Week 2 - Reflective entry: Our first coaching experience by Ingrid Sorensen

Admittedly, beforehand I was somewhat nervous about doing this exercise. My fears especially involved my role as a coach and whether or not I would have anything constructive to come up with. But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I immediately felt safe and secure in my group, and realized that it wasn’t as scary as anticipated.

While performing my role as a coach, I found that in many ways you are simply having a conversation. Every now and then it felt like a discussion between friends. However, I was still aware of my role, so I was cautious so as to not treat it completely like a regular conversation. And I also tried coming up with interesting questions to help the coachee discover things she perhaps had not thought about before.

For me, I felt that it really helped having a listener as well. After the coaching session, the listener would comment on the role of the coach, and give feedback as to how you did. This made me more confident that I was on the right track, and I became more relaxed with the situation.

While playing the role of the coachee, I found it somewhat difficult to try and reiterate my summary orally. Most likely this was due to my nervousness. But when my coach asked me questions allowing me to go “off script”, I found it easier to try and explain my opinions.

Being a listener was quite challenging as well. Because your focus shifts, and you’re trying to assess how another person is performing. But at the same time I feel that being a listener also helped me to think through how I should act while playing the role of the coach.

After the session, we went through some of the questions we had regarding the process of coaching itself. For instance, one of the girls wondered whether or not we should interrupt the coachee while she speaks. We were concerned that maybe this might come across as rude, but at the same time we thought it best to ask then and there. Had we waited until the coachee was finished with what she had to say, then perhaps we wouldn’t remember what we were referring to after. Also, the coachee might not be in the same mindset anymore, and it might be harder for her to answer. And as I mentioned earlier, for me it helped when my coach asked me questions during my “presentation” of my summary, because it enabled me to think about things I hadn’t thought about before.

All in all, I found this to be an interesting exercise!