{Adapted from the Best Foot Forward project toolkit.}
The Planning Guide as a Resource
The Positive Leader Development Program entails structured coaching conversations between leaders and coaches that parallel the content presented in teaching and workshop modules for building Positive Work and Organizations. The program aims to develop positive leaders and, thus, positive leadership practices that enhance workplace engagement, wellbeing, and performance.
The program is modular, and the leaders participate in six coaching sessions in three-month modules. Monthly workshops focused on particular themes facilitate monthly goal setting and action planning, followed by fieldwork, monitoring, critical reflection, and evaluation. Leaders use critical reflection journals, either written or audio-video recordings, related to their current goal and review their insights and action plans in coaching conversations. Individual coaching conversations deepen the learning and forward the action. Group learning sessions and workshops facilitate team learning, sharing, peer support, collective visioning, and celebrating.
Executives participate in 40-60 minute coaching conversations via video conference to discuss and evaluate their weekly actions on the goal attainment scale (GAS), discuss their individual reflections, and identify improvement areas.
Outline of a 60 Minute Coaching Conversation
Introduction, pleasantries (3 min)
Review goals (2 min)
Frame and discuss the weekly actions (10 min)
Executive frames the weekly topic (and maybe also chosen actions) (4 min)
Coach frames the first actions (2 min)
Discuss the first actions (10 min)
Repeat the previous two steps for second actions (12 min)
Opportunity for the coach to bring up any feedback that didn’t fit into the reflection journal conversations (5 min)
Deciding on an action plan and fill out collaborative log (12 min)
Reminder to the positive leader: Journal your reflections after enacting your action plan related to an identified goal; upload it to your coaching platform page (personal knowledge mastery portal) or narrate it as an audio or video response.
Resource tool serving the coaching task:
Collaborative log
Review notes from previous coaching conversations.
Write up notes, including the next steps.
Coaching Conversation Planning Guide
Identify a focus based on the executive’s goals and current module theme.
Read, listen, or watch full weekly executive journalling and choose two actions.
(Watch the teaching module or monthly workshop recording to be used.)
Plan the coaching conversation.
Schedule and facilitate the coaching conversation.
Annotations
Do close observation of selected actions.
Preparation: Watching the executive’s action reflections and choosing action items.
Review Collaborative Log from the previous coaching conversation and identify a focus.
Coach Preparation: Based on the client’s goals, previous action steps, and current module theme, what will the focus of this conversation be?
How does it relate to the client’s learning goals?
Watch the client’s action reflection and select action items.
Coach Preparation: Brief summary of theme, related goal, action plan, and action reflection.
Action item #1: Brief summary of the action item. Reason for selection.
Action item #2: Brief summary of the action item. Reason for selection.
Take detailed notes on the action. Make public annotations on the video platform and take private planning notes here.
Coach Preparation: Annotations and private notes.
Guiding Questions for public annotations:
What does the leader do and say?
What do the team members, colleagues, clients, or other stakeholders do and say?
What is the relation to the theme?
Private Planning Notes:
Interpretations?
Questions?
What aspect of practice will you talk about for these actions? How does it relate to the executive’s learning goal?
What do you want the executive to learn? (I.e., why is this the salient focus?)
What will it look like when the executive becomes more skilled at this?
What specific and actionable suggestions might you make for the executive to improve at this?
Watch the monthly module or workshop recording on the video platform.
Coach Preparation:
Which recording clip will you use?
Which theme or topic will you talk about?
How does it relate to the focus of the conversation?
Email the executive with video watching assignment.
Coach Preparation:
Hi *Executive*,
Thanks for uploading your reflections. I look forward to talking with you at our regular time next week on *Tuesday at 5pm*. If that doesn’t work for you next week, please let me know so we can reschedule.
Before we talk, please review your reflection journal by logging into the video platform. We’ll focus on action items *action 1* and *action 2*. Please also take the time to watch the *module theme* workshop video.
If you have any questions, let me know. I’m looking forward to talking with you
again soon.
Best,
*Coach*
Prepare coaching conversation.
Introduction, pleasantries (3 min)
Goal: Relationship building.
Review goals (2 min)
Goal: Creating a focus for the conversation.
Coach Preparation: Review the Collaborative Log from previous sessions.
Based on the focus of this conversation and the executive’s learning goals, how will you frame this conversation?
Frame and discuss the weekly actions (10 min)
Goal: Reinforcing the theme lens.
Coach Preparation:
How will you introduce the weekly action and the accompanying themes?
If the executive’s GAS scores vary from the mastery scores, what are some generative questions you might ask to guide their thinking?
Executive frames the weekly topic (teaching or workshop recording) (and maybe also chosen action items) (4 min)
Goal: Allow the executive the opportunity to first provide framing and context. E.g., “Are there one or two things you think would be helpful for me to know about this theme before we transition to talking about it?”
Coach frames the first actions (2 min)
Goal: Explain why the first action was chosen (if the coach chose the action) and what theme will be discussed.
Coach Preparation (for this and the next step):
How will you frame the action? Why did you choose this action?
Which theme will you talk about?
(Optional) Annotations you want to bring into the conversation.
What are some generative questions you might ask?
What do you think the executive might say, and how might you respond?
Discuss the first actions (10 min)
Goal:
Continue reinforcing the theme’s lens.
Guide the executive to reflect on and analyze their own practice.
Generate actionable ways that could move practice toward the next level.
Repeat the previous two steps for the second action (12 min)
Coach Preparation:
How will you frame the action? Why did you choose this action?
Which theme will you talk about?
(Optional) Annotations you want to bring into the conversation.
What are some generative questions you might ask?
What do you think the executive might say, and how might you respond?
(Optional) Opportunity for the coach to bring up any feedback that didn’t fit into the action conversations (5 min)
Note: These should be quick points that are fairly simple and, therefore, not a big enough deal to choose an action item around.
However, if the issue is a bigger deal, the coach should incorporate it into one of the action conversations, even if it means choosing a longer action item to do so.
Coach Preparation:
(Optional) Do you want to bring up other things?
Decide on an action plan and fill out Collaborative Log together (12 min)
Coach or executive should type while screen sharing. Filling out the log is a collaborative exercise, not just the coach’s version of the events. The coach can then upload the log to the video platform.