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Coaching Tips
How to Effectively Reflect on a Coaching Session
Table of Contents
- Practise Alone Won’t Make Us Perfect
- The Value of Reflection
- Recording Self-Reflection
- Tips For Successfully Reflecting On Sessions
- Summary
Practice Alone Won’t Make Us Perfect
“Practice alone won’t make us perfect. Progress happens when we make time for thinking as well as doing.”
Bernadette Jiwa
Progress occurs when we combine practice with reflection. But how do we find time to properly reflect in this time-compressed world?
I can’t emphasize enough the value in setting aside time to think about how a coaching session went. What worked? What didn’t? What did you learn?
The Value of Reflection
Coaching lists self-reflection as one of The Top Ten Qualities You Need To Be A Coach.
Self-reflection helps you to:
- Grow and develop as a coach
- Learn from the past
- Not repeat mistakes
- Find ways to tweak and tune your delivery and your sessions
- Better understand yourself
- Consistently improve
Recording Self-Reflection
- Any type of reflection is better than none, but to be effective, self-reflection has to be more than just a few random thoughts on the way home.
- Ideally you want to go deeper than this and have some type of record of your musings that you can later return to.
- The real power comes from formally recording your thoughts and using them to drive action for your next coaching effort.
- Without recording your thoughts, examining them, and formulating a response, it is unlikely that any real change for the better will occur.
- Such records are also a marvelous resource to keep and fascinating to look back over.
- In saying this, and despite being completely sold on the idea, I have struggled with being consistent with this process.
- For me, it certainly doesn’t happen perfectly every time. It is sometimes rushed, it is sometimes done days later, it sometimes doesn’t happen at all.
- A couple of years ago, I started photographing my lesson plans using the Day One journal app, then adding a text-based review following the session. This actually worked OK, but it still meant that I was scribbling a lesson plan on a piece of paper and then had to remember to photograph it. It was also difficult to keep all of the entries together.
- It is only very recently that I have started to piece together a procedure that is showing real promise.
Links: Day One Journal App
Tips For Successfully Reflecting On Sessions
Ultimately, you need to find a method that works best for you.
Here are three key tips that worked for me.
Tip 1: Use an Online Notebook
For me, planning my sessions in an online notebook has huge advantages when it comes to accessing and retrieving notes.
I use Evernote. I love its accessibility (the premium plan – which I have – allows you to create and modify notes on an unlimited number of devices; the fee plan currently allows two devices per account). I find my records are easy to enter, store, manage, search and retrieve. I love how all of my session plans and reviews can be kept together in an online folder – no searching desperately for, or through, paper notebooks.
I haven’t tried it yet, but there is also the option to record audio notes, audio to text and images as part of the review. I am also interested in using the “Reminder” function in Evernote as prompts to ensure I plan and review my sessions in a timely manner – anything that helps!
Links: Evernote
Tip 2: Create a Template
I’ve created and customised a template in Evernote. The template is a table into which I write and review my session plans. The template gives my plans and reviews a consistent structure, helping to prompt the type of information that I need to record.
It simplifies the whole process, making it more likely I will follow through with it. It is easy to enter, alter, update and add to the information that the template contains.
Pictured (below) is the template that I am currently using to plan and review my coaching sessions. It isn’t perfect and is still a work in progress, but it may help you create your own.
Links: Evernote
Tip 3: Record Your Learnings & What To Focus On Next
The final item in the above template are “Session Reflection / Learnings”. This is important to complete for future sessions. If you reflect deeply enough, you will discover something you have learned (or had reinforced) from every session. Without being prompted to formally record something you have learned, you may miss it or forget about it.
Having to determine a focus for your next session will force you to prioritise your learnings and ensure that action from them is planned into the next session. In other words, you will find yourself starting to plan your next session while you are reflecting on the one just completed.
Summary
You want the self-reflection process to be as easy as possible, while being as effective as possible. To give yourself the best chance of consistently and effectively reflecting on your sessions:
- Choose an easily accessible medium where your records simple to capture, store, manage, search and retrieve.
- Use a template for your session plans and reviews.
- Ensure you record what you have learned and what actions will result from your learnings.
Over To You!
If you are not formally reflecting on your coaching sessions, I highly recommend that you start doing so. If you are looking for ideas about how to do it, try creating a template in an online notebook.
Content by:
Michael Carlson State Chief Instructor Pony Club Queensland T 07 3216 1255 | M +61 4 177 464 36 E sci@ponyclubqld.com.au | www.ponyclubqld.com.au A PO Box 293, Northgate Q 4013 | Unit 3/14 Ashtan Pl, Banyo Q 4014.
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State Chief Instructor’s Panel
POSITION | NAME | PHONE |
---|---|---|
State Chief Instructor: | Michael Carlson | 0417 746 436 |
Deputy Chief Instructors: | Stephanie Commens | 0428 633 235 |
Deputy Chief | Rachel Lornie | 0418 645 708 |
Members: | Lyn Coombe | |
Jan Morland | ||
Raymond Stacey | ||
Grace Brodie | ||
Di Elder | ||
Carol Paterson | ||
Sarah Standen | ||
Sue Bondfield | ||
Margaret Campbell | ||
Raymond Kelly | ||
Beryl Burkhardt | ||
Jenny Murphy | ||
Megan Wray | ||
Tracey Camilleri | ||
Bridgitte Bennett | ||
Danae O'Keeffe | ||
Heather Atherton |
Regional Director’s of Coaching
REGION & PANEL | CONTACT | REGION & PANEL | CONTACT |
---|---|---|---|
SOUTH EAST REGION Zones: 1,2,3,26 |
Colour: Gold | SOUTHERN REGION Zones: 4,21,28 |
Colour: Purple |
Rachel Lornie (RD) | 0418 645 708 | Alice james(RD) | 0411 248 289 |
Tonya Stocker | 5426 8499 | Carol Paterson | 4653 1359 |
Bridget Bennett | 5573 2432 | Sue Bondfield | 0447 612 241 |
Jane Bell | 5541 1455 | Stephanie Commens (McKay) | 0429 700 593 |
Erika Woodland | 3374 2630 | Alice James | 0411 248 289 |
Jan Morland | 5573 1334 | Raymond Stacey | 0429 872 855 |
Natalie Anstey | 3886 7312 | ||
Michael Carlson | 0417 746 436 | ||
FAR WEST REGION Zones: 12,13 |
Colour: | WESTERN REGION Zones:5,20 |
Colour: Emerald |
Di Elder (RD) | 4675 4524 | Grace Brodie (RD) | 0427 273 432 |
Fax | 4675 4632 | Pat Lunney | 0428 052 254 |
Helen McKeller | 4654 9142 | Patsy Cameron | 0427 265 452 |
Cara Condie | 4655 0190 | Jessica Cosh | 0448 511 149 |
Yvonne Webster | 0437 934 456 | ||
Vicki Groves-Pearce | 0429 013 905 | ||
Edwina Keating | 0427 273 394 | ||
BURNETT REGION Zones 6,7,8,16; |
Colour: Bright Red | NORTH WEST REGION Zones: 14,23,25 |
Colour: Black |
Megan Wray (RD) | 0402 470 616 | Heather Atherton (RD) | 4658 9370 |
Leah Frohloff (Deputy) |
0417 714 386 | Penny Anderson | 4658 2751 |
Beryl Burkhardt | 0427 664 424 | Ellen Fels | 4746 7246 |
Courtney Iker | 0448 807 889 | Rowena Murphy | 0407 030 006 |
Judy Carsley | 0419 768 597 | Shauna Royes | 4746 7666 |
Christine Mumford | 0437 730 711 | Alison Read | 0429 701 336 |
Deziree Roos | 0437 340 384 | Judy Glen | 4658 2566 |
Barry Brunke | 0427 642059 | ||
Rachel Bowen | 0417 220 369 | ||
Joy Hamilton | 0427 650 863 | ||
Julie Brown | 0417 749 910 | ||
Emma Muirhead | 0427 854 984 | ||
CENTRAL REGION: Zones 15,10 |
Colour: Pale Blue | CAPRICORNIA REGION: Zones: 27,9 |
Colour: |
Jenny Murphy (RD) | 4958 1533 | Niki Ryan (RD) | 0429 678 057 |
Claudette Rolfe | 4984 1278 | Peter Bridgeman | 0434155258 |
Tracy Camilleri | 4954 0737 | Stevie Dilley | 0423711474 |
Kay Orr | 4982 5124 | Joanna Lowe | 0448595747 |
Helen Bayliss | 0427 628 755 | Heather Davidson | 0428341311 |
Jenni Smith | 4935 9128 | Cathy Cavanough | 0438784665 |
Fay Hawke | 4958 1533 | ||
FAR NORTH REGION Zones 18 |
Colour: | NORTHERN REGION Zones 11,22 |
Colour: Royal Blue |
Sarah Standen (RD) | 4067 6003 | Adrienne Kelley (RD) | 0437 110 296 |
Amelia Steblina | 0481 184 016 | Kay Keys | 5751 3093 |
Les Adams | 4093 2660 | Kevin Kelley | 4776 3444 |
Betty Hepple | 4097 9178 | ||
Julie Sheppard | 0417 379 900 | Raymond Kelley | 0429 790 082 |