Useful stuff
| Effective Goal Setting in Coaching. | |
| 1. Why goals are important To survive in life we all develop goal orientated habits but for some of us setting goals is easier than for others. In a coaching context in order for the coach to help a client move forward the client needs to have an idea of what they want to be, to have or to do. Each coaching situation is based around the goal of helping the client get from where they are now to where they want to be in the future. In simple terms, what they want and how they will achieve it. Another key aspect of goal achievement is the why. Without a sufficiently compelling need to achieve something then it is easy to excuse ourselves for not achieving it. Goals are fundamentally linked to our values in life and it is part of the coaches role to help the client identify the motivations behind their particular goals in life and to help them work on the steps they need to take along the way. 2. The Benefits of Goal Setting One key benefit of setting goals is how we feel as we achieve them. As a coach I encourage clients to reward themselves as they make progress towards the major goals that they have set themselves. Documenting these goals also provides a record so that we can actually see what we have achieved. In coaching terms documenting both end goals and performance goals at the start of a coaching process has another benefit. It helps both client and coach to know when progress is being made and what adjustments might be helpful to the process. 3. The dangers of goal setting Whilst it has to be said that goals are extremely helpful, it is important to recognise that the danger of totally focusing on our goals is that we can miss opportunities along the way and become hugely dissatisfied if we don’t achieve them. There is a lovely analogy I came across several years ago when first introduced to coaching. This is the analogy of climbing a mountain and it describes 3 different approaches to doing this. 3.1. The Climber The path may not be direct but this individual enjoys each step. The goal is enough reason to get to the top. The act of climbing the mountain motivates the Climber. Climbing is not about getting to the top, its to enjoy the journey and make it more interesting. 3.2. The Goal-Seeker Takes 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Climbing mountains gives no pleasure, getting goals is important. The Goal-Seeker hates climbing mountains and all their attention is focused on the top so they miss the views and flowers along the way. Once at the top they are dissatisfied. Too much is invested in the goal. All the satisfaction is invested in arriving at the top of the mountain. 3.3. The Slammer Slam! Slam! Slam! The goal has to be achieved NOW! Slam – bloody nose and blames the mountain. The slammer is constantly hitting a brick wall and the need to be right is greater than the need to achieve, perform, be successful. When working with clients as a coach it is useful to understand which approach they are taking to get to their goals. The coach should support and encourage the client to ‘climb’ the mountain (have their end goal in mind) and also to set milestones along the way (their performance goals) that will help them to stay motivated and to know they are getting there. Over my 15 years in coaching I have developed this as the EEP Model. Figure 1 illustrates this model  Let’s talk about the difference between end goals and performance goals for a moment. An end goal is what you want to achieve as a major objective or outcome. In most cases there are milestones along the way that will help us achieve our ultimate objective and we might approach this in a particular way – the process. For example, a friend of mine has an objective to complete a trek at the end of this year – the end goal. In order to do this there are certain milestones she has set herself which inc |
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| Contributor: Jan Brause @ http://www.janbrause.co.uk | |
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