Last week I was on a stand at the HRD 2011 conference at Olympia, working with some colleagues under the banner of "10 minute coaching". Our plan was to offer a true experience of deeper level coaching to HR professionals who, although they may be responsible for procuring coaching for business managers, or for encouraging a coaching culture within the business, have had little or no experience of receiving coaching, hence sometimes don't really get what it's about. It was such a good experience I have to write about it!
Firstly, let me explain about the 10-minute tag. Many people came to see us assuming we had some special "fast" methodology. But actually we had the opposite. What we were seeking to demonstrate was that the true power of coaching is not in any methodology, it is in the ability of the coach to give full attention to their client and to be fully present with them. If you can achieve this as a coach, even for 10 minutes, something useful will happen for your client.
And this proved to be the case. We set up two leather armchairs behind a silk room divider and created a quiet space. Appointments were at 15 minute intervals to allow a few minutes for changeover and we alternated coaching sessions, one of us recovering while the other coached behind the screen. It was amazing (even to us if I am honest), and also uplifting, to see what people got out of these sessions. So thank you to all who visited us, and to my colleagues. I'm now wondering how we take this "guerilla coaching" one step further. Maybe we take our two chairs and the screen to Liverpool Street, Waterloo, or Canary Wharf? Watch this space!
