Coaching That Supports Maintaining Momentum Toward Goals

John Cambell from Growth Coaching International posted a blog that highlights some strategies for maintaining momentum when coaching around a coachee’s goals.

I found reinforcement in his three recommendations for some practices that I usually build into my coaching. Here are Cambell’s suggestions and my connections.

  • The first suggestion that Campell shared (implementation intentions) aligns with my use of prediction questions when post conferencing, as a teacher’s plan for implementing some next step develops. Peter Gollwitzer’s research on “Implementation Intentions” points out that creating detailed plans, known as implementation intentions, greatly increases the chances of success. These plans are often in an “if-then” format (e.g., “If situation X happens, then I will do Y”). This method helps people decide in advance how to respond to particular situations or challenges that may arise.

I have been using a questioning strategy that asks a coachee, who is leaning toward a particular decision or course of action to predict what possible positive and negative outcomes of their plan might be. It seems contradictory to ask what could go wrong when the coachee is ready to commit to action. However, by predicting a problem or challenge and preparing a what if plan, one lowers the risk of implementation.

Example: A teacher is designing a more complex project-based activity than she has previously implemented. I might ask, “Are there any concerns you want to consider before you implement?” The teacher may mention that the time students need for the project might be more than she has planned. At this point we may discuss how to track and predict time as the project progresses and what modifications could be made to the project if needed.

  • Secondly, Cambell refers to the work of Richard Ryan and Edward Deci’s on Self Determination Theory and ‘intrinsic motivation’ to highlight the importance of linking goals to values and deeper meaning. “A question such as, ‘Why will achieving this be important to you?’ can be a helpful and significant coaching question when reviewing a goal.”

This connects with my questions in pre-conferencing to uncover what I call the teacher’s agenda.

I describe this step as preparing to observe in the classroom through the eyes of the teacher before I observe through mine. Before considering “How” a teacher might want to make a change, I want a clear picture of “Why” the teacher would seek a change. What are the teacher’s beliefs about a goal, strategy, or learner outcome as well as what degree of teacher effort would she want to invest in achieving the change. Understanding the teacher’s WHY and Effort Investment upfront guides my coaching actions.

Example: Consider the teacher looking to raise the complexity of project-based learning tasks, I’d explore why she sees that change positively impacting her learners.

“Time and again, one variable emerged as central to the achievement of positive long-term change: the participants’ ongoing interaction and follow-up with colleagues. Leaders who discussed their own improvement priorities with their co-workers, and then regularly followed up with these co-workers, showed striking improvement. Leaders who did not have ongoing dialogue with colleagues showed improvement that barely exceeded random chance.

…. a coach is, in many ways, like a personal trainer. The trainer’s role is to “remind” the person being trained to do what he or she knows should be done. Good personal trainers spend far more time on execution than on theory. The same seems to be true for leadership development. Most leaders already know what to do. For most leaders, the great challenge is not understanding the practice of leadership: It is practicing their understanding of leadership.”

Making our growth as educators a social activity greatly increases the likelihood that we can maintain the conscious practice and reflection necessary to identify and internalize the skills that guide our learners to success.

Whether you are an instructional coach, administrator, or teacher leader planning and supporting the growth of colleagues or designing your own personal improvement plan consider how to maintain momentum and push through the learning dips with implementation intentions, connections to beliefs and values, and a network of colleagues who provide reminders.