2021 – The year in Coaching Cafés

How we responded to the 5 top trends

Back in March when we held our first Coaching Café for the year, we discussed 5 trends in coaching for 2021.  Of course, back then, we had come out of extended lockdowns.  In addition, for half of Australia, we were NOT expecting to go back into some of the longest and toughest lockdowns in the world.

In our final Coaching Café of the year, we explore the highlights of the Coaching Cafes and reflect on the year that was.  We do this by thinking about the 5 top trends and we did to respond to those trends.

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Trend 1:  Leverage our ability to adapt and reinforce new habits

This trend is about:

  • Coaching people under stress and responding based on personality type
  • Furthermore, adapting to the changing circumstances and environment
  • In addition, trouble-shooting and resolving friction points and ‘the unspoken’
  • And taking the lessons from what we are going through and seeing how we can leverage those lessons

In response to this trend we ran a number of Coaching Cafes including:

  • Taking our conversations to the next level
  • Bad questions – how to avoid ineffective questions

Trend 2: Leading change

 We are conscious of the enormous amount of change going on daily.  Particularly, with rules changing all the time in lockdowns.  So the focus is on:

  • Coaching through change
  • Forming, storming, norming
  • Calmness as an attractive leadership quality
  • Leaders need to ask for help

Our response was to dedicate our International Coach Week 2021 conference to the theme of Leading Change and to run several other sessions during the year.

bored lady procrastinating

Trend 3: Focus on communication

This trend had a focus on:

  • 5 levels of conversation
  • The need to re-establish human connection, rather than I don’t have ten minutes
  • Getting the mindset right for performance conversations
  • Find a balance eg. overcome virtual meeting fatigue

As a result, we ran a number of Coaching Cafes on these topics.

Trend 4: Focus on mental health

 Our need to focus on mental health continues. It was there before the pandemic. It will always be there.  That’s why Mental Health Awareness Week is important. And in our Coaching Cafes included:

  • How to start a conversation about mental health with a colleague
  • Recognising the signs of anxiety and depression in the workplace
  • Post-COVID stress and trauma
Take a 30 minute holiday

Trend 5: Focus on self and continuous development

We’ve covered so much this year in our Coaching Cafés from ‘juggling and coaching through lockdown fatigue’, to exploring best practice in coaching culture. In addition, learning from leaders.  Most importantly, we have loved the opportunity to come together as an Alumni.   Each week we share ideas and experience and learn together.  In this way we can focus on self and our continuous development.

Over 1,000 people joined us

Thank you to the over 1,000 people who joined us across the year.

It’s been a pleasure to bring these Coaching Cafes to you each week.

And we look forward to the new year….after a decent break of course.

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WHAT OUR CLIENTS ARE SAYING

Using the ZOOM meeting worked really well including the breakout session.  A terrific and engaging course, I enjoyed it immensely.

I loved it! It gave me everything I was hoping for (confidence, a framework and many lenses to consider) and more!

It is an excellent program that can be adapted to any area of a workplace. It will assist me with all my communications with other people, delivered by a very passionate facilitator, easy to listen to, flexible and attentive to the class.  I am thoroughly energised by what I have learnt so far.

This is the best program I have ever participated in. The Friday webinars have been great to help me embed the information I have learned. I am really appreciative of everyone that works at Open Door Coaching and the care and effort they put into helping everyone that joins the program.

My workplace skills and capabilities have taken a very positive turn. Where I would get exhausted or overwhelmed by difficult work relationships, I now am equipped and confident to manage these relationships and use some of the models I have learned to get positive outcomes in our interactions.

I thought the online format via ZOOM worked well and for people outside of capital cities, it is a much more affordable and less disruptive way of undertaking the training.

The course has really enhanced and further developed my skillset. What a phenomenal four days for the Zoom face to face part of the course and amazing, quick turnaround on assessment of online modules.

I have confidence in my ability to coach others. My skills have grown significantly and I am so much more conscious of not responding to my team with solutions with a great toolkit to support me. This coaching course has changed my behaviour significantly and positively in my life. Where once I loved solving others problems I now love seeing others solve their own problems.

Great work, this course  is amazing and definitely supports me in my goals. I have always wanted to make a difference and found coaching to be more beneficial than mentoring to support an individual to take responsibility for their own development and to move forward in their goals.

Since starting the program, my work role has not changed, but I have developed as a leader in my ability to develop myself and others. I developed an ability to detect “below the line” thinking, and to develop narrative to move above the line. My listening and questioning skills have grown, and my ability to detect opportunities for growth in self and others.

I feel I have the skills to better lead, manage and coach people in the workplace. The communication skills I have learnt have assisted me in my communications and have improved my relationships at work and home. I thought the program was great. It was challenging and a lot of work. But in the end there were real and useful learning outcomes. I really enjoyed this course and got a lot out of it. It provided me the opportunity to grow personally (the most important output) and gave me some very useful coaching skills

I have grown in confidence and started the journey of becoming a coach. The course provided me with some excellent theory and practical components which have worked together well in helping me along the journey. I now have greater confidence and much better listening skills. I’ve learnt what active listening actually means.  The higher level of confidence has allowed me to develop my coaching skills at a faster than expected rate.

My approach to all personal and professional discussions and my confidence has grown with what I have learnt from the program. I truely believe this program has changed my approach to all I do. I believe I have enhanced my communication and how to read and interact with different personalities types, listening with purpose and communicating with intent to learn and grow others.

I can see the benefits and knowledge and skills in coaching and can see its benefits in self coaching, one on one coaching and team coaching as well as in everyday conversations and conflict resolution. The face to face program and online program is excellent. I have completed various vocational and post graduate study courses and this is the best so far. Natalie Ashdown is an inspirational coach and trainer. Her teaching methods are engaging and very effective. Brigitte Calvert always completes assessment reviews speedily and the feedback was excellent and assisted in the learning process.

I am now comfortable coaching. I see lots of opportunities and I have realised that I have many skills. I have a greater awareness of serving the higher needs of all within my interactions. I am much better at posing appropriate questions to foster internal reflection. I think it is an excellent program.

I’ve learned a lot about myself and how to conduct conversations and am now confident to be able to perform a coaching session and have enjoyed a new sense of learning since commencing the course.

The program enabled me to reflect upon and identify HOW I coach. Throughout the assignment work I revisited my other training guides and has reinforced what I already knew, and also refreshed my knowledge of my coach training. I have a greater awareness of the theory and techniques that I use in my coaching practice each day . My coaching is much more effective as I am spending more time on the issues below the surface which is providing greater value and benefit to my clients.

I am now confident in holding coaching conversations with people. Not only am I able to set up a coaching business, but also my listening skills have improved immensely. This helps me in my business and my sales calls.

I have new skills to use professionally and personally, particularly regarding active listening, powerful questioning and a range of excellent materials to draw upon and reflect upon.

My attitude towards leadership coaching has changed greatly. I used to “teach” leaders how to manage people but now I use coaching to develop leaders’ skills. Whenever staff or managers come to me with a question, problem or issue, instead of giving them the answers, I coach them by asking the “who”, “how” and “what” questions. I have coached staff and managers through performance reviews, career development and employee relations issues.

Totally loving using my new coaching skills in the workplace. Staff are delighted with how I am helping them to solve their own problems. Absolutely loved the course! Would recommend it.

I’ve definitely grown personally as I’ve learnt new communication skills. I’ve started employing those skills in everyday work situations. I’m leading the way for my unit in adopting a coaching culture.

The way I view things has changed from trying to provide answers to helping people find their own answers. I have improved my listening skills and allow space for other’s answers.

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