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BRINGING COACHING INTO YOUR COUNSELING PROGRAM Virginia Association of Housing Counselors May 7, 2015 Hampton, Virginia Shelley Murphy
Expectations? •What do you know? •How many are using coaching techniques? •What are your expecting?
Self‐Assessment‐Take 5 1. How do you feel about your counseling? 2. Are you seeing impacts or changes with your clients? 3. How do you think you could be more effective as a Housing Counselor? 4. What changes would you make to your Counseling? 5. Do you need someone to hold your hand or guide you through a change?
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Goal: •To expose housing counseling agencies and individuals to coaching •Attendees will be able to understand the difference between Counseling and Coaching. •Get a birds eye view & feel of how it works •Offer some basic techniques into your current program.
What is Housing Counseling? •One on one •Focused on a specific issue •Regimented process •Counselor basically tells the client what to do or how the process will flow •Action Plan •Teacher •Supporter
What is Coaching? •Nothing new •One on one •Client focused on their goals, client determines the goals •Behavior changes •Uses an Action plan •Your role is to facilitate and support
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Types of Coaches •Life/Personal •Career •Financial/Wealth •Health and Wellness •Relationship Business
Coach Characteristics •Being present •Good listening skills •Know the art of asking questions •Good communicator •Anything else?
5 COACHING SKILLS BY YAEL BACHARACH
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1. Listen with Curiosity •When we speak about listening with curiosity, we're talking about conveying a genuine interest in what others are saying. •All too often we listen with impatience and a lack of attentiveness, which in turn hampers dialogue. •We are focused on our next argument or our own agenda. Be genuinely curious.
#1 continued… •Don’t do all the talking, and keep interruptions to a minimum. Pace the conversation, and don’t be afraid to keep it focused and on‐ target. •A big part of coaching is being a good listener‐‐ and not everyone knows how to be one. • Ref: Bacharach Leadership Group
2. Take in What You Hear • Sometimes you can project all the necessary nonverbal cues to give the other person a sense that you're listening with curiosity, but you could still not be taking in any information. • While projecting a sense of curiosity, don't forget to absorb and register what is being said. • You need to hear the words, read the gestures, and take in the thoughts, ideas, and emotions of the other party. • To take in what you hear, you need to pace the conversation and put yourself in the shoes of the other party.
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3. Reflect with Accuracy •Reflecting back with accuracy shows the person you’re really listening and confirms that you have digested the right information. •It also allows the person to hear back what he or she has said and to check within him or herself: Is it exactly what he or she meant to say?
You can reflect back by: • Paraphrasing Restate the essence of what you heard in your own words, or repeat what you heard using the same words the other party used. • Summarizing When you hear a lot of information, you may want to summarize the main message into short and concise sentences. When people have conversations, sometimes information doesn't emerge in an orderly way. You want to help your protégés focus on what seem to be their most important issues. • Repeating meaningful words When you repeat meaningful words, you let the other person know that you heard what is really important to them. It enables them to sense that you're listening and understanding them.
4. Questioning for Exploration • Asking questions extends the conversation and allows for a more proactive dialogue. Ask open‐ ended questions that allow more exploration to occur. By asking open ended questions, you give your protégés an opportunity to find answers within themselves. • When protégés discover the answers for themselves, it empowers them. When you question for exploration, you reinforce in their minds that you believe in them and that their opinions, knowledge, and experience are worthwhile. You build their confidence.
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5. Provide Feedback for Development • Feedback is often thought of as being inherently critical, but that need not be the case. Successful coaches are careful and discriminating about how they employ feedback, knowing that poor or incomplete feedback could stifle their protégés or even cause feelings of inadequacy in them. • The successful coach avoids the common mistake of using feedback as a vehicle for asserting expertise. • Unclear, arrogant, or dismissive feedback can drive your protégés into defensiveness and destroy the trust so critical to your relationship.
#5 continued… •When providing feedback, coaches should strive to make it clear, make it relevant, make it non‐evaluative, make it helpful, and make it positive. If you listen, reflect, question, and provide the right feedback, you can easily build trust in the coaching relationship.
Coaching Model ADAPTED FROM FINANCIAL COACHING TRAINING MANUAL BY A COLLABORATION OF CENTRAL NEW MEXICO COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND NEW MEXICO PROJECT FOR FINANCIAL LITERACY, 2010.
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C=Client •Client‐driven goal setting •What is the client’s goal? •What does reaching your goal look like?
O=Ongoing assessment of current situation. •What is the client’s current situation? •Ask them to share what their situation
A=Action planning •What steps will the client take to get from here to there? •What has to happen to reach your goal? •What’s the first step you could take?
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CH: Checking •What will keep the client on track? •What will you do by when? •How will I know?
Activity #1 •Need two volunteers: One to be the Coach One to be the Client • Everyone Observes
Activity #2 Each table pair off in three or fours •One is the Coaching Counselor & One is the Client •One observes the Coach & One observes the Client •Observers are observing the actions and will share what they see, what they liked, or didn’t like. •#3 Switch, the observers become the Coach and the Client and other two are observers
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Sharing…
•What did you see that you liked? •What did you see you didn’t like? •What are the benefits?
Bringing in the Coaching • First build the plan • Plan how you will educate your counselors, staff • Plan check in’s and case management reviews, how's it working? • Evaluate what you have seen • Counselors must be comfortable stepping back a bit from owning and controlling the session with clients. • Obtain feedback from clients. • It will take a bit of practice.
Next Steps… What do you think? • Is it something you can incorporate into your current housing program? • Write down the top 3 things you plan to do when you get back to your office • Don’t forget to Obtain feedback from the clients • Look for trainings and certifications
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Resources •Google: financial coaching •Locate other agencies and obtain some feedback •NeighborWorks Financial Capabilities Coaching Certification
ANY QUESTIONS?
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