Part IV: Using the Results

Coaching Fundamentals

Facilitating a Development Planning Workshop

If you coach people one-on-one, you will most likely incorporate development planning into your coaching sessions. When you are working with groups, however, it may be better to run a development planning workshop with the entire team. Aside from the obvious time-savings, there is a lot to be said about the synergies that occur when people are in a room together working towards a common goal: improving their emotional intelligence. People can be held accountable if they all hear the same message in the same way at the same time. They can also feel the shared accountability when they are ‘all in this together’. As well, commitment and buy-in increases when your leader is an active participant in the process.

Table 10.4 presents a sample agenda for a half-day development planning workshop:

Table 10.4. Sample half-day development workshop agenda.

Time	Activity	Resources
9:00–10:00	Objectives of Session Agenda Ask team What is emotional intelligence? Why is it important in the work you do? EQ-i 2.0 Review In groups, divide subscales evenly and have teams come up with an observable behavior that would tell you someone is strong in that area.	Flip Chart paper Subscale Definitions page
10:00–11:30	Development Planning In table groups, have participants list the top five subscales they feel they need to leverage the most in their roles. Have the larger team come to a consensus on the top 5 or 6 subscales. Next have each person review their personal EQ-i 2.0 results and look at how well they leverage those same subscales. Hand out the development planning template (from the report or you can use your own template). Introduce SMART Goals (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time Bound). What does the acronym stand for? Why is it important to follow? Have participants look at their own results and respond to the following questions: Where are the biggest gaps? Where is the greatest agreement? Where will you get the biggest bang for your buck (in other words, where will you make the biggest impact if you work on improving it)? Pair and Share Participants partner up and share their biggest gaps and agreements (they can reveal as much or as little about the size of the gap or agreement). Partners are chosen as follows: If your biggest gap is my biggest agreement, we’re partners. The partner who has the biggest agreement on a particular subscale coaches the partner who has it as their biggest gap. They can ask questions like: What feedback do you have to confirm this is a gap for you? When do you notice it the most? What is one thing you can do to develop that skill? Who can provide you with feedback on how you’re doing? Each coaching session lasts 5–7 minutes. Then the person who was the coach finds someone to coach them on their biggest gap. The end result is that each participant walks away with at least one tangible strategy that they can implement right away.	Specific Measureable Attainable Realistic Time bound
11:30–12:00	Wrap-Up and Follow-Up Have a large-group discussion to determine what obstacles will stand in the way of people being successful in their development opportunities. As a group, brainstorm ways to overcome these obstacles so that they don’t hold you back if you do encounter them. End by reviewing the objectives of the session to confirm if they have been met.

Here is an amended outline for times when you only have one hour to do development planning. In that case, you will need to provide participants with some pre-work:

List the 5 or 6 subscales that are the most critical to your role
List your top 5 or 6 subscales as reported by your EQ-i 2.0 results
Compare your top five with the ones required for your role:
- Where are the gaps?
- Where is the agreement?

Have participants bring their pre-work to the session and spend the time in class focused on the coaching piece. Have them peer-coach to further develop their strategies. After the session, they will need to:

Finalize their development plan, ensuring that they follow the SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time Bound).goal setting method.
Bring their development plan to their next one-on-one with their manager:
- Share the plan with their manager
- Discuss what role the manager will play in the action plan (e.g., providing an opportunity, removing obstacles, observing behavior and providing feedback and guidance).

The post-session piece is critical because as the facilitator you will most likely no longer be part of the process. In order to set the group up for success, you need to ensure that managers are on board and understand their roles in the development planning process.