As a skills based professional job, coaching at all levels is best developed through practice. Working with people is not something that can be developed as a thinking process based on knowledge only. Knowing theories and being able to compare different approaches in your mind can inform understanding of clients’ situations, but it can never take the place of the vital skills that are needed.

Coaching skills are developed out of practice, so it follows that practice is a must for any coach. But it’s all about how you practice and extract learning, and the main way to do this is by getting feedback. Practicing without feedback is fairly pointless. You need it to improve by understanding what works and what doesn't. 

There are three ways to get feedback that will make it worthwhile:

Get feedback from the person you are working with as a practice client -

You should do this within the setup and design of the coaching with your practice client. Make sure they know what kind of feedback you want and how you want it. Their response to your coaching is unique as they are the one on the receiving end! Bear in mind that if you have made a total hash of a session (and yes, that happens) then they will probably be polite in giving you feedback. Encourage them to be honest so that you can improve. Don’t ask for feedback right away, but rather get it the next day via email or on the phone.

Get feedback from a peer or other coach -

With your practice client's permission, record a coaching session and then have a peer give you feedback on the session after they have listened to the recording. Give them guidance on what you want feedback on and how you want it given.

Get your own reflective feedback from yourself -

Listen to a recorded coaching session at least 2 to 4 weeks AFTER you have recorded it. The idea behind waiting is to let the memory of the session fade a little in your own mind. Then give yourself feedback. Get used to hearing yourself coach. It can take some time, but it is well worth it.

Make sure you design the feedback well -

People can be reluctant to give feedback as they may either be wary of hurting your feelings or because they don’t actually know how to do it and what you want. So decide which particular aspects of your coaching you want to get feedback on. This could be your coaching presence or your use of a certain tool or approach. It could be the way you design the session with the client or how you set up action and accountability.

I like to use a checklist approach and suggest that people give feedback with examples so I can focus on the exact behaviour and skill I used and how it worked (or did not!).

When it comes to improving your coaching, there is no substitute for this approach and it separates those who know a lot about coaching from those who can do a lot as a skilled coach. 

It’s for these reasons that all the professional bodies require a certain number of coaching hours to be completed to gain certain levels of accreditation.

Happy practice!