Challenging Yourself

Since 2009, Mark Zuckerberg has set himself an annual personal challenge. Starting off with a personal challenge of ‘Wear a tie every day’, he progressed to ‘Learning Mandarin’ and ‘Read a new book every two weeks’ - among others. For 2016, he has himself the personal challenge to build an AI assistant that would let him control music, lights and temperature using his voice and alert him to anything might need his attention in his daughter's room. Along the way,  he has also set himself mini challenges like changing his baby's nappy in 20 seconds.

Business Point
Setting yourself challenges which require grit, determination and perseverance, gives the drive to succeed both on personal as well as business fronts.

Picture source: Fast Company

The Path of Four-Way Wins

Stewart Friedman, founding director of Wharton's Leadership Program and the Work/Life Integration Project,  recommends pursuing the path of four-way wins. The path comprises practical steps to making things demonstrably better in four domains of of our life,  at work,  at home, in our community and our private life. To begin, do a quick  review to explore: what's important to you,  where you focus your attention and how things are going in each of the four domains. Use some of the the thoughts and experiences of the people given below, help to generate ideas for experiments to better align what matters to you to what you actually do. Design experiments in which you are deliberately aiming to improve your performance and results in each of the four domains.

    1.   Expand your Knowledge

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert cartoons, believes, every adult must have working knowledge of; Public speaking, Psychology, Business writing, Accountancy, Design (the basics), Conversation, Overcoming shyness, Second language, Proper grammar, Persuasion, Technology (hobby level) and Proper voice technique.

       2.   Declutter you Mind

"To compose, I need to be happy and to have free mind space, " says A.R. Rahman the Oscar winning music composer, and Leander Paes, winner of the US Open Mixed Doubles title along with Martina Hingis says, "if I can keep Martina happy,  if I can keep her relaxed,  the tennis I don't even have to worry about. "

Focusing our motivation results in our single-minded immersion and harnessing of our emotions into performing and learning. The emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand.

     3.     Dance with your Emotions
"A relationship is like a dance,  says Indian classical dancer Anita Ratnam, "sometimes you are close, sometimes you pull away;  there is passion, anger and forgiveness;  and much like a dance,  the relationship will end one day." 

Every relationship has its share of a range of emotions - most, if not all are impermanent, changing with time, context and our personal and mental growth. Let us make the best of our relationships in our time in the world.

     4.    Accept the Past

"Not surprisingly,  I find myself thinking about that slippery substance - the past - and the infinite variety of human attempts to make peace with it.  The impulse to freeze it into tradition,  to tame into verity,  these are common options.  But just as readily available is that other inconvenient choice,  so seldom exercised - the choice to wonder at it,  too accept it's essential non- graspability." Arundhati Subramaniam in book review of Keki N Daruwala's book Fire Altar in HT

      5.   Accept your Ignorance

"Belief means something that you do not know. You want to assume and bring a certainty to something that you do not know. says Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.  "That means you are concretising your ignorance.  There is no need to know everything.  What I know, I know. What I do not know I do not know."

       6.    Establish a Routine

For geniuses, a routine was more than a luxury - it was essential for their work…Charles Dickens took three hours walks every afternoon - and what he observed on them fed directly into his writing. Tchaikovsky made do with two hour walks, but wouldn’t return a moment early, convinced that cheating himself of the full 120 minutes would make him ill. Beethoven took lengthy strolls after lunch, carrying a paper and pencil with him in case inspiration struck. Ernest Hemingway tracked his daily word output on a chart “so as not to kid myself”. Arthur Miller said, “I don't believe in draining the reservoir you see? I believe in getting up from the typewriter, away from it,  while I have still things to say.” 

        7.    Measure What You Can Control

Film director Ashutosh Gowarikar's advice to  actor Abhishek Bacchan - do not measure your success by how your film fares at the box office - because that is not within your control.  Measure your success by how you fared with the goals you set yourself for the film. Their success is within your control.

         8.     Be Resilient
"The hardest time to Captain the team is when your are not scoring runs and that's when your character and of leader you are outweighs your own form. The team needs the Captain to be a strong person who enjoys other people's success and sees the bigger picture. " Brendon McCullum, New Zealand skipper.

         9.      Create Lasting Emotional Bonds 

"In every situation, says Deepak Chopra, make it a habit to ask the key questions of emotional intelligence: How do I feel? How do they feel? What are the hidden stumbling blocks? A leader who can answer these questions will be in a position to create lasting emotional bonds.” 

Call to Action

The result of undertaking the practice of the four-way win is a greater sense of control and freedom living in ways that are consistent with what you're passionate about, what you really care about. When people take even a small step that's under their control, that's intentional and that's in a direction that they choose, they feel better about their lives and about the people they're affecting with their actions on a daily basis.

Evolution of a Leader

Acording to LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, a CEOs skills and responsibilities need to evolve according to the size and needs of the company:
Small company
(1 to 50 or100 people, depending on industry)
# build a strong team
# work on a few clearly defined problems
# focus on establishing company's identity

Medium company
(50 or 100 to 500 or 1000)
# focus on process and organization
# setting new set of priorities
# training employees on how to meet new goals

Large company
(500 or 1000+)
# focus on leading company strategy
# developing and maintaining corporate culture
# creating  appropriate structure for company
# ensuring right people in essential  roles
# making the most important hires
# empowering employees to meet their goals

5 Stolen Recipes to Do and Become

A recipe has no soul, You as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.” - Thomas Keller, chef, writer, restaurateur.

Every artist gets asked the question, "Where do you get your ideas?" The honest artist answers, "I steal them."

Here are a 5 stolen life recipes to which I have added my soul (aka my learning spin) to;

1. Adapt to the times

Restaurateurs today, realising that food is not the only carrot drawing diners in are giving more emphasis to the design and giving their places a makeover. Attention is being paid to the decor, layout, music. lighting, the clean fragrance (of herbs or fresh coffee and bread or wood charring in a clay oven) comely staff. All of which come together very nicely to pull in the customers. Ultimately however, as Chef Solomon says, as good as the decor maybe, it will be the food which will pull in the customer.  

Know when to focus on targets, when to pay attention to emotions and when to focus on the changing needs of customers. Be sensitive to the ecosystem and respond accordingly, taking care to never forget your essence.

2. Connect to the environment

When we think of the word 'food', we only think of nutrition, says chef Pankaj Walia. But the truth is our connection with food is deep and spiritual; something that our ancestors realised and respected. Archaeology professor Dr Kurush Dalal recommends slow cooking to establish the connection. Slow cooking, he says, recognises the connection between plate, people, planet and culture; things we have forgotten to correlate these days while munching on fast food."

People, planet and culture - each, some, or all three, are integral to our every action. Recognising the connection between our actions and their impact on the three, can help us become more conscious and connected to our environment.

 3. Connect to the Universe

“You’ll find a sense of calm overtaking you as soon as you pray or sprinkle water around your food before your meal," says Prof. Kurush Dalal. That time - even if it is for a split second - makes you appreciate the world, its wonders and the food on your table. It connects you with the Universe.”

Ritual or ceremony is a celebration, a tradition. Through these rites we re-live, re-enact, honor, remember, and call forth ancient spiritual teachings, tradition and divine spirits. Studies show that they are good for people’s physical and mental well-being. They help make life seem predictable, under control, and meaningful.

4. Have a hobby

Money isn't  the only thing stock market man Ramesh Damani kneads. He has a thing for dough which made him seek out baking and attend a week's bakery course in Paris. Asked for the similarity between brokers and bakers, Damani's reply is, "Both like the feel of dough....and both (investment and baking) need a lot of patience."

A hobby is an echo of the soul, and if you are following your heart, so can be your profession. Seek answers within, discover the parts between your profession and your hobbies which are similar, or support the other.

6. Play your cards wisely

"I realised my face was never going to be my fortune," says  Prahlad Kakkar, ad guru. "(So) I decided to impress ladies by tickling their palate - good food, full-bodied wine, candlelight and my storytelling powers are a lethal combination.  It has always worked. Food is much more than fuel for your body."

Remember what Randy Pausch said, "we cannot change the cards we are dealt with, just how we play the hand."

CALL TO ACTION

Now that you have a bunch of recipes to choose from, make your choice, put the ingredients of your choice into the pot, marinate in a thick sauce of motivation for a few days. Then light the fire of your passion, stir in a good dose of determination and serve. 

Bon Apetit!

Leap From The Comfort Zone

A king received a gift of two magnificent falcons and called in his head falconer to train them. Some months later the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying, the other had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived. The king summoned the best healers and sorcerers and healers to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. Having tried everything else, the king decided to call in someone familiar with the countryside - a farmer. In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high in the sky. He immediately ordered his courtiers to bring him the doer of this miracle. When the farmer arrived,  the king asked him, "How did you make the falcon fly?" " It was very easy, your highness, the farmer replied  I simply cut the branch of the tree where the bird was sitting."

#My Learning
I am most comfortable in my comfort zones because within it, I can operate with certainty and least risk. Can I take the leap?

Making life changes

'Amazing transformation' of Rahul Gandhi, says Omar Abdullah,  referring to the change in Rahul after his 56 day sabbatical. He doesn't know where Rahul went, what he did, or what this transformation is down to.  But, says Omar, he would try to learn, because there were lessons to be learnt for himself as well.
He also hopes that it doesn't mean he has  to disappear for 56 days.

Life Lesson
The first step in our learning,  development and growth is to know what it is we want to learn. Though the last of Omar's comment may have been half in jest, it is a useful pointer to an understanding that in our desire to learn and grow, we may not necessarily follow the exact steps and process our inspiration may have followed. 

A useful process for change is to develop a foundational theme around which we want to grow our competence.  The foundational theme serves as a core around which we can weave our everyday experiences of listening, understanding, talking, writing and reading. The themes make learning holistic, and help to tailor the lessons to suit our needs and personality.

Some of the themes  could be;

Courage/Fear
When you have unrealized dreams, but hesitate to go after them in the fear of disrupting what you already have.

Habits
This one can be used when you are disorganized and seriously wishesto put your life in order and want to get rid of dis-empowering habits.

Personal Excellence
This one helps when you wish to improve the overall quality of your life and not just in a few specific areas.

What do you think Omar Abdullah foundational theme could be?

What's yours?

Strategise and focus

In the French fighter jet Rafael,  the guns are so sensitively controlled,  that you can aim and fire the guns with just a turn of the head. This is so because being a fighter jet, the pilot needs to concentrate more on the fighting strategy than on flying the plane.

Leadership lesson: Once you have prioritised the actions your teams need to take, make the tasks around the key priorities simple to do and try to eliminate as many actions around the unrelated ones. 

Planners and Doers

Alan Cohen is an inspirational writer and author of The Daily Dose of Sanity. I read a page a day from the book for, as the blurb on the book says, my "five minute soul recharge." I find every thought  inspiring and often profoundly insightful. Today's 'soul recharge' was about how a participant at one of Cohen's seminar asked him for a good spiritual community to join. The lady appeared very interested and also took notes of the details Cohen gave her. Later that night, one of the seminar sponsors asked him whether the lady had inquired about spiritual communities, when Cohen replied in the affirmative, the sponsor told him that she has been doing this for years, and she doesn't follow up."She just likes asking," he concluded.

The lesson Cohen draws from the incident is, while the lady certainly craved community, she had more of an investment in the question than the answer. She symbolized the part all of us have that would rather seek than find.

Quite like one of my coaching clients, let us call him J, who was more of a planner than a doer. In the course of every coaching session, he would get some brilliant insights into some aspect of his life or business, and he would duly note it down as an action point. Come next session, when I would ask him the status on the action points he had noted the last time, he would always say   that he hadn't attended to them. After several such incidents, I finally asked him if he ever, even referred to the notes he so enthusiastically made at every session. His reply was another "no!" No wonder it took him one year to recruit a person for a critical position - he would call the same person time and again and never be able to take a decision!

My coaching lesson was that some of us have a greater emotional investment in the intellectual exercise of planning than in the uncertainties of the results of the execution of the thought. 

Coaching Using Principles of Behavioral Economics

Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, Thaler and Sunstein, authors of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, explain, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself. Decision makers do not make choices in a vacuum. They make them in an environment where many features, noticed and unnoticed, can influence their decisions. The goal of Nudge is to demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. The person who creates that environment is, in the authors terminology, a choice architect. 

Reading more on Nudge in the various web references gave me more and more the feeling of just how remarkably similar the role of a choice architect is to that of a coach. Here's why: 

• Anyone  who indirectly influences the choices people make, the authors say, can be called "choice architect". A coach does exactly that, hence he is a  "choice architect" too.
• Choice architecture, can be used to help nudge people to make better choices (as judged by themselves) without forcing certain outcomes upon anyone. This is one of the basic tenets of coaching. 
• The tools described by the authors (though differing in nature and application) sound very similar to the ones a coach would use. For instance, the tools highlighted are: 
• Expecting error (the coach tool: empathy) 
• Understanding mappings (the coach uses assessments to map client needs) 
• Giving feedback (a primary coaching tool)
• Structuring complex choices (the coach is a clarifier)
• Creating incentives. (the coach uses small wins as incentives so client is motivated for the big wins)

The remarkable similarities set me thinking. How could one incorporate the discipline of behavioral economics on which the book is based, with the practice, and business, of coaching?

This article is my attempt to do just that.

Applying Principles of Behavioral Economics to Coaching

The use of behavioral principles is fundamental to any coaching practice. Behavioral economics can help coaches understand better what every coach always understood, albeit unwittingly: That people are not rational.  Any new understanding of people's behaviour can only give coaches a better understanding of how exactly coaching works. Or how they can make it work better. 

Stephen Covey the personal development guru applied his mind to why humans behave the way they do and what they could do to avoid human susceptibilities that lead to wrong decisions. The result was his book The 7 Habits of Effective People, and the first of the seven habits is Be Proactive. Proactive people, says Covey, are those who are in control of themselves and do not surrender to a stimulus in the external environment but use their personal power to deal with the stimulus, whether people or situation. How are they able to do this?

Stephen Covey's Proactive Model

Proactive people know that there is a gap between a Stimuli and Response and within that gap is their freedom to choose the right response to maintain control over their self and be above circumstances.

What about people who are not proactive? Often, resistance to change is the result of lack of clarity because of a conflict between the rational and the emotional mind which comes in the way of allowing any change to stick. Ideas, and in turn change, is effective when it stays with you over time and changes the way you think.

Weaving the two models together- Thaler and Sunstein's derived from behavioral economics and Covey's based on new age theories of personal development, could, I realized, help create a useful model for coaching: Nudge Coaching

In his Proactive model, Covey talks of the four tools humans have at their command to effectively exercise their freedom to choose. The four 'hot buttons of pro-activity' being:

1. Self-awareness
2. Imagination
3. Conscience
4. Independent Will

Through the process of Nudge Coaching applied to each of the four 'hot buttons of proactivity', the coach would be able to resolve the conflict between the rational and emotional mind, and makes change happen.

The Nudge Process of Coaching 

Choice architects, according to Thaler and Sunstein, can have considerable power to influence choices. Or to use our the authors preferred language, they can nudge. The authors explain this term as "...any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives." Most important from a coaching point of view - nudges are not mandates.  

Coaching clients are busy people who are trying to cope in a complex world and cannot think deeply about every choice they make. They adopt rules of thumb that sometimes leads them astray. The Nudge Coach brings organization and structure to the contexts in which people take decisions. Choice architecture does not seek to reduce choices - just influence them in order to improve the client's lives, as judged by themselves. Humans are susceptibile to various biases and hence the way an issue is framed makes a huge difference to the success of a coaching engagement. In other words, people are nudgable. In the Nudge coaching process, a coach helps clients to structure their choices and create strategies that makes it easier for them to do things that improve their lives. He uses four types of nudges to achieve these coaching goals:

1. Nudging Client Self-awareness: Faced with important decisions about their lives, people often make pretty bad choices—choices they would not have made if they paid full attention and possessed complete information, unlimited cognitive abilities and complete self-control. They adopt rules of thumb that sometimes lead them astray. The explanation, according to Thaler and Sunstein, is rooted in some well-documented human behavioral quirks that are amplified by information overload and trying to cope in a complex world. All this leaves people with little time to think deeply about every choice they have to make. The Nudge Coach helps create awareness of their cognitive abilities and the resources available to them for better self-control.
2. Nudging Client Imagination: Sunstein and Thaler have spent a lot of time thinking about how people can be encouraged to make better decisions, and they offer some intriguing ideas. Their central thesis: People will make better choices if they are given a clear and well-designed set of options that acknowledge and offset human idiosyncrasies. For helping client's design and structure the options available to them,  the coach has to take into account his knowledge of behavioral science. By helping to rightly structure the choices available to the client, a coach helps to nudge clients to do the 'right' thing.
3. Nudging Client Conscience: Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik explains that the ideas of right or wrong, good or bad exist only among humans. No animal is good or bad - only humans would pity the antelope being being made meal of by a predator such as a a cheetah in a National Geographic documentary. Humans are greedy, unlike animals, who stop eating once their stomachs are full. Thus says Pattanaik, humans have the capacity to be worse than animals (greedy) and better than animals (generous). And it is in these subjective choices - greed vs generosity, right vs wrong and good vs bad that the coach, by structuring choices available to the clients, helps them to to improve decisions about their health, wealth and happiness.
4. Nudging Client Will: One of the basic tenets of behavioural economics is that people do not always take rational decisions. They have  status quo bias and change doesn't come easily. For reasons of laziness, fear, and distraction, many people will take whatever option requires the least effort, or the path of least resistance. All these forces imply that if, for a given choice, there is a default option—an option that will obtain if the chooser does nothing. The solution - helping coaching clients first make their choices, and then hold them accountable to their choice. Holding them accountable can at times  make the client feel challenged. A useful approach to overcome this is the one akin to the program in gmail. Every time a user mentions the word attachment but does not include one, prompts a pop-up, “Did you forget your attachment?” Similarly, by reminding the client of his commitment to the choice he has made, the coach can nudge the client will in non-threatening manner.

The Nudge Coach

By keeping an eye on the four nudges, a coach aka a choice architect can improve the outcomes for clients on their journey of the head and heart to fulfill their potential.

Journey to a Coaching Insight

Innovation was a term which had aroused my curiosity, and also bothered me  for a long time. The word was commonly understood as standing for something new or something novel - an understanding that did not satisfy my curiosity and therefore added to my bother.. For instance, I have always believed that my approach to any work I do, whether it is fixing things around the house, creating  new marketing strategies in my corporate career, or the tools and methods I use in my coaching have been uh, creative. I dreaded to use the word 'innovative' as a description of my methods, even to myself! This was because, in my mind the word stood for something radically different, and at the same time it also meant something incremental, creative or better. As you can see, the two were poles apart and just not reconcilable! Peter Drucker's definition of innovation as "Change that creates a new dimension of performance" was no help either.

Enlightenment Happens

Then, I happened to read an interesting article by Brianna Sylver in Businessweek, What does "Innovation" really mean. And enlightenment dawned! I understood just WHY the word innovation had bugged me so much. The word, Sylvers pointed out, had been used to describe everything from the Apple iPhone a new template in Microsoft word (or our very own jugaad)! How could one term be used to describe such vastly different things? The problem, Sylvers explained, lay in the lack of qualifiers. The term was used to mean 'ground-breaking  or world shattering' (iPhone) as well as a situation where the object of change became 'better than what it was before' (MS Word). Ah, so there it was, the cause of my discomfort and lingering dissatisfaction was  all because of the lack of qualifiers! This was Step1 in my journey of understanding of innovation. 

At about the same time, I came upon two definitions of innovation that helped me take a few more steps forward in my understanding.

The first was its description by Dr R.A. Mashelkar, Chairman  of the Innovations Foundation of India as "moving from best practices to next practices." The other was it's description as a "solution designed to address a particular pain point." by Navi Adjou of the University of Cambridge. While Adjou described 'pain points'  as the improvements made in technology, poor skills or processes, I was not quite sure what Next practices meant. On doing some research, I found Best practices were those that only allow you to do what you are currently doing a little better. On the other hand, Next Practices called for imagining what the future would look like; identify the big opportunities; and build capabilities to capitalize on them. In other words, Next practices were about creating your own future rather than relying on the innovation of others.

After churning this understanding of innovation in my mind's blender, I came with the following two definitions (in my coaching context):
Best Practices: Means solutions to the client's pain points uncovered through discussions with clients or assessments. These practices for improving skills and processess may (but not necessarily) be picked up from what competitors or industry leaders have employed successfully. 


Next practices: Means looking beyond typical sorces of information like successful past strategies or even strategies that industry leaders are currently using. It means looking at future challenges and developing a strategy with new solutions and services. Requires coach in helping client imagine the future and look at ways to capitalize on the opportunities. Next practices are innovations meant to address such opportunities that create new dimensions of performance.


To Journey's End
But my understanding was not yet complete. I still had to figure out how exactly all this played out in my coaching practice, which the image below did. 


My coaching practice, I noted,  was directed at 3 levels

1. Individual (Owner/Business head), 
2. Work group (Key Decision-makers and/or executives)
3. Business (Working at both the above levels to impact whole business)

The process innovations co-created by the coach and the client and/or his team were across a continuum from Best practices to Next practices. We traveled the continuum in three ways:  

                             Best Practices....................Next Practices

                                       

1. Streamlining: Understand client's pain points. Look at, and adapt best practices of competition to address the pain points. 
2. Surfacing: Tap into client's vision for his business, or if one does not exist, help to develop one. Visualize opportunities in the context of the vision and co-create ways of capitalizing on them. Give concrete shape to the aspired future through an Action or Project plan..
3. Inventing: Help 'invent' the future. Co-create the next practices to ensure successful outcomes. 

The net result of coaching efforts directed at meeting current needs and/or aspired future are felt at 3 levels of the client's business:  

1. Structure and/or Culture: A Structures and/or Culture in sync with the desired goals.
2. Roles: Better understanding of  Leadership  and Employee roles  in sync with desired goals.
3. Procedures: Tools and techniques for Strategy development, Customer relationship management,  Communication, Collaboration and other critical areas of business success.

End of Journey. Beginning of Another

This leg of my journey - figuring out the what and how of innovation in my coaching practice, was now complete. I had started out by trying to address the discomfort I had felt with the use of the word innovation, and ended up, not only a wonderful understanding of it, but much more! I now had, not only a proper definition of innovation in my mind, but had understood the difference between Best practices and Next practices. Most important of all, I had understood exactly how all this played out in my coaching practice! 

Further Reading: Seeking Out “Next Practices,” the Next Generation of Best Practices

How to Attain Mastery in Coaching

I have often reflected on this - is there one, and only one true model of coaching that really, really works? Especially so because, in nearly all my client interventions over my last eight years as a coach, I have believed in experimenting with a wide variety of tools and approaches to enable client's to successfully achieve their goals. I have debated on the merits of this approach with other coaches in several coaching forums and I have realized that opinions seems fairly divided between two schools - the Fundamentalists and the Evolutionists. The Fundamentalists are usually graduates of coaching schools who believe that only the model or the approach they have been trained in, is the best. In the case of Business coaches, Fundamentalist come from particular specialization who believe that only their expertise area is the one that will work for a business client. For instance, somebody coming from a finance background would tend to believe that a business coach’s job is to increase the cash flow of the business from operations and nothing more. While profits are the lifeblood of every successful business, the success of strategic planning systems such as the Balanced Scorecard suggests that financial goals are achieved from a seamless integration of several other perspectives as well. On the other hand, there are the Evolutionists - liberals and experienced (self-taught) coaches who believe that one's coaching model needs to evolve and develop with the individual coach's experience. Diane Lennard, author of Coaching Models: A Cultural Perspective supports this Evolutionist school of thought. She believes that in coaching, just as no two clients are the same, no two coaches or coaching approaches can be exactly the same. She is a proponent of the belief  that coaches apply their cultural backgrounds, interests, and experiences to their coaching and factor in their own insights, experiences, successes and learning to support the client. This, says Lennard, can result in stronger and more authentic coaching interventions.

As an Evolutionist, I have always believed that a coach needs to continuously improve on his coaching approaches by experimenting with different models. I have personally constructed several models based on various behavioural, cognitive and management (both business and self) theories and incorporated them into my coaching in the light of my personal experiences. In addition, I have a whole bunch of assessments and graphic aids, all designed to help clients achieve their goals in a manner suited their needs, expectations and capabilities. I am therefore of the view that coaching is a craft, which requires to be worked on constantly to attain mastery.

So, how can we raise what we do as coaches from a mere mechanical process, to the level of a craft? To do this, we must first understand what exactly constitutes craftwork.

 What defines Craftwork?

Howard Becker , an American sociologist known for his studies on occupations, identified three criteria for an occupation to be termed as craftwork:

1. Craftwork should produce a useful product or service.
2. Craftwork should be done for, or on behalf of someone else to fulfil that person's need for a useful product or service
3. Craftwork in addition to function and focus on the end user, should involve innovation 

Let us explore each of these criteria individually;

1. Craftwork should produce a useful product or service: Becker defines this dimension as a "body of knowledge and skill that can be used to produce useful objects." For practitioners, examples of craftwork could be of park construction to provide aesthetic experiences and opportunities for physical activity and supplying clean drinking water efficiently.

For coaches to elevate their coaching to a craft would require acquiring and perfecting a body of knowledge and skill which can be used to produce successful client interventions.

         

2. Craftwork is done for, or on behalf of someone else to fulfil that person's need for a useful   product or service: Becker describes this as consisting of the ability to perform in a useful way to suit individual needs..

In coaching, the clients are diverse and the perception of usefulness of the coaching intervention depends on the coachees'  goals and different notions of how to achieve their goals. A coach is required to make a diverse set of  people and groups identify a not the, strategic goal and move them toward, and implement it successfully.
Secondly, according to Becker, for an activity to be called craftwork, requires it's usefulness to  be          evaluated externally - by     individuals and groups of people.

For coaches to raise their work to a craft would require them to explore different ways and means to successfully guide their clients toward achievement of their goals. Positive client feedback should be the only measure of the coach's success.

3. In addition to function and focus on the end user the work should involve innovation: Many years are required to master the physical skills and mental discipline of a first-class practitioner. An expert, or one who has mastered the skills is one who:

• has great control over the crafts material, can do anything with them,
• can work with speed and agility,
• can do with ease the things that ordinary, less expert craftsmen find difficult or impossible.

To elevate their coaching to a craft, coaches have to acquire an extraordinary control of material and techniques and be able not only to do things better than most others, but also to do more things.

Now that we have understood what a coach requires to do to raise the level of his coaching to a craft, let us see how he can go about doing it.

The Road to Coaching Mastery 
The following is a suggested 3 step process to transform your coaching approach from a mechanical process into a craft, and attain mastery of it.

Three Steps to Coaching Mastery 

Step 1

Follow the Rules:  Begin by choosing a coaching model - either the one you have been trained in by your coaching school, or one of your choice. Follow and practice this model thoughtfully and rigorously. After each coaching intervention, check with clients on the benefits they have derived from the session and reflect on the  clients' as well as your own experience. Study the method in the light of this new found understanding and factor the knowledge into your subsequent coaching interventions.

Step 2
Break the Rules: Over a period of time with rigorous use and observation of the results of the practice of the chosen coaching model, you will begin to build up a body of understanding of what works and what needs to be improved further. Factor the insights and experiences into your subsequent coaching interventions and carefully monitor the success of your improved model of coaching. Keep a close watch on the impact made on clients by constantly taking their feedback.

Step 3
Ignore the Rules: To recap, you began with your chosen coaching model, progressed to factoring your insights and experiences into your modified version of the coaching model, and continulusly validated its impact. You have have now arrived at a point where you can start ignoring the rules. So rather than relying on someone else's method, you can now confidently begin to incorporate your individual perspectives, skills, knowledge, experiences into devloping your own coaching model/s. You could also start to explore ways of incorporating the knowledge and understanding of your culture to influence your coaching orientation.

For instance, the Indian cultural dynamics are quite different from that of the the West (see my blogpiece Decoding the Desi Dynamics). You can begin to examine how you can factor these into your own coaching model. As an Indian, it would be also be useful to look at using Krishna as a useful model of a coach, mentor and facilitator.

Apart from using your model with your client, you could also use it as a personalized tool for reflecting on your coaching process and practice. This should facilitate continuous learning and improvement of your coaching effectiveness.