Coaching Approach

IDEAS Coaching Framework©

The IDEAS Coaching Framework© was developed by Dr. Tammy M. Gocial, principal and founder of Gocial Leadership Advisors (GoLead!), an executive leadership coaching and consulting firm in St. Louis, MO (USA). The IDEAS Coaching Framework© helps clients reflect on the context within which they work while examining the strategies and skills they can develop and implement to address the complex leadership challenges they face. As various strategies are developed and solutions enacted, progress may be variable, so it is important to assess progress toward goals throughout the journey to help leaders maximize their full leadership potential and succeed in reaching their goals.

Identifying Challenges

Coaching engagements begin with Identifying the Challenges that exist in the environment of each leader. These are not necessarily problems or faults, per se, but are situations or circumstances that a leader has identified as something that needs to be addressed in order to be more successful in their role. In some cases, a challenge might be related to a leader’s style that is working well for some colleagues but not others, or a strategy for moving the department forward that does not seem to resonate well among the team members. In other cases, it could be a misreading of politics or organizational culture or difficulty navigating competing demands for available resources. In all cases, challenges are obstacles to leaders being successful in their work. In order to address challenges, they have to be clearly identified and named. External assessments such as the Leadership Versatility Index (360 assessment), Hogan Assessment, ProfileXT, or CliftonStrengths may be used to identify aspects of the leader’s style or approach that influence their ability to be successful. Assessments or individual interviews with key stakeholders (team members, peers, supervisors) may be conducted to get a 360-degree view of the leader’s strengths and growth opportunities.

Developing Strategies

Once challenges have been identified, the next step is to Develop Strategies for addressing those challenges. This aspect of the coaching engagement involves brainstorming with the client ideas for how they might move forward. In many cases, clients are already aware of possible steps they might take, but then struggle to choose the one strategy they think fits most closely to their own values and skills or the one that has the greatest chance for success within their given circumstances. This part of the coaching engagement involves developing a variety of strategies that could be used to address the challenges, and analyzing those strategies for goodness of fit with the client’s personality, leadership style, and work context, so that they feel ready to take the next step.

Enacting Solutions

In all environments, leadership requires action. Leaders must choose the strategy they will employ for themselves and for the engagement of their team members to accomplish the goals they have established. Enacting Solutions requires a strategic analysis of which actions to take first, second, third, et cetera, as well as a review of aspects of the situation that may inhibit their, or their team members’, ability to move forward. This could include limiting beliefs like “fear of failure,” “fear of success,” or “imposter syndrome” that fuel procrastination, or it could include an unwillingness to subsume individual egos to achieve group goals. These factors are real and can hinder progress, so they must be accounted for in the plan to move forward. This area also requires a review of the resources available (time, physical, techological, human, fiscal, etc.) as resources will likely dictate which solutions are truly feasible.

Assessing Progress

Throughout the leadership journey, there will be successes and setbacks for individuals and teams. It is important to Assess Progress on a regular basis as a way to verify the goal, and efficacy of the pathway to achieve that goal. In almost all cases, the pathway is circuitous not linear, so assessment should be continuous. Continually Assessing Progress will provide the data needed to clarify whether the solutions being enacted are working to address the identified challenges, or whether new strategies need to be developed and new solutions need to be enacted. Assessment data will also clarify if and when the endgoal needs to shift as circumstances, personnel, trends, and expectations often shift over time.

Succeeding

Leadership is not easy. Contexts, people, resources, and demands change constantly. Like ballroom dancing, staying on your toes, keeping your head up and your eyes open, pivoting around immovable obstacles, and staying flexible are keys to a successful performance. As noted, the leadership journey may involve reimagining the goals and the path forward, but using the IDEAS Coaching Framework© will help leaders stay true to themselves and their values as they work with their teams, within their given organizational structures, to Succeed in achieving their goals.