Susan and Alicia move on to explore other aspects of Susan’s problem with Ralph. However, at this point, Alicia has already been valuable to Susan in helping her reflect on one aspect of her problem with Ralph. She has helped Susan established a Reflective Interlude. `Specifically, Alicia has helped Susan reframe a set of goals. What specifically are the approaches available to Alicia as a coach?
Goal Replacement. One goal can be replaced by a second goal that is more closely affiliated with an individual’s or an organization’s true interests. A coach like Alicia might ask her client questions like:
- What do you really want to see happen?
- What do you/your department really need?
- What is even more important than this goal?
- What would happen if you really took this goal seriously?
- What would you like the outcomes of this project to be?
- What would you like to celebrate three years from now if you were very successful in this unit of the organization?
When forced to clarify goals, a manager like Susan often can be more successful simply by directing her efforts more consistently toward the truly important goals of her division or organization. Other macro-coaching strategies that emphasize the clarification of one’s purpose or broader goals also provide leaders with an opportunity to establish and monitor their goals. A micro-coaching process additionally encourages leaders to reflect on their actions and question their choices from a higher level of awareness (second-order change).
Espoused and Enacted Goals. A leader can also be encouraged by her coach to examine her current behavior and the behavior of other people in her department, division or organization against their respective goals. She engages in this micro-coaching process in order to consider whether or not the current, enacted behavior exemplifies the espoused goal or actually another, as yet unidentified, goal. A coach might ask his coaching colleague:
- If you are not moving very effectively toward your espoused goal, then perhaps this is not truly the goal toward which you are working. What might this goal be?
- If you were someone from Mars who came to your unit and observed what is being done and what people are talking about, what would you assume to be the goals and purposes of this part of the organization?
- How do you think members of your unit benefit from the way(s) in which your unit now operates?
- What are some of the unspoken truths about this goal around here?
Seemingly irrational or counterproductive actions often yield secondary gains for an individual or organization. (Bandler and Grinder, 1979) A work team that never meets its production quota may be meeting its real goal: controlling the operations of the company. All of the other production units of the company must adjust their work schedule around this slower unit. Similarly, the director of a social service agency may actually want to retain control over all aspects of the agency’s operations. He attempts to keep the organization in a state of crisis to justify his active involvement in all parts of the organization.
Download Article
