When I trained as a business coach in 2010 (courtesy of The Coaching Academy) I was introduced to a whole host of strategies for working with business owners and senior leaders.
Unsurprisingly, the number of ‘business coaching models’ has only grown since then, and it’s naturally important to stay abreast of how things evolve.
Here are some of the most famous business coaching strategies out there, and how they might be used to help you in your journey.
What is a Business Coaching Strategy?
A business coaching strategy is a framework that guides you and your coach through a collaborative, constructive process.
It gives you a roadmap to follow, so you know what steps you’ll take as you work together to identify challenges, imagine solutions, and implement new ideas.
In many cases, I find fixed frameworks far too rigid for most of my clients’ particular circumstances – but knowing what’s out there and understanding how coaching might help you can be an important step in moving forward.
The ‘Off the Shelf’ Coaching Models
The Grow Model
One of the most popular models out there, the GROW model originated in 1992.
It focuses on problems and goals to keep things moving, across four different stages of the coaching process:
- Goal: Setting achievable goals – in both the near and long-term – is an important first step (take a look at my top tips for setting goals for some more guidance).
- Reality: Next up, GROW suggests comparing those goals with your current reality, so you can accurately measure your current position.
- Options: With a clear idea of where you are and where you want to be, it’s time to explore the possibilities in front of you, and to generate ideas for achieving your goals.
- Way Forward: No good coaching practice is complete without action – and this final step is focused on laying down markers to measure success, and putting your agreed steps into action.
The STEPPA Coaching Model
Another popular model, STEPPA was introduced in 2003 to hone in on the emotions that particular challenges can generate – and looking at ways to reframe those productively.
It’s an especially flexible and adaptable model that can be applied to a lot of different situations, but it does lack some specificity on how you build a successful plan.
As with the GROW model, it follows a series of steps:
- Subject: Understanding why you might need coaching is a key starting point for STEPPA.
- Target: As with other models, identifying your target outcome is key.
- Emotions: The STEPPA theory states that exploring the feelings around those goals will help to guide future choices.
- Perception: Looking at the desired outcome in a wider context.
- Plan: Creating a step by step plan to achieve the goal.
- Act: Following through on the plan, with room for adjustment if emotions change.
The OSKAR Coaching Model
The OSKAR model appeared at a similar time to STEPPA, being designed to focus less on problems, and more on solutions.
The steps are:
- Outcome: You clarify your desired end goal.
- Scale: You work together to understand how close you currently are to this end goal, perhaps on a sliding scale.
- Know-how: You discuss how to close that gap, and what tools or experience you might need.
- Affirmation: In this step you reflect on the achievements you’ve made so far, celebrating the work you’ve done up to now.
- Review: You review the outcome.
The Action-Centred Leadership Model
This model is especially useful for executive coaching, and is one of my favourites thanks to its flexibility and focus on actually getting things done. It’s also one of the oldest models, invented back in 1973.
Rather than following a step by step process, it splits a leader’s duties into three areas, making it easier to identify which needs more work and attention.
These areas are:
- Task achievement: The ‘getting things done’ element of any leader’s role. Understanding it better might involve clarifying objectives and goals, and providing tools to achieve them. (Take a look at this lesson from a Texan airline.)
- Team formation and management: Good team unity can make all the difference for businesses, and leaders have a key role in establishing policies, culture, ways of working, clear lines of communication, and maintaining a healthy and constructive feedback environment.
- Individual development: As a leader, it’s important to spend time growing your team, and aligning their personal goals with the team’s objectives. Taking the time to reflect on this area of responsibility can help you to more effectively dedicate energy amongst your team.
The Core Principles of Good Coaching
Fundamentally, all these coaching strategies are built around a similar approach of:
- Situation review
- Goal setting
- Exploring ways of moving forward
- Laying down markers for success
- Building a strategy
- Executing the plan
- Reviewing, adjusting and learning
For them to work effectively, they rely on a relationship with a coach built on trust, connection, focus, experience, understanding, guidance, and occasionally firmness – or accountability, at least.
In my experience, finding the best business coach for you is primarily around fit, and the particular outcomes you want to achieve.
If you want to chat more about how to find the right business coach I’d be happy to help – and if my schedules are full I’m always happy to try and point you in a helpful direction.
Now, what about taking a fresh look at your goals?
Kind Regards,
Chris