Virtual Leadership Coaching: An Innovative Strategy to Lead Yourself and Others

Relevance to Online Learning Community

How do Higher Education leaders lead themselves and others without seeming to forcefully impose their ideas on each other to achieve their goals? What framework or best practices do they draw on to help them lead themselves and others virtually and beyond?  

This workshop will reveal an innovative strategy – Leadership Coaching – that will help participants to not only lead others but also lead themselves effectively to achieve their goals.  Participants will discover how they may have thought-provoking interaction with others to help them identify important goals and foster genuine commitment to achieving those goals. Resources will be provided that participants may use during and after the workshop to help them achieve their goals (e.g., hone their leadership coaching skills, and initiate the development of a Leadership Coaching Institute at their institutions, if desired).

An important desire of leaders is to find effective ways to motivate themselves and others to identify meaningful goals and strategic ways to accomplish those goals. However, this process could be challenging for leaders who may have a certain inclination toward a particular result. What should leaders do when they would like to grow their colleagues in ways that help them to think innovatively and identify meaningful goals while having a vested interest in the outcomes?

During this workshop the presenter will share practical examples of goals that needed to be achieved and how applying essential leadership coaching skills was very instrumental in getting colleagues or employees genuinely involved in the decision-making process, committing to achieve relevant goals, and implementing the action plan. 

The presenter will also share life-changing examples of how facilitating a Leadership Coaching Institute (virtually) at a university resulted in life-changing results for the presenter and the institute participants.

Workshop Objectives:

• Distinguish between coaching and other professions (e.g., mentoring, consulting, and counseling).

• Apply major coaching standards purported by the International Coaching Federation.

• Serve as an observer, client, or coach in coaching sessions.

• Identify areas to use coaching as a tool in the future to achieve short-term and long-term goals.

To accomplish the objectives of the workshop, the presenter will provide the participants with helpful resources to help them apply essential leadership coaching skills during or after the workshop. These resources include, but are not limited to the following:

• Sample Peer Coaching Schedule – This schedule may be used to organize coaching groups (e.g., a triad consisting of an observer, coach, and client).

• Coaching Prep Form – The client may complete this form and share it with the coach before each session.

• Coaching Conversation Guide – The coach may use this guide during coaching sessions to record notes and use appropriate questions from the pool of sample questions as needed.

• Coaching Observation Form – The observer may use this form during the session to identify best practices that the coach should demonstrate, and provide feedback to the coach.

Workshop Outline:

• The presenter will invite participants to introduce themselves, indicate relevant coaching experiences (if applicable), and distinguish between coaching and other professions such as mentoring, consulting, and counseling.

• The presenter will provide a synopsis of the major coaching competencies (based on the standards from the International Coaching Federation), and highlight the competencies that they will focus on during the workshop.

• The presenter will do a coaching demonstration by asking one of the participants to volunteer to be coached. The presenter will facilitate a debrief of the coaching session using the WIN strategy (e.g., What did I do well? What could be improved? What could I do next time?).

The participants will also be invited to do the following:

• Participate in peer coaching triads (via Zoom breakout room as needed) and serve as observer, client, or coach in laser coaching sessions.

• Debrief their coaching sessions using the previously mentioned WIN debriefing strategy as time allows.

• Report back in the general Zoom room about their laser coaching experience.

• Identify privately or publicly how they plan to use coaching as a tool in the future to achieve their goals as they lead themselves and others.

The presenter will conclude the workshop by encouraging and challenging participants to find innovative ways to apply coaching based on their goals. The presenter will also point the participants to relevant resources.