In the months prior to the Coaching Mindset Summit, cameras were rolling to capture the ability of Coaching to be a transformative experience for college engineering students. Watch as third-year undergraduates learn about and reflect on the Growth Mindset, asking deep questions, and what Coaching looks like after college. Professor Louise Morman shares her commentary on this unique and challenging project.
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This, I think, may be the most
interesting project that we've had yet
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This one pushed me out of my comfort
zone. It wasn't a copy of anything else.
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It was harder, better, deeper, than
anything that I had seen before.
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So, it scared me, in a good way.
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In the fall of 2017, 23 members of
cohort 6 took on an ambitious
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project. Their goal, was to learn about
coaching and the mindset that pervades
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it, hoping to gain insight into how it
might relate to leadership development.
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Students split into five different teams,
each of which contributed something
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unique to the project. Together, the
cohort researched coaching topics and
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put them into practice using spot
coaching as a mechanism to provide
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experience and insight for the students.
After refining these techniques, they
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practiced with cohorts 5 and 7 and
continued to share their knowledge
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beyond the classroom, by promoting the
project on various social media platforms
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How was coaching relevant to the students in the Leadership Institute?
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So, as an engineer our first goal is to figure
out what the problem is, and solve it.
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that is what we learned in class. That is the
critical thinking mindset and the
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coaching mindset is the exact opposite;
you're not actually solving anybody's
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problem for them. You're actually guiding
them to their own problem--solution and
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you're sitting back and watching.
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Last year as sophomores, you know, we really focused on the skills of being a
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good leader and I think that those were both
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social aspects, you know, being able to
communicate effectively, recognize
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different types of people, different
personalities, and get along with them
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being able to listen, and then also
developing our own personal skills, you
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know, being introspective, being self
aware of what's going on our own
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strengths and weaknesses and I think
that this subject of coaching really is
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the culmination of all that.
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You don't want to tell someone
what to do which is what engineers
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love but getting them to their own
solution is really what coaching is about.
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Being able to experience what
it's actually like to help another
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person work through any sort of
transformational journey that they are
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and be encouraging, but not being
controlling has you know been a really
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good opportunity for me, not only to a
better understand the members of my
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cohort to help them, you know, make
decisions and go through a
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transformational journey of their own,
but also to accept the fact that control
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isn't always good and it's really okay
to, you know, lead from behind, encourage,
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and ensure that other people in making
the decisions that work for them.
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What were your initial thoughts on coaching
and how have those changed
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over the course of the semester?
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So when we first started off, I really
didn't know what to think about coaching
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like I I told other
people the only real of coaching
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experience that I've had came through
sports, which I had always done growing
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up, but it's kind of interesting because
looking back on it I feel that my
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perception of coaching was more so a
management style rather than coaching.
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I would say that the most influential
coach that I had really embodied what we've
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talked about in coaching. You know, They
got to know me on a personal level. They
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were always asking me questions,
challenging me to be better, and improve
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each and every day
whereas I feel like in a sports, general
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sense, you don't see that across all
coaches.
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I just had a sense of all right well
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I'm gonna sit down and talk
with someone and and try to help them
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improve on certain skills and that was
that in essence is correct but I had no
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sense of appreciation for what you're
doing and how difficult it really is.
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When you boil it down, coaching is listening
and then acts asking really
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insightful questions to lead your client to an impactful
solution.
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What did you do to teach the students about the coaching mindset?
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So, the coaching learning team has been
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doing activities with the class. So,
usually we do one week of teaching and
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one week of activity and the activity
usually is a little coaching session, and
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so, one person is the coach and one person is the coachee and I really
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liked having the experience of coaching
someone, especially having seen it in a
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professional setting.
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We really wanted to
utilize spot coaching during our
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presentations, so that the members of our
Institute could get a feel for what
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coaching was. It's a lot more effective
than our team talking to you for two
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hours. So, the experience is really why we
pick spot coaching. Our spot coaching sessions
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started out very simple just a coach
and client and you still got a feel for
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what coaching felt like, but as we kind
of moved on through the semester and as
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we were learning about what coaching
looked like, we added more observers to
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that, so that way you could experience
the coaching session without having to
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be totally focused on being the person
asking the questions or being a person
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answering the question.
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It's really interesting, I think, to
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to experience both ends of, you know,
being the coach and the coachee because
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they are you know while that is one, like,
single, you know, session or whatever. It's
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one coaching session. It's two completely
different viewpoints and so in
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practicing one, while being the other, it
kind of gives you a better appreciation
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for what coaches go through and for what
coachees have to do as well.
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The advantage of doing these spot coaching or fishbowl
sessions in class was we had the
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opportunity as a team to kind of pause
the discussion and open it up to the
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entire class and kind of exchange ideas
on what you're noticing, what you're
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observing, and what you're feeling and
that was really advantageous, to, just get
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everyone else's thoughts and be prompted
to kind of go deeper into the
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conversation and kind of work through
some of those things as class.
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How have the coaching sessions strengthened your understanding of the coaching mindset?
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I think asking the right questions and,
kind of, getting past this mental barrier
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of "I'm not fixing this problem for them,
I'm just somebody who is going to not
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even necessarily guide them," I would say,
because you don't want to lead them in
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any direction or another, but open things
up to them that maybe they wouldn't have
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been, you know, they wouldn't have
experienced without somebody else being
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there with them.
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I'd like to say I've seen
people our cohort to step outside of
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their comfort zone. Coaching is very
challenging and I think everyone our
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cohort has been very receptive to the
things we're asking them to do and their
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comments that they're giving us at the,
end of their sessions, really speaks to
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me that they're investing time during,
like the activities that we give them
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and that they're really
challenging themselves.
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I had to let go of my
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preconceptions and my assumptions about
who they were, what they were
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doing and just let them lead the session.
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I think, as a team lead, I've learned that
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I like to do everything on my own, but
the best projects and your best product
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comes from working with people
who have different opinions and
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different thoughts, and my team has been
absolutely incredible in providing
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perspective that I just don't have, and
just being very supportive in the whole
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process of trying to take this whole
coaching thing, and bring it down to a
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digestible level.
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This is something that you
can't really grade and I think that
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helps to push people, who maybe aren't as
self-aware, to become more self-aware
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because they need to realize that, what
they're doing, directly impacts what
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we're trying to accomplish, what we're
trying to do
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A lot of people have asked why we're
doing this ,because we're juniors in
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college, and it's a really big project to
take out as juniors but I would say
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it's really important as something that
we're going to take into the future
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because in any situation, your boss is
going to coach you. You can coach your
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peers, and it's important to both be able
to be coached, to be a coachee, and to be
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a coach and while this is a long process
it's not something that we're gonna do
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overnight; it's something that if we have,
if we already have some experience with
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it and then we take that into the job
setting, that wherever we're going to end
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up no matter if that's engineering
related or not, if we decide to like
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leave the engineering field, this is a
really great way to have the experience
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already
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We're diving into an area that
for most of us is completely uncharted
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territory and I think that's why this
project is so special.
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So how have you seen your students
grow throughout this project?
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Oh, it's been amazing. To walk into
this project with no idea really what
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coaching was. There wasn't one student
that had ever been exposed to real,
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professional, leadership coaching, ever. I
think everyone has learned not only the
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complexities of being a good coach, but
also, maybe more importantly, how to be a
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great coachee and how to be open, and
open-minded, and self-aware, and search
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deep. So, that's a pretty amazing thing to
start to get your arms around, when
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you're in your early twenties
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you