Self-Coaching: What is it?... and Does it Work?!

Typically, people consider coaching as a way to catalyze some type of change: change in career, change in behavior, change in business results and change in life satisfaction. Most often, coaching interventions involve employing an individual who serves as a coach to help facilitate that change, but what would it look like if individuals could coach themselves? More importantly, is it really possible for self-coaching to effect positive change?!

A self-coaching solution. That's what researchers (Kmiec, et. al., 2012) set out to discover in a recent self-coaching program with managers of a plastics manufacturing organization. Utilizing a quasi-experimental design, two groups of managers were formed: a control group, which received no self-coaching intervention; and an experimental group, which received the self-coaching intervention. The self-coaching intervention included: Five self-coaching skills that were taught to managers during a 90-day learning program, combining classroom and online instruction, on-the-job skills practice, journaling and peer interaction to learn, apply and develop a regular habit of employing self-coaching behaviors.

Did it work? The results showed that self-coaching did indeed affect positive change. Not only did the employees of the managers in the experimental group have significantly higher work engagement scores than the employees of the managers in the control group after the intervention, but the experimental group also saw an improvement in productivity that resulted in a 399% return-on-investment. In other words, for every dollar invested in the self-coaching program, the invested dollar was returned and another $3.99 was generated.

In this study, self-coaching worked! The data suggest that the managers practicing self-coaching created a more motivational work environment leading to increased work engagement and productivity in their line employees.

You can read more about the study in: Measuring the Success of Coaching: A Step-by-Step Guide for Measuring Impact and Calculating ROI (ASTD, 2012).
_____________________

1. Kmiec, J., S. Dugas, C. Gaudet, H. Annulis, M. N. McNeese, and S. Bush. (2012). Self-Coaching as a Catalyst for Work Engagement and a Positive ROI. In Measuring the Success of Coaching: A Step-by-Step Guide for Measuring Impact and Calculating ROI. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press: pp. 131-162.

Lisa Ann Edwards

Lisa Ann Edwards, M.S., is a partner of Bloom Coaching Institute, an organization that advances coaching effectiveness through research, tools, training and consultation on ROI of Coaching. Lisa's coaching work has demonstrated as much as a 251% return-on-investment and has been shown to lift employee engagement nearly 20%. As head of Talent Management for Corbis, a Bill Gates' privately owned global media company, Lisa was responsible for designing and implementing effective talent development solutions including leadership development and coaching programs. Lisa is a frequent contributing author to trade publications and has authored or contributed to many books including: Measuring the Success of Coaching: A Step-by-Step Guide to Measuring Impact and Calculating ROI (ASTD Press, 2012). Contact Lisa at: Lisa@BloomCoachingInstitute.com.

May Coaching World now available!

This issue’s columns include features with:

Leadership: John Whittington (Seeing Client Relationships as Constellations); Lisa Edwards (How to Start Reporting ROI);
Marketing: Josie Thompson (Marketing from the Heart); Jean DiGiovanna (Creating Successful Workshops and Webinars);
Profiles: How do you determine ROI? (Global Views: Coaches Q&A); José Augusto; Bringing Coaching to the Nonprofit World;
Research: Internal vs. External Coaches (2012 ICF Global Coaching Study);
Benefits: Coaching Through Change (A Case Study on Cape Town, South Africa’s Provincial DLGH); and Ten Ways to a Greater ROI on Professional Coaching (Bill Burtch).

Take a look!

Be courageous: change your story

You can picture it.

You're sitting at a family gathering, maybe dinner or a barbeque...

And he starts telling that same old story.

You know, the one you've heard a million times and know every single word.

There's one in every family, it's that person who tells the same old stories. It probably drives you crazy. You probably think twice about inviting him. But you do and you listen to the stories again and again.

Well, I started asking myself. Why is he stuck in his story? How is it serving him? And if it's a terrible story, why does he keep telling it?

People do get stuck in their stories, but they are always serving some purpose. And it's really worth figuring out what that is.

Sometimes we get stuck in a story because it reminds us of something bad that happened. Why would we do that? So that it serves to fuel our fear about doing what we really want. When we can recall a bad consequence for taking action, then it justifies us in not taking action.

But don't worry. Here's the good news.

You can ALWAYS change your story. No, it doesn't mean rewriting history or somehow forgetting the negative stuff.

What it means is focusing on what works, how we have been courageous and how we can feel empowered, even after experiencing something negative.

It's not the bad stuff that happens that counts, it's what we've done with it, how we have responded, what happened next.

Lisa Bloom, PCC

These are the stories we need to tell. These are the stories that change our reality. What's your powerful story?

Lisa Bloom, PCC is founder of Story Coach Inc. and the Certified Story Coach Program.  Download her ebook ‘Using Stories to Get Great Clients’ at http://www.story-coach.com.

Stand out!

Try doing something really good, and then keep talking about it, a famous Public Relations specialist once said. Concept which is frequently applied in business, where most leaders are interested in collaborating with famous companies and successful people.

I have always enjoyed coaching entrepreneurs; they have the ambition and energy to establish new records. The term entrepreneur is defined as a person who is willing to build an enterprise, a person with a dynamic character and a leadership style that involves taking risks or new opportunities for development.

Lately, I have been working with numerous entrepreneurs, from different cities and I couldn’t help but notice that most of them are highly influenced by the financial approaches and keep investing a lot of energy on controlling the cash-flow, their employees or how to make more money…It is well known that people working with finances keep telling entrepreneurs that they take risks beyond their financial power without rigorously calculating their possible win.

The two approaches however, are not contradictory (the entrepreneur approach and the financial one), but complementary – the dynamic activity of an entrepreneur is focused on developing his business by using a financial approach, centered on the return received from that certain business. But this can only lead to fights for power or influence.

In general, during moments of crisis, finance people stay in control by using a defensive strategy, while in times when opportunities occur, entrepreneurs rely on an offensive strategy – taking risks in order to get rich.

But leaders, who inspire people to excel, come more from the entrepreneurial field rather than the finance field.

This is how I met Steven, an entrepreneur who developed his business for more than 5 years on the market, but who could never tell whether that business was running good or bad. Actually, it was going nowhere. Since the economic crisis, Steven’s best adviser was his accountant – who always managed to scare the new marketing and sales strategies out of him. His greatest challenge was to stand out and show everyone that he can face the market’s requirements and can bring performance to it. In other words, to build an image, a reputation, even if this can hardly be achieved without expensive investments. Steven was more of a defensive entrepreneur. He thought there was nothing he can show in such times of crisis. But he thought that only if he could find that certain secret or type of service that could make him stand out of the crowd, then things would run much easier.

- How could he find that secret?

Marshall Goldsmith described, in one of his articles about entrepreneurship that one of the smallest construction businesses from the three bidders that were trying to buy a certain health project managed to win the auction by publishing the fact that it was the only one who employed the most people in the area. So without being famous, the business could build a reputation by using an unknown advantage that was given to the market. Steven began asking his clients why were they working for him and what kind of benefit did his business bring to them. It was then when he discovered his true business reputation and had the courage to stand out and bring new clients. He didn’t hesitate and started taking action!

Rodica Obancea, ACC

You may build success using the things you know very well and then start promoting them.

Rodica Obancea, ACC, is passionate about change, emergence, living systems. She works within business environment, with managers, teams for achieving ambitious results. For more information, visit www.successcoaching.ro.

Registration now open for ICF Global 2012!

If you are a coach looking for an opportunity to break out of your daily routine and recharge—you will not want to miss ICF Global 2012 – Connect. Learn. Inspire. this October 3-6 in London, UK.

ICF Global 2012 is the world’s largest coaching conference of 2012 and will allow you to connect with colleagues and ideas from all over the world; learn the latest in coaching techniques, trends, and theories to apply to your practice; and get inspired by a community of like-minded peers to continue your professional commitment on positive change.

And you will do all of this from one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities—London. The London experience in itself is sure to stretch both your imagination and professional growth this October.

ICF Global 2012 will maximize the personal and professional potential of coaching professionals who attend—the four day conference will include:

• Three world class mega catalysts (Brené Brown, David Whyte, Camila Batmanghelidjh);
• 35-plus educational sessions providing knowledge and tools to gain a competitive edge in the coaching profession. As sessions and speakers are finalized, they will be posted to Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012; and
• Numerous occasions for networking.

Registration is now open! Register early to take advantage of the early bird discount.

Have you attended an ICF Annual International Conference in the past? Share your experience(s) with us below or on Facebook.