14. Developing behavioural agility

Question 1

4 key roles that a CoSec can play, and needs behavioural agility to fulfil

Answer 1

One-to-one coach
Mentor
Systemic team coach
Board facilitator

Question 2

What is meant by being a ‘team coach’?

Answer 2

Being a behavioural and relational process expert with a person focus, supporting the board as a team, both as a group of individuals and collectively

Question 3

Who is the natural holder of the team coach position

Answer 3

Chair

Question 4

2 reasons why chair may need support (ie. from CoSec) in team coach capacity

Answer 4

• Difficult to both coach and participate in discussions
• Responsibility for performance management can sometimes conflict with effective coaching

Question 5

Case for coaching as leadership style

Answer 5

Over time (though not initially) empowering leadership styles outperform directive leadership styles in terms of team performance - boardroom context has an extended timeline

Question 6

Define coaching

Answer 6

Unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.

Question 7

4 recognised core skills / mindsets underpinning the ability to coach

Answer 7

• Building a trusting coaching relationship
• Asking effective questions and listening to/noticing responses
• Supporting effective goal-setting
• Providing effective feedback

Question 8

How is a successful coaching relationship built?

Answer 8

By spending time treating the coachee as a human being rather than a ‘human doing’ that is simply a cog in completion of a task
- use of empathy and spending time talking to people about what matters to them
& then maintaining a consistently significant quantity of interactions

Question 9

What should be a coaches default coaching approach?

Answer 9

Asking questions

Question 10

What should be our baseline percentage of ask-to-tell when coaching?

Answer 10

10% telling, 90% asking

Question 11

Why should coaches generally ask and not tell? (4)

Answer 11

• Shows belief in coachee’s potential
• Constant telling (directing) sets up uneven parent-child dynamic
• Stimulates deep learning and retention
• Constant telling promotes dependence on coach to solve future problems

Question 12

Other than paying attention to what a coachee says, what else should a coach notice? (3)

Answer 12

• Tone
• Body language
• What is not mentioned or left unsaid

Question 13

5 types of questions that should be in a coaches arsenal

Answer 13

Open questions
Closed questions
‘Why’ questions
‘What’ questions
‘How’ questions

Question 14

Benefit of coach asking open questions

Answer 14

Helps coachee raise awareness of their issue and problem solve themselves

Question 15

What is the default question type in coaching?

Answer 15

Open questions

Question 16

Benefit of coach asking closed questions

Answer 16

Useful at certain points, such as when checking on coachee’s thought process, etc.

Question 17

Overuse of what question type is indicative if directive style?

Answer 17

Closed questions

Question 18

Benefit of coach asking ‘why’ questions

Answer 18

Useful for opening people up to recognise the reasons for events being as they are

Question 19

Why should too many ‘why’ questions be avoided?

Answer 19

Can make coachee file a though they are being interrogated

Question 20

Benefit of coach asking ‘what’ questions

Answer 20

Help coachee explore their current reality in detail

Question 21

Benefit of coach asking ‘how’ questions

Answer 21

Very useful to move us forward to where we want to go, having already set the scene with ‘what’ questions

Question 22

What is GROW model?

Answer 22

Useful coaching model to give coaching direction

Question 23

What does GROW stand for? - with example for each

Answer 23

Goal - what do you want?
Reality - what is currently happening?
Options - what could you do?
Will - what will you do?

Question 24

Define mentoring

Answer 24

Help by one more experienced person to another person in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking

Question 25

5 key differences between mentors and coaches

Answer 25

- Mentor is more likely to make introductions and develop a mentee's networks - Mentor is more likely to explain organisational politics - Mentor is more likely to be someone who has 'trodden the path' so has inside knowledge useful to mentee - Coach is more likely to provide feedback - Coach is more likely to be engaged in a contract and paid

Question 26

4 types of mentor - and whether they should be used when needing low or high task expertise, and low or high facilitative expertise

Answer 26

Buddy mentor - low task expertise, low facilitative expertise Expert mentor - low, high Attached - high, high Detached - high, low

Question 27

When might a CoSec be a buddy mentor?

Answer 27

Aiding the settling in of a director during director induction (first few months)

Question 28

When might a CoSec be an expert mentor?

Answer 28

Teaching a new director of their governance responsibilities or sharing the appropriate governance response to an existing director

Question 29

When might a CoSec be an attached mentor?

Answer 29

Combining using skill in asking questions to enable thinking, while also providing organisational knowledge if require to aid a mentee's thinking

Question 30

When might a CoSec be a detached mentor?

Answer 30

When a more classic coaching approach is required - if supporting directors with broad issues beyond the technical

Question 31

Why is it key that a CoSec understands various coaching and mentoring roles?

Answer 31

Because then they will be able to identify what role they are playing and whether that is the most suitable at that time and with that individual

Question 32

2 key trends in mentoring

Answer 32

1 - Move from mentoring as a way to enable accelerated progress at an organisation, to more about personal and career development 2 - Concept of reverse mentoring - more junior staff mentoring more senior leaders in a particular competency, such as tech / digital skills

Question 33

Professor Peter Hawkins et al. - definition of systemic team coaching

Answer 33

A process of coaching the whole team both together and apart, over a designated period of time to enable it to: - align on common purpose - collaborate and learn across diversity - develop collective leadership - effectively engage with key stakeholders, and - jointly transform the wider business

Question 34

5 reasons why a CoSec is perfectly placed to be systemic team coach

Answer 34

- CoSec is ideally positioned to provide coaching over a period of time - The client of systemic teach coaching are is the stakeholder system, which the CoSec should have a great understanding of - Requires knowledge of what is going both inside the board and outside the board - One-to-one coaching of directors (a part of systemic coaching) can be an extension of induction which is often CoSec led - Most useful at specific moments in a team's evolution, which CoSec would be able to recognise

Question 35

Peter Hawkins' five disciplines model of systemic team coaching - 5 disciplines

Answer 35

Discipline 1 - Commissioning (task focus / outside the team) Discipline 2 - Clarifying (task focus / inside the team) Discipline 3 - Co-creating (people process focus / inside the team) Discipline 4 - Connecting (people process focus / outside the team) Discipline 5 - Core learning

Question 36

Peter Hawkins' five disciplines model of systemic team coaching - Discipline 1 - Commissioning (task focus / outside the team) (2)

Answer 36

Focusses on what stakeholders expect of the team CoSec can facilitate stakeholder interviews, stakeholder mapping, focus groups, etc.

Question 37

Peter Hawkins' five disciplines model of systemic team coaching - Discipline 2 - Clarifying (task focus / inside the team) (2)

Answer 37

Team then need to jointly clarify, agree and commit to how it will execute expectation together Models and exercises which help include vision/mission/values models, SWOT analyses, etc.

Question 38

Peter Hawkins' five disciplines model of systemic team coaching - Co-creating (people process focus / inside the team)

Answer 38

Team coach supports team in working together to deliver their joint endeavour

Question 39

Peter Hawkins' five disciplines model of systemic team coaching - Connecting (people process focus / outside the team) (2)

Answer 39

Team needs to engage with key stakeholders end be tuned into broader organisational culture Team coach supports team in preparing to communicate with outside stakeholders

Question 40

Peter Hawkins' five disciplines model of systemic team coaching - Discipline 5 - Core learning (2)

Answer 40

Team is encouraged to stand back and reflect on its own performance to consolidate on successes and learn from mistakes CoSec can assist by delivering board evaluation

Question 41

Who would actually play the role of systemic team coach in an ideal world?

Answer 41

An external coach (but this would still likely be with the support of a highly competent CoSec)

Question 42

Why is the competency of facilitation a key requirement of a strong 21st century CoSec / governance professional? (3)

Answer 42

Relationship management facilitation Facilitation of dialogue and negotiation Facilitation which teases out deep-rooted issues, honest opinion, etc.

Question 43

What is the role of a facilitator within a group?

Answer 43

A process in which a person, substantively neutral, intervenes to help a group improve the way it identifies and solves problems and makes decisions in order to increase the group's effectiveness

Question 44

6 approaches and tools available that can guide and improve competency in facilitation - and very brief description of each

Answer 44

Prescribing - giving direction, advice and recommendation Informing - giving information or knowledge during a conversation or meeting Confronting - raising awareness and challenging assumptions Cathartic - helping release emotions that block progress (overly negative or positive) Catalytic - intervening to promote expansive and self-directed conversations Supporting - validating and building self-confidence to boost morale or reward success

Question 45

What is the most key skill to be a good facilitator?

Answer 45

An awareness of which intervention style is most appropriate at each time, and moving elegantly from one intervention to another

Question 46

What is meant by 'contracting and ground rules'

Answer 46

Meeting arrangements

Question 47

Framework for effective contracting - 3 Ps of contracting

Answer 47

Practicalities Professional aspects Psychological contract

Question 48

3 Ps of contracting - practicalities

Answer 48

Vocalising and agreeing basics such as start and end times, breaks, access to refreshments and facilities, wifi access, etc.

Question 49

3 Ps of contracting - professional aspects

Answer 49

Creating permission around what is and is not to be included, and what may or may not be shared outside of the meeting

Question 50

3 Ps of contracting - psychological contract

Answer 50

Concerns how the group needs to work well together to be a high performing team - how interested, experienced, engaged (etc.) are participants

Question 51

Roger Schwarz - 9 behavioural ground rules (re. 3 Ps of contracting - psychological contract)

Answer 51

- State views and ask genuine questions - Share all relevant information - Use specific examples and agree on what important words mean - Explain reasoning and intent - Test assumptions and inferences - Jointly design next steps - Focus on interests, not positions - Discuss undiscussable issues - Use a decision-making rule that generates the level of commitment needed *CoSec can use these as starting point for discussion re. board working together

Question 52

4 implementations a CoSec might make to assist facilitation (think flow and ease of meetings)

Answer 52

Process breaks - to review how well group is working together to achieve stated task Mindful meetings - infusing mindfulness practices and emotional intelligence into effective meeting structure The check-in - begin a meeting with a 'check-in' Positivity - focus on what is working rather than what is not working fuels more creativity, confidence and better performance

Question 53

3 roles other than significant one-to-one coaching, mentoring, systemic team coaching and facilitation roles that a CoSec mar find themselves needing to flex into (and brief description)

Answer 53

Supervisor - supporting and supervising the governance competency building of directors and other CoSecs Mediator - required when board tension and challenge boils over into personality and relationship conflict Counsellor - due to trusted position within org, individual directors may go to CoSec to seek out support and advise on issues that go beyond the technical

Question 54

4 ways by which a CoSec can develop 'team coach' competence

Answer 54

- Self-reflection - Being coached or mentored - Self-tutoring - Formal learning activities