COACHING i n t e r n a t i o n a l

NUGGET

Empowering you to Empower Others!

CONTRACTING
Learning Objectives
Take the value of your hour and multiply that amount by how many hours you have spent in time wasting meetings. It then becomes easy to see the value of using coaching skills to make meetings really work! Colleen-Joy
If we don't have a clear target to shoot at, we risk shooting each other or ourselves. Have somewhere to aim. Having a clearly defined target for your thinking and communication is the art of contracting. Contracting is the subtle and yet powerful coaching art of determining an achievable outcome for a given time frame. It may sound like common sense, because it is, but surprisingly so few meetings or conversations are contracted. And that is precisely why they usually fail or at the very least frustrate. A contract is the specific, named, defined TARGET for the conversation. It is the answer to the question, What specifically do we want to take away from the time we spend talking? It's not a goal, but must support the goal. It's not a theme, but can relate to a coaching theme. What distinguishes an ok coaching conversation from a dynamite coaching conversation is the strength of the contract! Learn to contract like a pro and you will crack coaching wide open. Contract poorly and feel the pain of trying to extract solutions and actions in the blind dark of a focus-less conversation. A THEME is a broad, general topic. Some coaching sessions are already themed by the type of coaching being done, or by the company that is employing the coach. Some coaching sessions are not already themed, but a coach can listen for and excavate a theme from the first few minutes of the coached conversation. Examples of THEMES: 1. Staff morale 2. Budget 3. Client events 4. Sales 5. Relationships 6. Personal development 7. Wellness 8. Performance 9. Communication strategy 10. Software implementation 11. Websites A GOAL is a long or short term target, that CAN'T be accomplished in a coaching session, but can be planned towards and clarified. Goals can also be determined by the coachee OR by external factors like teams and companies. The more specific the goal the better. (Use the CONTRACT CHECKS; see future section, for improving goal definitions too).

Understand what ? contracting is See the ? difference between contracting, themes and goals Use coaching ? questions to excavate a contract

Copyright 2011, Colleen-Joy Page. www.innerlifeskills.com

COACHING i n t e r n a t i o n a l

NUGGET

Empowering you to Empower Others!

CONTRACTING pg 2
Learning Objectives
Getting people to be clear about what they want to actually achieve in a conversation, radically transforms meetings into productive, engaging and valuable uses of our time. Colleen-Joy

? Listen for and

Examples of GOALS (based on themes above, see how they connect, these are polished to be specific too): 1. Improve staff morale by 20% in terms of overall satisfaction. 2. Cut budget by 15% for the quarter. 3. Host 3 client reward and relationship building events. 4. Strengthen the sales team's communication lines and cooperation this year. 5. Spend more time with key relationships. 6. Implement my personal development plan. 7. Build a wellness based lifestyle of healthy eating and exercise. 8. Improve my performance and productivity on a daily basis. 9. Implement the new internal communication strategy across all divisions. 10. Train key staff in the new software implementation. 11. Have 3 marketing websites built and functioning by April. As you can tell, these long term goals could not be completed in the time frame of a conversation! That's why they are NOT contracts. Learn to tell the difference between GOALS and CONTRACTS. Many new coaches make the mistake of thinking a goal is a contract. To check, ask yourself, Can we actually achieve this today in the time frame of the conversation? If not, it's a goal. Coaching out goals is valuable and very integral to coaching, but contracting is specific and will help you coach at high levels of competency. Why contract? Solutions follow contracting because without a clear, specific, checked contract the following common problems tend to occur in conversations (formal and informal use of coaching): INFORMAL Discussions are too high level, ungrounded in reality. Potential for misunderstandings and confusion without an agreed clear focus point for session. Unproductive use of time, with conversations running around long term plans and story instead of working the time at hand to take actual steps forward. FORMAL The difference between a good and great coach is contracting skill. Without a contract with evidence a coach is blind. Solutions without a contract and solid step 1 have the risk of not landing, not being grounded or being impossible to find. Step 1 also forces the coachee to be sure about their actual focus points and checks the important and priority levels. It also motivates the coachee to be engaged in the coaching and give 100% to the session.

coach out a THEME (unless there is a predetermined one)

? Listen for and

coach out a GOAL

? From the THEME

AND GOAL, coach out a CONTRACT

? WRITE DOWN the

CONTRACT BIG to easily see and track against throughout the session
? Understand why

contracting is done BEFORE solutions

Copyright 2011, Colleen-Joy Page. www.innerlifeskills.com

COACHING i n t e r n a t i o n a l

NUGGET

Empowering you to Empower Others!

CONTRACTING pg 3
Learning Objectives
How to spot an amateur or average coach they can't contract well! Colleen-Joy

? Examples of

contracts compare them to the goals on previous page list.

Examples of CONTRACTS (Based on the goals from the previous page.) Look again at how they connect and see the difference between themes, goals and contracts. The bolded words highlight the contract distinguishers and show some of the different types of contracts: 1. Find a way to improve staff morale by 20% in terms of overall satisfaction. A way is a SOLUTION contract! 2. Outline a strategy to cut marketing budget by 15% for the quarter. A STRATEGY/PLANNING contract! 3. Choose between 6 venues to host 3 client reward and relationship building events. A DECISION contract. 4. Determine 3 reasons to justify the need to strengthen the sales team's communication lines and cooperation this year. A BRAINSTORMING contract. 5. Feel confident enough to ask for time with key relationships. A MENTAL STATE contract. 6. Overcome my procrastination and be excited to implement my personal development plan... A MENTAL STATE and OBSTACLE contract. 7. Find the strength to not sabotage my wellness based lifestyle of healthy eating and exercise A MENTAL STATE and OBSTACLE contract. 8. Take a first step to improve my performance and productivity on a daily basis A step is a SOLUTION contract! 9. Come up with actions to implement the new internal communication strategy across all divisions. Actions is a SOLUTION contract! 10. Identify the key staff to train in the new software implementation A BRAINSTORMING contract. 11. Outline a plan to make sure that I have 3 marketing websites built and functioning by April. A STRATEGY/PLANNING contract! It's a very good idea to learn to TUNE-IN to THEMES < GOALS < and then excavate the CONTRACT when coaching. Write down each clearly and CHECK THEM WITH THE coachee. Track against the contract throughout a coaching session. Do everything you can to DELIVER the contract (using its evidence as the order). Can a contract change? Yes and frequently does during a coaching session, so be flexible and stay focussed.

Copyright 2011, Colleen-Joy Page. www.innerlifeskills.com