{Adapted from the Search Institute, Minneapolis, MN. Developmental Relationships Framework, www.searchinstitute.org}
What you can expect from your coach within the coaching engagement, expressed as five elements and 20 specific actions that you should be able to observe:
Express Care
Your coach will express care and show you that you matter to your coach.
You will observe these actions expressing care: Your coach will –
Be dependable. Be someone you can trust.
Listen. Really pay attention when you are together.
Believe in you. Make you feel known and valued.
Be warm. Show you he enjoys being with you.
Encourage. Praise you for your efforts and achievements.
Challenge Growth
Your coach will challenge growth and push you to improve.
You will observe these actions challenging growth: Your coach will –
Expect your best. Expect you to live up to your potentials.
Stretch. Push you to go further.
Hold you accountable. Insist you take responsibility for your actions.
Reflect on failures. Help you learn from mistakes and setbacks.
Provide Support
Your coach will provide support and help you complete tasks and achieve goals.
You will observe these actions providing support. Your coach will –
Navigate. Guide you through hard situations and systems.
Empower. Build your confidence to take charge of your life.
Advocate. Stand up for you when you need it.
Set boundaries. Put limits in place that keep you on track.
Share Power
Your coach will share power and treat you with respect and give you a say.
You will observe these actions sharing power: Your coach will –
Respect you. Take you seriously and treat you fairly.
Include you. Involve you in decisions that affect you.
Collaborate. Work with you to solve problems and reach goals.
Let you lead. Create opportunities for you to take action and lead.
Expand Possibilities
Your coach will expand possibilities and connect you with people and places that broaden your world.
You will observe these actions expanding possibilities: Your coach will –
Inspire. Inspire you to see possibilities for your future.
Broaden horizons. Expose you to new ideas, experiences, and places.
Connect. Introduce you to people who can help you grow.
Where do I stand?
I situate myself as a practitioner in adult and lifelong learning contexts. Adult learning has at its core the concepts of learner needs emanating from real-life situations, personalized learning, initiative, and responsibility.
My identity as a professional builds around the concepts of autonomy, specialist knowledge, and responsibility.
The master skill that each learner must be equipped with is learning to learn, taking responsibility for their own learning, and becoming masters of self-regulated learning.
Every person lives in a context that is local and exclusive in its characteristics yet embedded in the larger whole and inclusive of all human conditions. At the next move, the individualized should be linked to the socialized.
As a coach, mentor, and teacher, I aspire to be values-driven and also have an eye on pragmatics, be fully supportive of personal development, and also considerate of organizational needs and benefits to other stakeholders of the larger domain. To this end, a primary focus in coaching is to ensure that learning does carry over to real life as transferable skills and competence.
A deficiency approach will not motivate excellence; building on what is wrong and faulty in oneself is a shaky ground for self-improvement. As an alternative to the traditional deficiency focus, we may start by recognizing existing strengths and capacities, what is already achieved and can be built on.
In our coaching, we will explore what kind of organization you want and what you can do to bring it about, keeping an eye on improvement built on positives. Imagining what is possible and innovating for what is meaningful and authentic.
You will encounter situations where the primary goal is to cope and adapt; the primary mode is to push and get over with. A continuous learning and improvement mindset will, additionally, bring a focus on generative learning and creating futures, pulling up to a vision and actively enlisting processes to enable and encourage taking on challenges, providing the dynamic ground to flourish in your personal and professional development endeavors.
As a coach, I am committed to self-improvement and aim for high performance and self-regulated learning. My personalized learning agenda recognizes my professional needs and engages me in important and relevant activities as a lifelong learner.
As a professional, I agree to abide by the ethical codes of conduct of international associations of the profession in integrity, reasonable care, respect, and responsibility.
My professionalism flows from my identity and values, which I have freely chosen to build on a life of purpose and meaning.
As I have chosen my identity and values, I may also be delighted to transform them in light of a larger vision or purpose.
I freely disclose my education, experience, behavior, and values;
I freely share my specialist knowledge and understanding for further public scrutiny.
I welcome comments on my professional identity.
I commit to demonstrating my knowledge and understanding in public seminars and presentations.
I take on the values and responsibilities of:
I take client learning and the coaching process to be of primary importance.
I maintain loyalty to clients and colleagues.
I view the building and accessing of resources for the client based on client needs as my primary educator responsibility.
I build on my autonomy as a professional and provide autonomy support for the client.
I subject my practice to supervision to assess and ensure quality and ethical service delivery.
I will display appropriate conduct and behaviors towards clients and colleagues.
Principles of ethical conduct can always supersede personal values and visions of effective practice or scholarly commitments.
I claim the rights to:
I reserve the right to claim commensurate pay and conditions for my services.
I claim autonomy to prepare, plan, and deliver teaching and coaching sessions.
I claim respect as a professional and status in the eye of the community and the wider society.
What you can expect from working with a coach
You can expect to get these results and benefits of working with a coach:
You feel empowered to proceed with your mission, encouraged to exert full effort, and inspired to create the positive future you envision;
sustain focus on your goal;
act in confidence despite the possibilities of failure or of not being rewarded;
balance the needs of the whole, the parts, the present, and the future;
refresh hope and renewal;
bless those who need blessing;
become a center where people can turn to for guidance, support, and wisdom; you become a haven, a place where people feel secure and at home.
Here is what I provide and how I help in service of your aspiration:
I will see you, bless you {because I care};
be curious about what you are and what you have, where you are, and what steps you are taking {to challenge your growth, since I expect the best of you};
listen, inquire, quest and request, challenge and stretch, stand for you, and stand by you {because I care, I pay attention; and to challenge your growth, since I am an advocate of who you are and whom you are becoming};
empower and champion your powers, manifest and hidden, your gifts realized or dormant {to support you in impact and effect};
acknowledge, celebrate, and honor {because I care, I encourage and praise}.
In working with you, I assume:
You show up on time;
do the work of change; are committed;
are appreciative;
pay on time;
have a sense of stewardship of the planet, of nature, and sentient life;
are easy to be with, maybe demanding;
have a good sense of humor and love having fun.