Leadership and Coaching

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This, I think, may be the most
interesting project that we’ve had yet

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This one pushed me out of my comfort
zone. It wasn’t a copy of anything else.

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It was harder, better, deeper, than 
anything that I had seen before.

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So, it scared me, in a good way.

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In the fall of 2017, 23 members of 
cohort 6 took on an ambitious

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project. Their goal, was to learn about
coaching and the mindset that pervades

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it, hoping to gain insight into how it
might relate to leadership development.

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Students split into five different teams,
each of which contributed something

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unique to the project. Together, the
cohort researched coaching topics and

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put them into practice using spot
coaching as a mechanism to provide

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experience and insight for the students.
After refining these techniques, they

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practiced with cohorts 5 and 7 and
continued to share their knowledge

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beyond the classroom, by promoting the
project on various social media platforms

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How was coaching relevant to the students in the Leadership Institute?

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So, as an engineer our first goal is to figure 
out what the problem is, and solve it.

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that is what we learned in class. That is the
critical thinking mindset and the

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coaching mindset is the exact opposite;
you’re not actually solving anybody’s

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problem for them. You’re actually guiding
them to their own problem–solution and

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you’re sitting back and watching.

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Last year as sophomores, you know, we really focused on the skills of being a

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good leader and I think that those were both

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social aspects, you know, being able to
communicate effectively, recognize

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different types of people, different
personalities, and get along with them

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being able to listen, and then also
developing our own personal skills, you

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know, being introspective, being self
aware of what’s going on our own

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strengths and weaknesses and I think
that this subject of coaching really is

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the culmination of all that.

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You don’t want to tell someone 
what to do which is what engineers

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love but getting them to their own 
solution is really what coaching is about.

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Being able to experience what
it’s actually like to help another

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person work through any sort of
transformational journey that they are

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and be encouraging, but not being
controlling has you know been a really

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good opportunity for me, not only to a
better understand the members of my

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cohort to help them, you know, make
decisions and go through a

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transformational journey of their own,
but also to accept the fact that control

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isn’t always good and it’s really okay
to, you know, lead from behind, encourage,

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and ensure that other people in making
the decisions that work for them.

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What were your initial thoughts on coaching
and how have those changed

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over the course of the semester?

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So when we first started off, I really 
didn’t know what to think about coaching

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like I I told other
people the only real of coaching

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experience that I’ve had came through
sports, which I had always done growing

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up, but it’s kind of interesting because
looking back on it I feel that my

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perception of coaching was more so a
management style rather than coaching.

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I would say that the most influential
coach that I had really embodied what we’ve

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talked about in coaching. You know, They
got to know me on a personal level. They

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were always asking me questions,
challenging me to be better, and improve

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each and every day
whereas I feel like in a sports, general

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sense, you don’t see that across all
coaches.

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I just had a sense of all right well

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I’m gonna sit down and talk
with someone and and try to help them

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improve on certain skills and that was
that in essence is correct but I had no

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sense of appreciation for what you’re
doing and how difficult it really is.

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When you boil it down, coaching is listening 
and then acts asking really

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insightful questions to lead your client to an impactful
solution.

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What did you do to teach the students about the coaching mindset?

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So, the coaching learning team has been

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doing activities with the class. So,
usually we do one week of teaching and

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one week of activity and the activity
usually is a little coaching session, and

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so, one person is the coach and one person is the coachee and I really

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liked having the experience of coaching
someone, especially having seen it in a

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professional setting.

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We really wanted to
utilize spot coaching during our

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presentations, so that the members of our
Institute could get a feel for what

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coaching was. It’s a lot more effective
than our team talking to you for two

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hours. So, the experience is really why we
pick spot coaching. Our spot coaching sessions

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started out very simple just a coach 
and client and you still got a feel for

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what coaching felt like, but as we kind
of moved on through the semester and as

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we were learning about what coaching
looked like, we added more observers to

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that, so that way you could experience
the coaching session without having to

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be totally focused on being the person
asking the questions or being a person

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answering the question.

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It’s really interesting, I think, to

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to experience both ends of, you know,
being the coach and the coachee because

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they are you know while that is one, like,
single, you know, session or whatever. It’s

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one coaching session. It’s two completely
different viewpoints and so in

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practicing one, while being the other, it
kind of gives you a better appreciation

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for what coaches go through and for what
coachees have to do as well.

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The advantage of doing these spot coaching or fishbowl
sessions in class was we had the

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opportunity as a team to kind of pause
the discussion and open it up to the

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entire class and kind of exchange ideas
on what you’re noticing, what you’re

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observing, and what you’re feeling and
that was really advantageous, to, just get

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everyone else’s thoughts and be prompted
to kind of go deeper into the

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conversation and kind of work through
some of those things as class.

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How have the coaching sessions strengthened your understanding of the coaching mindset?

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I think asking the right questions and,
kind of, getting past this mental barrier

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of “I’m not fixing this problem for them,
I’m just somebody who is going to not

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even necessarily guide them,” I would say,
because you don’t want to lead them in

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any direction or another, but open things
up to them that maybe they wouldn’t have

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been, you know, they wouldn’t have
experienced without somebody else being

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there with them.

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I’d like to say I’ve seen
people our cohort to step outside of

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their comfort zone. Coaching is very
challenging and I think everyone our

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cohort has been very receptive to the
things we’re asking them to do and their

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comments that they’re giving us at the,
end of their sessions, really speaks to

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me that they’re investing time during,
like the activities that we give them

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and that they’re really 
challenging themselves.

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I had to let go of my

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preconceptions and my assumptions about
who they were, what they were

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doing and just let them lead the session.

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I think, as a team lead, I’ve learned that

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I like to do everything on my own, but
the best projects and your best product

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comes from working with people
who have different opinions and

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different thoughts, and my team has been
absolutely incredible in providing

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perspective that I just don’t have, and
just being very supportive in the whole

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process of trying to take this whole
coaching thing, and bring it down to a

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digestible level.

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This is something that you
can’t really grade and I think that

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helps to push people, who maybe aren’t as
self-aware, to become more self-aware

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because they need to realize that, what
they’re doing, directly impacts what

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we’re trying to accomplish, what we’re
trying to do

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A lot of people have asked why we’re
doing this ,because we’re juniors in

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college, and it’s a really big project to
take out as juniors but I would say

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it’s really important as something that
we’re going to take into the future

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because in any situation, your boss is
going to coach you. You can coach your

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peers, and it’s important to both be able
to be coached, to be a coachee, and to be

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a coach and while this is a long process
it’s not something that we’re gonna do

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overnight; it’s something that if we have,
if we already have some experience with

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it and then we take that into the job
setting, that wherever we’re going to end

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up no matter if that’s engineering
related or not, if we decide to like

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leave the engineering field, this is a
really great way to have the experience

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already

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We’re diving into an area that
for most of us is completely uncharted

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territory and I think that’s why this
project is so special.

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So how have you seen your students 
grow throughout this project?

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Oh, it’s been amazing. To walk into
this project with no idea really what

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coaching was. There wasn’t one student
that had ever been exposed to real,

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professional, leadership coaching, ever. I
think everyone has learned not only the

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complexities of being a good coach, but
also, maybe more importantly, how to be a

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great coachee and how to be open, and
open-minded, and self-aware, and search

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deep. So, that’s a pretty amazing thing to
start to get your arms around, when

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you’re in your early twenties

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you