggest you are highly aware of the need for efficient work processes, and the approach you’ve taken resolves the issue quickly. The speed in resolving the issue, however, comes at the cost of helping the student to build confidence in navigating uncertain situations. Accordingly, it’s likely you'll see the student again the next time they are unsure of how to tackle a new task, rather than seeing them persevere on their own.

Try the scenario again to explore other techniques for helping this student.

Your answers suggest you are highly aware of the need for efficient work processes, and the approach you’ve taken resolves the issue quickly. The final question indicates you’ve recognised the learning opportunity for the student to learn how to ask the right questions to solve this sort of problem. While there were more opportunities available to help the student build confidence in navigating uncertain situations, it’s likely the student will persevere a little more next time they are unsure of how to tackle a new task, before coming to see you for advice if they are unable to find a solution.

Try the scenario again to explore other techniques for helping this student.

Well done. Your response to the first decision point shows that you sometimes prefer to support the student by providing direct feedback and instruction. In the latter stages of the scenario you accurately apply coaching questions to help the student work towards a workable solution - this helps the student build confidence in navigating uncertain situations. It’s likely the student will persevere more the next time they are unsure of how to tackle a new task, before coming to see you for advice if they are unable to find a solution.

Try the scenario again to explore other techniques for helping this student.

The choices you made at the first and last decision points in this scenario show that you prefer to support the student by providing direct feedback and instruction. While there were more opportunities available to help the student build confidence in navigating uncertain situations using coaching questions, it's likely the student will persevere a little more next time they are unsure of how to tackle a new task, before coming to see you for advice if they are unable to find a solution.

Try the scenario again to explore other techniques for helping this student.

Great! You’ve consistently applied coaching questions to help the student navigate through uncertainty to find a solution that should work for them. In all likelihood the student will persevere with difficult work tasks more next time, before they come knocking on your office door for help.

Well done. You’ve mostly applied coaching questions to help the student navigate through uncertainty to find a solution that should work for them. Your final answer provided more direction than a coaching approach would expect, however this could easily be a good middle-ground between providing a valuable learning experience and ensuring efficient use of your time in the workplace. It’s likely the student will persevere with difficult work tasks more next time, before they ask you for help.

Try the scenario again to explore other techniques for helping this student.

Well done. You’ve mostly applied coaching questions to help the student navigate through uncertainty to find a solution that should work for them. Your response at the second decision point provided more direction than a coaching approach would expect, however this could easily be a good middle-ground between providing a valuable learning experience and ensuring efficient use of your time in the workplace. It’s likely the student will persevere with difficult work tasks more next time, before they seek help.

Try the scenario again to explore other techniques for helping this student.

Your response to the first decision indicates you’ve recognised the learning opportunity for the student to learn how to ask the right questions to solve this sort of problem. Your choices in the final decision points of the scenario suggest you’re highly aware of the need for efficient work processes, and the approach you’ve taken resolves the issue quickly. While there were more opportunities available to help the student build confidence in navigating uncertain situations, it’s likely the student will persevere a little more next time they are unsure of how to tackle a new task, before coming to see you for advice if they’re unable to find a solution.

Try the scenario again to explore other techniques for helping this student.