Professional Coaching - Daedalus Coaching

Ultimately, anyone willing to engage in a process of thoughtful personal growth.

I can offer individual coaching to help you work through complex problems:

• Personal growth

• Problem-solving

• Growing your Agile Mindset

• Scrum Master Skills

• Product Owner Skills

• Leadership Skills

• Navigating Conflict

• Anything work-related

Here is the essential information to allow you to decide whether coaching may help, in your case.

Requesting Coaching

You, or perhaps your sponsor, reach out to find out more.

Enquire here

A 'Chemistry Session', 30-minutes

This is a short informal chat to allow you to determine client-coach compatibility: basically, for you to decide whether to proceed with me as your coach.

It's an opportunity to find out more about the process, about me, and my approach to coaching, and for us both to decide if this is something we think can be helpful for you.

We won't get into coaching in this session, but if we decide to proceed, we'll book in a First Meeting.

• Book a Chemistry Session

3-way Scoping Chat with Sponsor (50 minutes)

As mentioned in The Coach-Client-Sponsor Relationship, often, a Sponsor will seek coaching for somebody else - perhaps your line manager sees an opportunity where coaching can support your personal career development?

This session allows space to co-create an overall coaching plan, and agree goals for the process.

• Why are we here?

• How does the process work?

• Agree Goals:

  • Sponsor + Client + Coach Goals

  • Client + Coach Goals: The Coach and Client reserve the right to set additional goals - that may or may not be shared with the Sponsor, at the Client’s discretion.

We won't get into coaching in this session.

Sponsors, see Advice for Sponsors of Coaching

First Meeting (70 minutes)

This is where we start to tentatively put into practice what we have agreed.

If coaching is new to you, this is the opportunity to test out how things work and start to trust the process (and me - so bear in mind we might not reach any astounding revelations in this first session).

This is a slightly longer session than subsequent sessions, to cover:

• A review of the process and making any adjustments to suit the client's needs

• A recap of what coaching is, and is not

• Agreeing:

  • What is and is not appropriate in the coaching relationship

  • What is and is not being offered

  • The responsibilities of the client and relevant stakeholders

  • The guidelines and specific parameters of the coaching relationship (logistics, fees, scheduling, duration, termination, confidentiality and inclusion of others)

• Beginning the coaching process

Book a First Meeting

Coaching Sessions (50 minutes)

A typical coaching conversation arc will set out to identify and define the topic that really matters to you, explore it for new insights, and ultimately, help you build motivation and determine how to proceed.

Each session is an entity in its own right, as well as part of the larger coaching partnership.

Some such arcs will reach actions within a single session, some will be revisited over several sessions.

Additionally, each session is an opportunity to refine how we are working together.

• Book a Coaching Session

In between Coaching Sessions

This is an opportunity to take that action you've identified in the session, and reflect further on what you learn - and perhaps consider where to take things in the next session.

Bringing a Positive end to the Coaching Relationship

At some point, you will find that the relationship is coming to a natural end - perhaps: you have achieved the goals you set for yourself; perhaps those goals have changed; or perhaps you simply no longer have sufficient need to continue the relationship.

As we reflect on this, we can choose to re-focus on new goals, or celebrate what you have achieved and bring the partnership to a close.

Typically:

• We’ll start with 5 sessions, initially

• We'd aim for 1 session a week

• Each session would be 50 minutes long

• Sessions will be remote, via Zoom call

• We can agree further sessions as needed

• You can book sessions via calendly

• You can cancel sessions at any time

• You can end the coaching relationship at any time

As a Coach:

• I am here to support you - which means helping you explore, understand, reflect, decide and act, in a non-judgemental space, (rather than giving advice, telling stories, 'changing you' to fit some imagined cookie-cutter template, discounting or invalidating your experiences, or owning the outcome myself)

• I maintain the ICF Code of Ethics

• It’s worth taking a look at these to understand the coaching role if this is your first experience of it.

• To reiterate, any coaching activity is in service to you (rather than your sponsor or the organisation) and thus entirely confidential

As a Client:

• YOU are solely responsible for deciding how to handle the issues raised, and implementing choices is exclusively your responsibility

Within organisations, it’s not uncommon for a Sponsor to arrange coaching for somebody else.

In this situation, we start with a 3-way conversation between the Client, the Coach and the Sponsor, to agree any specific goals for the sessions.

• In addition to these jointly agreed goals, the Coach and Client reserve the right to set additional goals - that may or may not be shared with the Sponsor at the Client’s discretion

If you've not tried working with a Coach before, and you are looking to better understand what it is - it can sometimes be helpful to understand "what Coaching is not!"

• It's not Managing - a Coach won't direct your efforts, or assign you duties

• It's not Consulting - a Coach won't offer answers or make recommendations

• It's not Teaching - a Coach doesn't train you in new skills

• It's not Counselling - a Coach is not qualified to offer such services. (Please consider consulting a licensed therapist)

• It's not Mentoring - a Coach won't offer you advice, or share their personal experiences

For those familiar with Agile Coaches, it is distinct from Agile Coaching - which does include elements of training, mentoring and direction and a strong bias towards agility - (but such Agile Coaching often includes Professional Coaching as one of its offerings)

In Professional Coaching, the Coach has no agenda beyond providing a space for your thinking.

Crucially, it is no substitute for counselling, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, mental health care, or a substitute for such therapy (and it does not involve the diagnosis, prevention, cure, or treatment of any mental disorder or medical disease).

Most of all, however, it’s not something "done TO you", or aimed at “fixing you”.

Anything you share with me as part of a coaching relationship is bound by the principles of confidentiality set forth in the ICF Code of Ethics

Specifically:

• I will not disclose any such information without your written consent

• I will not disclose your name as a reference without your consent

It’s important to know that there are some rare situations in which confidentiality does not apply:

• If there is imminent or likely risk of danger or harm to you or others, I have a duty of care to report this appropriately

• I have a responsibility to comply with any legal requirement to disclose (for example, issues involving illegal activity)

Also, I must maintain a Coaching Log: please see Certification Requirements, for more details