• Kidology Coaching Update
Coaching Update: We now have NINE on-line mentoring relationships. This last week with nine protege’s I believe I have turned a corner with our on-line leadership training ministry. Having spent nearly four years writing the curriculum for this program, it is now bearing a kind of tangible fruit that is being helpful on several levels.
There was some doubt about…
how this internet method of teaching might be received as a “long-distance” learning model for mentoring. I became familiar with the constant contact benefits of being in proximity with my “face-to-face” protege’s, but it was just unclear to me just how it would work with email and a monthly Coaching Call. However, my friend Karl Bastian, from Kidology, really encouraged me to give it a try, once he saw the manual and the volume of the written work. (Nearly a 500 page notebook) I quickly found that it was true that internet dynamic was substantially different over the “face-to-face” methods that I experimented with in person. We decided to try it and I began to just experience this new model for myself. We agreed to make changes, if necessary, as we went. So some changes had to be made.
The most significant change was the moving from a monthly Coaching Call to trying a weekly email. However, I still felt that it was too easy for the students to be too busy for that extended Coaching Call, it was easy to postpone the call. It seemed that much of call time was spent “catching up” with them on activity happening between calls. So recently, I introduced yet, another change. It seems to be working much better. Now, I call each student weekly, in addition to the weekly email. And the Coaching Call, now comes out of this constant contact, when they are ready. Meanwhile, I am able to “pitch” and “catch” with what is going on in their lives. It is much better, even a short call keeps us engaged in the process and I now have more opportunities for coaching. I think the accountability will work better. I really believe that “coaching” is really about the “relationship.” The better the relationship the better potential there is for Coaching. So this is the “new corner” that I just turned. It has been just over a year now, since we began this new long-distance model and I feel I am getting my “stride and voice” in the process. Thanks to many of you for praying for me in this regard.
For more information about the Kidology Coaching Program, http://www.kidology.org/training/
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